DLTK's Crafts for Kids
Hot Air Balloon Easy Paper Craft

This is a good project to use for children who are practicing their scissor skills. The hot air balloon is a large shape with gentle curves -- an easy shape for cutting.

It's easy to make your own colored rice, colored macaroni or other pasta shapes (instructions are included) and you can store it indefinitely once you've made it. I find the macaroni less messy for the kids to use than rice is. Alternatively you can use dried cereal like fruit loops or cheerios.

Materials:

• scissors,
• glue,
• printer,
• paper (we used construction paper which we cut a bit smaller and put through the printer),
• one of:
  • colored macaroni
    or
  • colored rice
    or
  • Fruit Loops
    
    click links for directions on how to color them if you don't already know.  Fruit loops are the best choice for very young or large groups of children as they are safe to nibble on.
• Optional:  something to color with, sparkle glue or glitter. We used a brown marker to draw a crosshatch, basket pattern on the bottom.
• Optional:  popsicle stick

Instructions:

• Print out the hot air balloon template or draw your own on a piece of paper.
• Remind the children how to hold their scissors.
• Cut out the hot air balloon template.
• Either squeeze the glue onto the template for the child or squeeze some into a margarine container lid and give the child a q-tip or popsicle stick to spread the glue themselves.
• Decorate the hot air balloon with fruit loops, colored macaroni or colored rice.
• Hang on the fridge!
  - or -
  Glue your hot air balloon to a popsicle stick and make it dance while you sing this song:
  

I'm a Little Balloon (tune of I'm a Little Teapot)

I'm a little balloon - look at me!
oh what color can I be?

If you said that I was
colored _______ (a color that you used to decorate your balloon)
then stand right up and shout _______ ! (something that rhymes with the color - it can be silly)

so, for example, if you used blue the last two verse might be:

If you said that I was
colored blue
then stand right up and shout YAHOO !

 

Here are some color rhyming words to start you off:

blue - yahoo!

red - Yay, Fred!

yellow - hey, hello!

grey - hurray!

green - and scream!

purple - Not Flurple!

 

Templates:

• Close the template window after printing to return to this screen.
• Set page margins to zero if you have trouble fitting the template on one page (FILE, PAGE SETUP or FILE, PRINTER SETUP in most browsers).

Template       (B&W)

Print friendly version of these instructions