Water Cooler: Getting crafty

Crafts are great, but crafts that fly are even better.

Here’s how to make your own:

Bird kite - Take letter-sized paper. Fold it in half widthwise, so the two short ends are touching. Take the top corner of one side and bring it over to the fold. Staple it in place without creasing the paper so that the “wing” stays rounded. Do the same on the other side. Add a triangle-shaped cutout for the beak on the front and draw on some eyes. Cut out some feature shapes and glue or staple them on the back of the bird. Punch a hole near the area where the wing is stapled and tie a piece of string, yarn or twine. Keep the length of the string to around 3 or 4 feet. The bird will catch the wind, but if there’s no wind the short length of the string makes it easy to fly by simply running around.

Straw airplane - Cut two strips of paper, both about 2 inches thick, one 8 inches long and one 4 inches long. Tape the edges of each strip into a circle. Take four straight straws (trim off any foldable areas) and tape them on the inside of the circle, all placed evenly apart at 3, 6, 9 and 12 o’clock. Tape the other ends of the straws to the smaller circle in the same fashion, but on the outside of the circle. This creates the perfect wind tunnel, so when you give it a toss it will effortlessly glide through the air.

Paper plate flying disc - Cut the middle section from two paper plates, leaving the outside ridges intact. You can do this with scissors by piercing the middle and then cutting from the inside out to the edge, or you could use a box cutter or utility knife. Glue or tape the paper plates together so that the bottom of the plates are facing outward. Hot glue will provide the sturdiest hold, but you can use liquid glue or a glue stick. If necessary you can also use staples to reinforce the hold. Decorate your flying disc with paints, crayons, markers or whatever materials you have available. A patterned design looks awesome when it’s flying through the air.