STEAM Project: Paper Airplanes with Recycled Paper

Today we’re making paper airplanes using recycled paper. The recycled paper can be from a previous art project or painted newspaper.

Recycled Paper Airplane STEAM Project

Use Recycled Art to Make an Airplane

My kids love to draw and paint, but what do you do with all of that artwork? We usually save our favorites and take photos of the rest.

Then, we can reuse them for new projects. Practice scissors skills by cutting up artwork headed for the recycling bin. Or use the cut up artwork in collages to make new art.

Today, we’re using the leftover art to make a paper airplane.

The original art technique was used to create an ocean background with watercolors and salt. Get the how-to in our Watercolor Ocean Art post.

Use any piece of leftover art to make your paper airplane. There are several ways to fold a paper airplane. My video shows how to make a simple glider.

Adding a paper clip helps keep thicker paper together. It also adds to the weight of the airplane which helps it fly without flipping over.

Use Newspaper to Make a Colorful Airplane

You can make paper airplanes out of any kind of paper. Some paper works better than others. Thicker paper is harder to fold but can be done. Newspaper is pretty thin and it works well for folding, but watch out for tearing.

To make the newspaper airplane extra special, add a layer of paint. Using tempera or acrylic paint will give you more coverage. This is good for covering up the newspaper print. Add design and patterns as you wish.

You can even paint a base layer to cover up the newsprint and then use markers or paint to add another layer of designs.

We used washable liquid watercolors to paint our newspaper. We found liquid watercolors work much better than the watercolor cakes. The liquid watercolors were much more vibrant and provided better coverage than the watercolor cakes.

After the paint is dry, you can fold your newspaper into an airplane.

We added a paper clip to the front and back of the newspaper airplane to help hold it together.

Test Out Your Paper Airplane Designs

Once you’ve built the paper airplane, it’s time to test them out.

Set up a paper airplane experiment like I did over at Rainy Day Mum. Then, find out which airplane traveled the farthest, which one spent the most time in the air, and which one can land closest to a target.

You could test paper types used or designs (how the airplanes were folded or how many paper clips you used).

What Makes This a STEAM Project?

STEAM stands for science, technology, engineering, art, and math.

Science – Use the paper airplanes to talk about the science of flight. Why do different designs fly better than others?

Technology – Take videos of your airplane designs in flight. Use a stopwatch to time how long the plane was in the air. Use a ruler to measure the distance traveled.

Engineering – Build and test different airplanes. Use different materials and different designs.

Art – Explore various art techniques when creating your paper.

Math – Take measurements of how far your plane traveled. Record the data in a table.

More STEAM Projects for Kids

Baking Soda Painted Apple Art – Use a fizzy reaction to make a cool piece of art.

Make a drawbot with a costume.

Make an acorn ninjas craft and stop motion video.

You’ll also want to check out the STEAM Kids – 50+ STEAM Activities Featuring Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Math ebook.

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