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How to Build a Wire Hanger Catapult for Kids In Less Than a Minute!

We have TONS of wire hangers and I never wanted to throw them away because I always thought they would make a great craft supply,…

by  Katie
We have TONS of wire hangers and I never wanted to throw them away because I always thought they would make a great craft supply, I just didn’t know what for until now. In less than a minute I had bent our wire hanger (no special tools required) to make a catapult to launch things across the room. It’s super easy to use and really durable, my preschooler (age 4) and toddler (age 2) are able to use it on their own.

We even made a video to share with you so you can see our catapult in action. We weren’t the best at aiming our catapult, so it took us several tries to finally knock down our block tower-Come see the excitement and we would love it if you subscribed to our YouTube channel.

I wanted to catapult an egg, but my husband thought egging our own house was silly (he is the grown up in our house, lol) so we stuck to using blocks, puff balls, and other small objects we have lying around. Tip: If you are trying to knock down an object and your child is having difficulty aiming, line the catapult facing the object and tape the front of the catapult to the floor.

To make our activity more STEAM (science) based we experimented with heavy objects vs. lighter objects and tested out which one would go the farthest. We had fun filling our catapult with as many objects as we could to make a sort of explosion. We tried pulling the catapult down at different levels to see if we could get our object to travel a short or a far distance.

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Supplies:
Wire Hanger
Hot Glue Gun/Glue
Large cap/Small cup or bowl

Directions:
1.  Bend and turn the hook 90 degrees so the hook faces to the front of the hanger, and not to the side.
2.  Take the two ends of the hanger and bend them down forming an upside down V.
3.  Glue the cap to the bottom part of the hanger, in the middle of the V. Let the glue dry.
4.  To use the catapult, place the hook part of the hanger on the floor and use it as a handle to hold onto. Place objects in the cap and pull the cap down towards the hook as far as it will go. Release the cap quickly and watch the objects fly!


Video Directions:

More Fun Ideas

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Have a great day! 
Love, Katie & the Kiddos