Astronauts!

Materials
  • Black pipe cleaner 
  • Large black pom pom 
  • Balloon 
  • White paint and paintbrush 
  • Newspapers
  • White paper
  • Glue 
  • Water
  • Cups and a bowl
  • Scissors
  •  Utility knife


Activity Directions 
  1. Watch the video on astronauts linked below. 
  2. Perform the Make Your Own Helmet activity (Note: The video linked below also walks you through the project.)
    1. Begin by first blowing the balloon so that it is a little larger than the head of the person who will be wearing the helmet. Tie off the end of the balloon once it reaches the desirable size and prop it onto a small bowl (to keep it still for the next steps).
    2. In another bowl, mix equal parts of water and glue until the mixture is consistent. 
    3. Then, take your newspapers and tear them into roughly equal strips. 
    4. Soak a strip of newspaper into the glue and water mixture and put it on the balloon. Repeat this step until most of the balloon is completely covered by at least 3 layers of newspaper paper-mache.
    5. Next, take strips of white paper and create another paper-mache layer on top of the newspaper layers until no more newspaper can be seen.
    6. Once you have covered the balloon with 3 layers of newspaper and 1 layer of white paper, wait at least 8 hours for the paper mache to dry. 
    7. After the paper-mache has dried, paint the entire paper surface with white paint and wait for the paint to dry. 
    8. Once the paint has dried, take a utility knife and cut a small square opening in the middle of the helmet for the face plate area. You can also trip the bottom edges of your hemet at this point to create the shape you want. (Note: it is strongly recommended that this step is done by an adult.)
    9. After you have made an opening that you can see out of, connect your large black pom pom to your black pipe cleaner. 
      1. This will represent the mouthpiece astronauts use to communicate with each other and people on Earth.
    10. You are done! Feel free to decorate your helmet with different colors, stamps, and drawings!
Suggested Videos: 
Astronauts Video: https://youtu.be/jhD8GFwy734
Astronauts Project: https://youtu.be/VZDRaYu08Oc
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Published 9.26.2020

Author: Rupali Venkatesan