These paper and straw rockets are really easy to make with our free printable straw rocket template, and a great STEAM activity that kids will love.
Use our free printable straw rocket templates to design your own rockets, then blast them off into space! This fun activity offers lots of opportunities for STEAM learning, and is also lots of fun!
I needed an activity that the 8 year olds and the five year old could all do together. Something easy, but fun, something easy enough for the little one, but interesting enough for the older kids. These simple paper and straw rockets were the perfect activity!
What Kids Learn When Making Straw Rockets
Making straw rockets is a great STEAM (science, technology, engineering, art and math) activity for kids of all ages. It’s easy enough to do at home or in the classroom and offers lots of opportunities for scientific thinking and learning.
Making and experimenting with straw rockets introduces kids to lots of scientific concepts. Younger kids learn about cause and effect as they explore how blowing air into the straw propels the rocket. They develop an understanding of force and motion, observing how different amounts of air blown into the straw affect the distance the rocket travels. Older kids learn about the concepts of thrust, drag, and lift. They gain an understanding of how the shape and size of the rocket, as well as the force applied, affect its flight trajectory. Through trial and error, they can experiment with different designs and make adjustments to optimize the performance of their rockets. This hands-on activity encourages kids to think critically and make connections between actions and outcomes.
Making straw rockets also fosters creativity and problem-solving skills as kids design and decorate their rockets, and make sure they work correctly. There is also lots of opportunity for language development and social skills as kids work together sharing ideas.
Rockets also inspire lots of countdowns, kids can work on this important math skill with this rocket ship backwards counting printable activity.
This fun and interactive activity not only sparks their imagination but also instills important skills and concepts that can be applied in various areas of learning and life.
Supplies for Making Paper and Straw Rockets
To make a paper and straw rocket you’ll need a few basic craft supplies:
- The printable straw rocket template (download below) or some paper
- Scissors
- Coloured pencils or markers to decorate your rockets
- Glue
- Tape
- A pencil
- Straws.
What type of straws are best?
We used plastic bendy straws for our straw rockets as the bend in the straw makes them easier to use, but you can use any type of straw, paper or plastic, just make sure that the straw you choose is smaller in diameter than the pencil.
Do you need to use the printable template?
You don’t need to use the printable straw rocket templates. You can make your own paper tubes, and you can attach other paper shapes (eg fins, or a nose cone) to the tube if you wish. Using the template makes it easier for younger children to make the rockets and is a good starting point for older children who can then go on to experiment and make their own rockets.
How to Make a Straw Rocket
To make your straw rockets start by printing out the straw rocket templates and choosing which template design you will use and adding some colors and details to it with markers or pencils. You can add whatever designs you like, we had fun drawing people looking out the rocket windows, and adding our rocket’s name.
Once you have added all the colours and designs you want, cut out the rectangular template. Using a pencil that is a little wider than your straw, roll the paper rocket template around the pencil and glue or tape along the long edge to make a paper tube.
Flatten the top of the paper tube and tape it closed securely.
Now you are ready to put the paper rocket over your straw and 3, 2, 1… BLOW!
Your rocket will blast off into the sky!
Free Printable Straw Rocket Template
To make it easy for little hands to make these paper blow rockets we made some free printable straw rocket template.
There are four different designs, each with lots of space to add colours and your own creative ideas.
This printable is an A4 sized pdf file, you will need a pdf reader such as adobe acrobat to open it. It will fit to print on US ‘letter sized’ paper, just be sure to select ‘fit’ or ‘shrink to fit’ from your printer options to allow for printer margins.
Click here to download the straw rocket templates.
Please remember that the printables at picklebums.com are for personal use only, you may not sell, share, or link directly to these files.
Straw Rocket Experiments!
There are lots of fun ways to experiment with your straw rockets and extend on the learning.
Encourage your kids to experiment and see what happens to their rocket when they blow gently and what happens when they blow really hard!
What happen when you blast your rocket off vertically, straight up, and what happens when you blast it off horizontally?
What can you do to make your rocket fly further?
Try adding some paper fins to your rocket, or a nose cone. Do they make your rocket fly better, or further?
More Easy STEAM Ideas for Kids
If your kids love exploring and experimenting they might also love these easy STEAM activities:
Make a hoop glider and experiment to see how far it will fly!
Try this straw and stick STEM building challenge.
Make a lightsaber that lights up!
Mandy says
Oh we did that one too, way too easy and lots of fun.
Kate Sins says
Kate – again – this is a fabulous activity! My boys are going to love it when I surprise them with this. You are genius…
PlanningQueen says
We will do this tomorrow – can’t wait to give it a go with my kids. Thanks for sharing Kate!
Marita says
What a brilliant idea! Thank you Kate.
Kelly says
What a great fun idea, and I love the simplicity of it ~ I know this will be a huge hit with my son, so have pinned :-)
Bek @ Just For Daisy says
Kate I just love this idea! :) I think it’s even something Miss Daisy could manage! Thanks, will be giving this one a go!
Jode says
I have never seen this…what a fantastic idea! Love that last pic!! Shall pin it right now!
Ali says
oooh I love your rocket printable, we are going to have a lot of fun with this one.
Amie says
What an awesome idea. Love the printable. Thank you! Showcasing your post on Triple T Mum’s Kids Co-op Showcase on Thursday and pinning to the Kids Co-op Pinterest Board.
Kelly says
One word: AWESOME!
ally says
super cool
we will be doing this soon
Debs says
My daughter would love this. Thanks for the idea! (and the printable!) pinning and tweeting! :)
stephanie says
My son just saw this over my shoulder and now cannot wait to do it. I am printing the template now and will be getting straws in the morning. Thanks! Pinned it too for safe keeping.
Tamsyn says
These are really cute, I bet the kids loved them!!
Caz says
We haven’t made paper rockets for ages, I know what we’ll be doing this weekend now! These ones look like heaps of fun and so easy to make too.
Theresa says
This is a great idea. It is very creative and uses things that many people already have at home. It would be great if you would stop by and add a link to this post to Artsy Play Wednesday on Capri + 3. It is a new linky featuring posts about arts, crafts and play activities for children. I hope to see you there.
Krissy @ B-Inspired Mama says
Oh – my kids will love this! We love shooting our straw papers at each other at restaurants. This is way better! Thanks for sharing with the Kids Co-Op!
Krys - Baby Massage says
We made these today! They were great!!! Thanks.
I actually taped across the long edge instead of gluing because I didn’t plan ahead and leave a “gluing tab” and I didn’t want to cover any of my boys’ (or my own) colouring in effort.
vanessa says
My three year old son is going to love this!
Kawanik says
I’ve just spent sometime with my 5 year old making a bunch of these rockets and he has given them 5 thumbs out of 5 for fun!! :D
I printed out one pagefor him to colour in himself and then cut and paste the doc into a graphics program and coloured one page in electronically myself – it was a fun activity and I am going to take the idea into my sons daycare/kindy to recommend as a fun activity to do :D Thanks for sharing it!