Lego Parachute Coffee Filter Activity
Keeping your kids entertained during the summer months can be hard! And if your kids are anything like mine, they’re naturally drawn to their screens unless they have a little bit of direction. That means I need to come up with fun activities and simple crafts for kids to keep them occupied and screen free. This cool lego parachute coffee filter activity fits the bill. In addition to being totally fun for kids of any age, it’s also educational!
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Not only is this cute Lego parachute so easy to make, it’s also so much fun to play with. But the best part about this easy craft is that it’s educational. Keep reading to see how this cool STEAM coffee filter activity can keep your kids learning and entertained for hours.
Lego Parachute Coffee Filter Activity
To make your own Lego figure parachute, you’ll need a handful of regular craft supplies, including:
- Round coffee filters
- Markers
- Water
- Paintbrush
- Hole punch
- String
- Lego figures
Decorate the Coffee Filter Parachute
This fun craft encompasses all the aspects of STEAM — science, technology, engineering, art, and math! Let’s start with the art aspect. While you could skip this step, it does make creating your Lego figure parachutes a little more fun. There are two steps to decorating your parachutes for this coffee filter activity: coloring the coffee filter and blending the colors together with water.
Start by coloring the parachute with water-based makers. You can create a pinwheel design like we did or simply color different sections of the coffee filter with different colors. You don’t have to be neat as you color — in fact, it’s better if your coloring is scribbles instead of full colors!
When you’re satisfied with your design, dip a foam brush in water and paint the water over the marker. Simply spread the water over the coffee filter until the colors begin to blur and blend together.
Tip: If you’re planning on making several coffee filter parachutes, stack the filters on top of each other before you color and paint with water. The colors will bleed from the top coffee filter to the ones on the bottom, helping you create several parachutes in a matter of minutes!
Allow your coffee filters to dry completely, then grab a hole punch and punch two holes in each side of the parachute. Here’s where the math comes in! As your child to measure the distance between the holes so that the holes are even on each side. Then, cut two pieces of string of equal length and thread them through the holes.
Grab your kid’s favorite lego figure and tie the ends of the strings to the Lego figure’s hands. After that, your Lego figure parachutes are ready to fly! That means you’re going to need to take this coffee filter activity outside to make the most of it.
To play with your Lego parachutes, simply toss them in the air and watch them float down to the ground!
Play with the Coffee Filter Parachute
After you put your coffee filter parachutes together, the only thing left to do is play! But as your kids are playing, they’re also learning. Playing with the coffee filter parachute brings the engineering and science aspects of this STEAM activity. To get your kids thinking, try these fun ways to play with this coffee filter craft:
- Have a race. Count to three and toss the parachutes into the air to see whose parachute makes it to the ground first.
- Test throwing methods. Try throwing the parachutes into the air in different ways to see what the results are. Which method makes the parachute go the fastest? Which one makes it go the slowest?
- Drop from different heights. Let your child stand on different objects (safely) and drop the parachute to see what happens. How does the parachute fall when it’s dropped instead of thrown? How long does it take to fall to the ground when dropped from different heights?
Lego Parachute Coffee Filter Activity
Turn this fun coffee filter craft into an awesome coffee filter activity by attaching Lego figures to your homemade parachutes.
Materials
- Round coffee filters
- Water
- String
- Lego figures
Tools
- Markers
- Paint Brush
- Hole punch
Instructions
- Flatten the coffee filters and stack them on top of each other. The number of filters you use will depend on the number of Lego figures you have. You’ll need one coffee filter per Lego figure.
- Draw a design on only the top coffee filter using the markers.
- Dip the paintbrush in water and paint the water over the marker to blend the colors together.
- Allow the coffee filters to dry completely, then separate the filters.
- Punch two holes in each side of each coffee filter.
- Cut two even pieces of string for each parachute. Each string should be around one foot long. Fold each string in half and thread each end through one hole on the side of the parachute. Repeat the process on the other side of the parachute.
- Tie each string to the Lego figure’s arm.
- To use the parachute, lightly toss the Lego figure into the air, making sure the parachute is open before you toss.
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Emily is a midwestern mom of two boys. She loves all things DIY — from home renovations to kids birthday party planning. Whether she’s making a new farmhouse craft for her home or helping her kids with a cool activity, you can bet she’s in the middle of some kind of DIY project (or three) right now!
I have tried this three different ways and none of them works very well.
Sorry your parachutes aren’t working! Are you having trouble getting them to fly? We found it worked best when you held the Lego figure in your hand, then toss it straight up into the air. Make sure the parachute is as open as possible before you toss so it catches the air. It helps if there’s a little bit of a breeze the day you’re doing it, too!