Build this great Mars Rover with just a few items you can find around the house. This is a fun craft for kids, parents, teachers and educators to learn to build, and you can make it with very simple supplies. Just follow the instructions for more information.
Always use your imagination and be creative when building this project or any others. It's your creation, so be inventive when looking for building supplies - you just may be surprised! When building your project, experiment with new and different ways of putting it together. The most important thing is to have fun! Find these or similar supplies!
Inventive
- 1/2 gallon juice or milk container
- Cereal box or some cardboard
- Foil Tape
- 2 straws
- 4 container lids
- Any additional items you wish to use for customization
1. Tape up your milk carton!
Start out by taping your juice or milk container up completely. I used foil tape for my Mars Rover body. You could use regular masking tape instead, and color it with marker and make your own designs.
2. Make the axles!
Next make 4 holes at each side of your container that are just a little bigger that the straw thickness. Insert your straws all the way through so that they stick out both sides. This will be your wheel axles. If they do not turn easily, then pull the straws out and adjust your holes a little.
3. Make the wheels!
You can make wheels out off a piece of cardboard. Simply draw four circles and cut them out. You can do this by taking any circular object and tracing around the edges on your cardboard before it them out.
I used four old instant coffee container lids that I had saved for my wheels. If you'd like to use container lids for your wheels, just make sure not to throw them out after using the container, and when you have four of the same kind, you can build your own crazy wheeled vehicle.
4. Add the wheels!
I attached my wheels using a hot glue gun. This is great for crafts like this. If you don't have access to one you, can carefully tape your wheels on by slipping on the wheel and taping it to the axle with small pieces of tape instead. I laid the rover on its side on top of my wheels. Then I lifted the straws up, squirted some hot glue in the center of my wheel, and pushed the straw down into the glue making sure that it stayed centered and that the rover body was also flat on its side resting on the other wheels.
5. Repeat on the other side!
Now repeat step 4 on the other wheels. Make sure to try your best to keep each wheel centered on its axle.
VOILA! - a 4 wheeled rover! You can start rolling it around or dress it up. This is my favorite part of a project. I start looking through all of our containers full of recycled supplies and again, VOILA! - a detergent push button top! Attach it to the top and it's futuristic piece of equipment. For my windows I cut out small pieces of cardboard from a popsicle box into the shapes of my window and covered them with some black tape and attached then. So, have fun and see what you can come up with.
How to Make a Fun Mars Rover From Everyday Objects!
You can see specific photo and video step-by-step instructions for this project here. When you are done making this craft, try making many of the other kids crafts you can find at http://www.looledo.com.
Mark Icanberry is the author of multiple successful kids crafts books.
