Design a Paper Glider (Free printable included!)

Does your child love the idea of flying?  Is he or she infatuated with planes, space shuttles, helicopters, or gliders?   Well, today's post is for you!  We're designing and making gliders!  (And bonus- I've even included a printable for you to do the activity too!)   This is a great STEAM Activity that allows kids to be creative, get artsy, and explore the idea of flight too!

Let's Design a Paper Glider!

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We recently showed my preschooler how to fold paper airplanes.  He really loves flying them, but still struggles with making all the folds himself.  So I thought this glider activity would be a good one for him.  There aren't too many folds to make and we get to talk about glider design too!

Oh!  If you want to read a book to go along with this activity, here are...

Our Favorite Books About Flying!

• A Day At the Airport
• Moonshot
• First to fly: Wilbur and Orville Wright Invented the airplane
• Planes Fly
• Captain Cal Series
• The Berenstain Bears: On the moon

Let's build a paper glider!

Download and print my FREE build a glider printable template.

Draw a design (or color mine in) and then cut your glider out.

Then fold your glider in half along fold line 1.




Then fold one flap down along fold 2.

Then fold the other flap down along fold line 3.

Now comes a great opportunity to test out your glider design with your kids!

• Try flying your glider as is.  What happens?  Why do you think this is happening?  Your glider should have trouble flying and instead flop in the air.  It is too light.  It needs something to weigh it down!

• Talk to your kids about what you can do to improve the glider's design.  You can follow their suggestions (and then make more gliders if the ideas don't work).  Or, simply add paper clips to the nose 1 at a time.  You should see that the plane flies a tiny bit better with 1 paper clip, and  way better with 2 paper clips.

And then zip your gliders around your room!  Zooooom!

If you're still in a flying mood, then you can check out this list of...

More Crafts that Soar!

• Paper bag and Newspaper Kites
• Easy 1 sheet paper kite (that flies!)
• Toilet Roll Helicopter
• Cardboard Roll Space Shuttle
• Toilet Roll Airplanes (Disney plane inspired)
• Toilet Roll Biplane
• DIY Whirly Copter Toy (only 3 everyday materials needed)
• Easy cardboard biplanes
• DIY Rocket Launcher
• Map Learning with Planes
• Make Styrofoam Flyers 
• Paper Plate Valentines

Today's post is part of a collaboration between several preschool-loving bloggers. This week's theme is Preschool Science.  So check out their links below for more great ideas on exploring scientific concepts with preschoolers!  (I will add the links as they come.)

Evaporation Art with Puddles | Hand Made Kids Art
Exploring rainbow, lights, and color:  Science Play for Kids  | A Little Pinch of Perfect
Dirty Penny Kitchen Science Experiment | School Time Snippets

Happy making, friends!

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