Hot Air Balloon Project

Involving ourselves in the activities for Kids is a great way to explore the child in us parents too. Making a hot balloon of their own excited the kids. They loved to decorated their balloons in their own unique way and was even excited to see them fly on their own . The procedure of making this hot air balloon is quite simple that you can make one in your home. In this post, I am going to share my experience of making the Hot Air Balloon with simple steps.

Balloon

Bamboo Skewers ( or toothpicks)

Foam Cup

Threads

Adhesive Tape

Coloured Papers

Scissors

Gum

Rice ( little)

First, the flat balloons were filled with Helium gas that pumped from a Disposable Helium Balloon Gas Cylinder that was kept at the corner room. Then, the balloons were knotted tight with one end of a long thread. The other end of the thread was in my children's hand, each one with their own balloons. Then we held the balloons in place with the help of the adhesive tape.

My little creators were involved deeply making some paper cuttings from the coloured papers that was kept on the table. They then stuck their bits and pieces on their balloons with help of the gum. The basket for the balloon was made with a foam cup, cut three-fourth its length. They were decorated too and were ready for flying. (Heavy decorations on the basket did not work out well for making holes, so we went in for simple decorations)

Using a bamboo skewer (toothpick), holes are made on four sides and at the bottom center as shown in the above picture. Insert the main long thread through the center hole of the foam cup and close the hole with an adhesive tape. Four threads of about 2.5 inches each is inserted through the four holes on the sides with one end glued to the foam cup and the other ends glued to the main thread that holds the balloon (of about 1 foot).- see image above

Now, let your balloon free and see it fly gracefully.

To surprise your kids more, let's make tiny grains (imagine people) to travel in our hot air balloon. By doing this, we can balance the foam basket so that the balloon can fly to an approximate distance and not very high.

Tell your kids to imagine the rice grains as little men travelling in an air balloon. Also the weight of the grains will keep your balloon from flying high and provide hours of entertainment for the kids as it did with my own kids.