“Take me to your leader…”  How fun is this cute little flying saucer project!  Kids will love this quick kid’s craft that is fun to make and fits into any outer space theme.  Great for expanding imagination play, pair it with our little astronaut project for even more fun. 

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What you'll need:

• 2 small paper bowls

• Silver or grey craft paint

• 1 piece of colored cardstock – any color                                  

• Scissors

• Stapler

• 1 clean empty single-serving  fruit cup container

• 1 Silver Pipe cleaner

• Bamboo skewer

• Masking tape or other strong tape

• Spaceship window printout

• For the Alien:

• 1 Large Pom-Pom – any color

• 1 pipe cleaner – any color

• Card stock – any color

• Googly eyeballs

• Alien feet pattern

• White glue or,  if you have adult supervision – low-temperature glue gun

 

How to make the flying saucer:

1. Take 2 paper bowls and paint the bottoms and sides with grey or silver craft paint.  Set them aside to dry.  Once they are dry, turn one of the bowls over and take the fruit cup bowl and trace the outline of the rim on the inside of the paper bowl.  Take your pencil and draw another circle ¼ “inside the first circle.  Cut out this inner circle.  Insert the fruit cup into this circle and check the fit.  This will be the top of your spaceship.

2. Remove the fruit cup from the bowl and trace the rim again onto cardstock.  Cut out the shape.  This will be the platform where your alien will sit.

3. Carefully have an adult make two holes in the bottom of the plastic fruit cup using the bamboo skewer or a sharpened pencil.  Thread the silver pipe cleaner from the center of the cup through these two holes and twist them together at the bottom of the cup.  This will be your space ship antennae.  Bend the ends of the pipe cleaner so that there are no sharp edges. 

4.  Make your alien and then tape him to the paper circle platform.  Make sure you make a small alien to ride in the spaceship.  Fit the circle with the alien on it onto the fruit cup so that the alien peeks out.  Tape the paper circle to the fruit cup along the rim of the cup.

5. Insert the Alien in the cup into the paper bowl with the hole and tape the cup into place on the inside of the bowl using strong tape.  Masking tape or duct tape are good choices for taping your cup in place; or, have an adult secure your alien into place with a couple of dabs of hot glue.

6. Cut out the windows of the spaceship and paste them along the outer sides of the spaceship.  There are extra windows if you would like to draw in your own aliens peeking out of windows.

7. Staple or hot glue the two halves of the spaceship together.

 

How to make the Alien:

 

1.  For the body of the alien, choose a large Pom-pom.   1 ½ “ pom-poms work well for this.  There is no “right way” to make an alien.  Use your imagination to create one with the look and color you like.

2. To make antennae or eyeballs above the body, cut a length of pipe cleaner and glue a small pom-pom to one end.  Glue a googly eyeball to the small pom-pom and then glue the other end of the pipe cleaner to the body of the alien.  A low-temperature hot glue gun works best to glue the alien together.  Use adult supervision to avoid burns.  If you are using white glue, hold the pieces together until the glue starts to stick.  For gluing eyeballs to the small pom-poms, a clothespin to hold the eye to the pom-pom works well until the glue has set.

3. Use the alien feet template and cut out a pair of feet from cardstock to glue the alien body to. 

4. Make a mouth from cut card stock or bent pipe cleaner pieces and glue them to your alien.