Make a Conveyor Belt
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I came up with this craft because Chuck's current favorite 2 things are Lego
and the movie Big Hero 6 . We also just visited Legoland for Spring break... and LOVED IT! Plus, we've watched Big Hero 6 at least a dozen times. So this was the perfect little toy to whip up.Here's how I made this conveyor belt:
1. First, I washed and dried a milk carton.
2. Then, I cut off the top pointy bit and two opposite sides of the milk carton.
3. Then, I ripped out two pairs of holes on opposite sides of the carton. I made them big enough to hold my pens.
4. Then, I taped the ends of a long roll of paper (I used this kind) onto each pen.
5. Then, we just turned the pens in one direction and watched our conveyor belt work!
At first, our conveyor belt was strong enough to hold small pieces of lego. But Chuck wanted to do some heavy lifting. So I tweaked the design a bit and stuck a piece of cardboard under the paper to hold items up.
Here's what the belt looks like from the bottom:
Here's how I attached the cardboard support strip to my conveyor belt:
(I cut slits on both sides of the milk carton. Then, I cut out tabs on both sides of the cardboard support. Then, I taped the tabs to each side.)
Once we finished, we had to decorate our conveyor belt!
(Reminds me of an ekg machine....)
And here's a video of of our conveyor belt moving things along!
Lego Conveyer belt from Pink Stripey Socks on Vimeo.
Chuck really liked the toy because it reminded him of a factory making Lego pieces. Then, he realized that the Lego pieces were like the microbots from Big Hero 6... so we cut up some cups and made lots of and lots of microbots... just like Yokai! (Whoa. I have watched this movie way too much.)
I hope you have fun making one of these with your kids too! And if you liked this toy, you can find other toys to make with the kids on this blog too! Like these...
- toy launcher
- toy airport runway
- simple 1 sheet of paper kite
- paper slingshot
- cardboard rocket launcher
- flying whirly copter toy
