First Tutorial! (oatmeal container rocket ship)

Its 12:58 am, and I am browsing around, trying to come up with something fun to do with my son tomorrow, and I happened across this tutorial from sproutonline.com for an oatmeal container rocket ship. Cota is 4, the age where some boys become interested in rockets, swords, planes, cars, guns, cops, firefighters, and what have you, and my boy is definitely included among those. I think we will have a lot of fun! Pics to come tomorrow! For now, here are the steps, pulled from Sprout. <---Click the link to be taken to the page I got this from!

Materials Needed:

• 1 small to medium oatmeal container
• 2-3 sheets construction paper
• scissors
• markers
• something to help draw or trace a circle
• glue or tape
• card stock

I love that this is all stuff that I have on hand! Basically an oatmeal container and construction paper! (actually, I came to realize that I don't, in fact, have any construction paper. oops)

Process:

1. Decorate the container with construction paper
2. Draw or trace a circle on another piece of paper (must be larger than the bottom of the container)
3. Cut out the circle
4. Cut a slit from the outer edge of the circle to the middle
5. Form circle into a cone for the tip of the rocket
6. Cut 4 2.5 inch tall equally spaced slits around the bottom of the container
7. Cut out two equally sized triangles from the card stock paper, that are larger than the bottom of the oatmeal container
8. Cut halfway down the middle of one triangle and halfway up the middle of the other. Slide the two triangles together to make an X.
9. Take the X you have made and slide it into the bottom slits of the oatmeal container.
10. Tape or glue the coned shape top to the other side of the oatmeal container
11. Decorate the rocket ship however you like and blast off!

Those make it sound so much more complicated than it really is! I cant wait to do this craft with my son tomorrow! And I cant wait to post pics of how it turned out!

UPDATE: We did it! Of course, we changed the process a little bit to make it more personal. I decided that I wanted it to be sturdier than just an oatmeal container and construction paper, so we used an oatmeal container and foam sheets, instead. And, since I didnt actually have construction paper like I thought I did, we used scrapbooking paper to cover the oatmeal container instead. We also used some stickers that we had on hand to decorate it. And finally, we poked two holes in the finished rocket and used thread to hang it from the ceiling in his room. Dacota loved, loved, loved this craft! We may make another one in the near future, we need to get some more oatmeal first! Which makes me think that this would be a great motivator to get your kids to eat their oats! :) Here are the pics from our project! Enjoy!

medium oatmeal container, glue, and a compass to make the top

Cota gets to choose his decorative paper

He quickly realized how this was supposed to go

trimming off the excess paper

applying glue to the back of the paper to attach it to oats can

we traced a circle on some foam for the cap, or "hat," as he called it

for the bottom, I cut a square of foam, then cut it in half diagonally to make 2 triangles

cutting out the circle for the cap

drawing windows. He did a super job! Such concentration!

I eventually realized that I should have measured the square first,  as I had to trim it down to size

cutting slits in the bottom of the can for the flaps

I think he is in love. Notice his matching shirt! :)

Finished product, hanging in Cota's room.

Making the rocket "fly" with my hair dryer. I'll have to guard it from now on, lol