The Star Spangled Banner talks about the “rockets’ red glare, the bombs bursting in air.” Thankfully, the only rockets and bombs that can be found on the Fourth of July are fireworks and patriotic decorations. If your child wants rockets this July 4th, let them make their own that they can enjoy after the holiday has passed through these very creative children activities.

The 4th of July is a wonderful time to allow your children to make patriotic crafts. One of the easiest they can try, even if they are very young, is making paper rockets. They’re a quick and easy craft they can make with minimal adult supervision.

These are the items you’ll need to have available for your children to make 4th of July rockets:

- Empty toilet paper or paper towel tubes, depending upon how large they want their rocket to be
- Pre-cut colored paper - construction paper, colored printer paper, and patriotic wrapping paper will all work
- Cellophane tape or a glue stick
- Markers and stickers
- Gift wrap ribbon

If you’re using solid colored paper, your child will definitely want to decorate the paper before constructing their rocket. Be sure they know which part of the design is covered up when the paper is glued or taped. When the decorations are complete, wrap the paper around the tube and tape it in place.

Draw a 3-inch circle on sheet of paper and cut it out. Carefully cut from one edge to the center. Pull one side of the circle behind the other creating a cone shape. Tape this to hold its shape and then attach it to the end of the tube using two or three pieces of tape.

Cut triangles out to use as fins. Tape three of these onto the end without the cone. If the cone and fins are level, the finished rocket will be able to stand. Fins that extend past the end of the rocket will look cool, but they probably won’t allow the rocket to stand. They can be used, however, if your child intends to hang it from the ceiling.

To give the illusion that the rocket is blazing through the sky, your child could tape pieces of red, orange, or white ribbon to the open end of the rocket. They can hang the rocket from the ceiling using loops of fishing line.

Using glow-in-the-dark stickers on their rocket would help them see their rocket in the dark. Your child may find making 4th of July rockets may be so much fun they’ll want to create more than one. Before you know it, they may have rockets hanging all over the ceiling. Of course, as long as there aren’t actual explosions, you should be fine.

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