Catapults

Inspired by a kindergarten blog we follow regularly, and wanting to capitalize on children's interest in building and manipulating things, we built some catapults using a piece of wood, a clothespin, a popsicle stick, and our hot glue gun.

The children were immediately drawn to the devices. At first they just explored how the catapults worked, trying a variety of objects while learning to manipulate the springing action.

Then some of them created a game where one child shot an object with the catapult while the other had to catch it using a container.

As they became more comfortable, the children grew tricky, putting multiple objects on the catapults and seeing how they flew through the air. They noted the heavier objects did not travel as fast or far as the lighter ones.