How To Make A Kaleidoscope for Kids

Learn how to create a kaleidoscope for summer STEAM. This STEAM activity for young kids encourages the sense of sight! We spent a fun morning designing and crafting our DIY kaleidoscope for kids. This kid’s kaleidoscope uses every component of STEAM to create a cool, homemade science toy.

HOW TO MAKE A SIMPLE KALEIDOSCOPE FOR KIDS!

WHAT IS STEAM?

Everyone is buzzing about STEAM! That is… Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Math. These 5 areas of learning are so wonderfully intertwined and offer amazing learning opportunities for kids of all ages. Read more about it here.

STEAM encourages kids to think bigger, do bigger, create bigger, and imagine bigger. Really to think outside the box, test drive the world, and solve problems. This DIY kaleidoscope activity does just that!

DIY KALEIDOSCOPE

I chose to make a kaleidoscope for the sense of sight, but I had no idea where to begin. A bit of searching led me to find several ideas where I would need to purchase items like prisms, glass, plastic etc. Hmm, not going to work for us!

I wanted to use what I had for a simple kaleidoscope perfect for preschool, kindergarten, and even early elementary age kids. I found a very helpful idea here that served as a guide. You can find simple step by step directions similar but slightly different from mine below.

HOW TO MAKE A KALEIDOSCOPE

YOU WILL NEED:

Pringles can {without chips}
Shimmery scrap-book paper or aluminum foil
Hammer and nail
Clear glue
Tissue paper, glitter, and sequins

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INSTRUCTIONS:

STEP 1: Get started on your simple kaleidoscope right away! If you are going to make a Pringles can kaleidoscope, remove chips {eat of necessary}, rinse, and dry the can!

STEP 2: Roll a piece of shimmery silver paper and put it inside the can. Mark and cut off excess. I did not have to tack it down as it uncurled nicely to fit the inside the can.

STEP 3: Cover the outside of the can with a colored paper. We used a shimmery purple paper {or you can paint it!} and secured it with tape. Decorate if you like with markers, stickers, tape, and other embellishments!

STEP 4: Use a hammer and nail to punch an eye hole in the sealed end of the can.

STEP 5: Glue sequins on the inside of the Pringle’s can lid. Then add glitter and colorful paper or other embellishments.

I mixed clear glue with a bit of water and glitter, lots of glitter. We tore and cut tissue paper to glue to the outside of the lid.

Your simple kaleidoscope needs one more thing, A second colorful lens!

STEP 6: For this you want to use clear contact paper. I cut a square and taped it sticky side up to the table. He added a little bit of everything. I pressed another piece of contact paper over the top to seal it.

STEP 7: Use scissors and cut the contact paper to fit your can. You will be putting the lid on over this, so make sure it is a close fit.

Next you want to glue it to the top of can. Our regular Elmer’s glue worked fine.

It’s very important to let everything dry really well. Put the lid on your simple kaleidoscope and head outside.

USING YOUR HOMEMADE KALEIDOSCOPE

Twist the lid as you point the kaleidoscope up towards the sun. The fixed lens underneath the lid stays in place while the outside lid spins around it mixing all sorts of shimmering colors! The brighter the light the cooler it looks. We tested this of course!

NOTE: Please help your child and never encourage looking directly into the sun.

KALEIDOSCOPE FOR KIDS

Since we didn’t have a prism or mirrors for our kaleidoscope, our science lesson was pretty basic. We discussed the reflection of light. When the light comes in, it bounces off the shimmery paper and is reflected back out in the direction it came in. This creates the colors and patterns. He pointed out all the colors he could see as he twisted the lid.

EASY DIY KALEIDOSCOPE KIDS CAN MAKE FROM THE RECYCLING BIN!

Simple ways to take STEM outdoors. Click on the link or on the photo below.