My son loves catapults and my son loves angry birds. How about an Angry Birds plastic spoon catapult! So easy to make using a few household items, you will be firing piggies and birds in no time. My son tries to show me the game but I still need some practice. Set up a tower of cups for this cool and simple STEM activity.

Angry Birds Plastic Spoon Catapult STEM ActivityPin

Our classic popsicle stick catapult is also a big hit, but what if you don’t have a bunch of craft or popsicle sticks on hand? You can still make an awesome plastic spoon catapult for your angry birds with just three items from around the house.

How To Make A Spoon Catapult

Supplies:

  • Plastic Spoon
  • Rubber Bands
  • Hard Cardboard Tube {rolled newspapers, mailing tubes, etc will work too}
  • Angry Birds or other small objects to fling
  • Craft Tape or Painter’s Tape {optional to secure catapult)
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Instructions:

STEP 1. Take a look at the picture below and secure the end of the spoon to the cardboard tube with your rubber bands. I used two jumbo rubber bands since it was all I could find. Just keep winding them until the spoon is on there tightly.

We also used our rubber bands to make a super cool LEGO rubber band car

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STEP 2. At this point you can tape your plastic spoon catapult to a table or counter, but we liked the freedom of being able to change the angle of our angry bird’s flight path.

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STEP 3. TO FIRE YOUR ANGRY BIRDS CATAPULT

Hold the tub firmly with one hand. Put your angry bird on the spoon. Pull the spoon back, aim, and fire away.

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FUN OPTION: Why not set up a tower of plastic cups for kids to aim at. We love the 100 cup tower challenge. Really keep the kids busy with this kind of simple STEM activity and then add an angry bird plastic spoon catapult activity to finish it off.

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How Does A Catapult Work?

This is a great simple physics activity for kids of multiple ages. What is there to explore that has to do with physics? Let’s start with energy including elastic potential energy. You can also learn about projectile motion.

Newton’s 3 Laws of Motion state that an object at rest stays at rest until a force is applied, and an object stays in motion until something creates an imbalance. Every action causes a reaction.

When you pull down the lever arm all that potential energy gets stored up! Release it and that potential energy gradually changes over to kinetic energy. Gravity also does its part as it pulls the object back down to the ground.

Learn more about potential and kinetic energy.

You can talk about stored energy or potential elastic energy as you pull back on the spoon, bending it. When you release the spoon, all that potential energy is released into energy in motion producing the projectile motion.

A catapult is a simple machine that has been around for ages. Have your kids dig up a little history and research when the first catapults were invented and used! Hint; check out the 17th century!

TIP: Check out more fun simple machine projects and grab the simple machine worksheets!

More Fun Catapult Designs

Explore physics and how catapults work with other catapult construction ideas including:

STEM Resources To Get You Started

Here are a few resources that will help you introduce STEM more effectively to your kiddos or students and feel confident yourself when presenting materials. You’ll find helpful free printables throughout.

Printable STEM Project Pack For Kids

80+ Doable Engineering Projects in one convenient pack!

  • Full instructions with sample images
  • Activity-specific instruction sheets
  • Data Collection Sheets
  • Questions for Reflection
  • Architecture Building Cards: Try the tallest tower challenge
  • Bridge Building Cards: Explore different types of bridges to build your own.
  • Paper Chain STEM Challenge: Who can make the longest chain? Great icebreaker or quick challenge!
  • 3 Little Pigs Architectural Pack: Design a house that won’t blow away!
  • Great marshmallow challenge: A classic challenge kids love!
  • Real-world STEM challenge lesson but don’t know where to start? Our easy-to-follow template shows the steps!
  • What’s the difference between a scientist and an engineer?
  • Crossword and word search with engineering vocabulary.
  • Engineering vocabulary cards
  • Design a one-of-a-kind invention and write about it with this 5-page activity! 

2 Comments

  1. All you need to do is wind the rubber band around the spoon and paper tube as seen in the photos. You can tape it down but that is optional.

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