Today I have a super-simple tutorial to make a paper plate flying saucer toy that looks REALLY COOL when it is thrown like a frisbee and will get the kids outside to have some out of this world fun!
The great thing about these saucers is that kids as young as preschoolers can make them, and they can be decorated any way the kids want.
Cutting and decorating a saucer develops fine-motor skills and playing with it gets kids throwing, running and laughing!
Supplies for the Flying Saucer Toy:
- 1 paper plate per flying saucer (we used ones with a solid colour on one side)
- scissors
- stickers to decorate (we used multi-coloured paper reinforcers because they looked like little windows or lights!)
- Optional: crayons or markers to decorate
Steps to Make the Saucers:
Step 1: With the plate upside down, draw a circle around the base of the plate. Inside the circle, draw lines dividing the circle into 12 equal pieces as shown below.
Step 2: Have your child cut along the straight lines as far as the circle (Onetime is still working on holding scissors correctly, but was so eager to cut today that he didn’t want to be told where to put his fingers!)
Step 3: Show your child how to fold every other triangle up and press the others down (see picture below).
Step 4: Have fun decorating with stickers or crayons/markers!
Onetime even created “landing pads” out of other plates for our saucers and stickers ended up all over – but we had fun!
Next we headed outside to test our new saucers! We had a beautiful day!
After a few demonstrations of how to hold a “Flying Saucer” frisbee (thumb on top and coloured side of the plate down), Onetime began practising his throws.He got pretty good at it too after just a few tries. We even had fun throwing the saucers from the top of our local playground climbers!
Tomorrow we are going to try using the “landing pads” to make a game where we try to throw the saucer closest to the pad – kind of like frisbee golf!
If you’re looking for another fun and simple outdoor activity for the kids, be sure to check out this Dandelion Counting Race from Hands On: As We Grow.
All these kids needed was some chalk and dandelions, for a fun and mathematical outdoor activity! Check it out.
Hope you give these saucers a try. They were fun to make and definitely fun to fly!
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I LOVE the flying saucer and so easy and fun for the kids to make! Pinning!
Thanks Susen. Have fun with it! Thanks for dropping by.
The flying saucer is awesome, Sue! We will try it for sure!
Thanks for dropping by Viviana!
That flying saucer is awesome. I will be trying it out soon!
Have fun with it Shelah! Thanks for dropping by!