Paper craft · Confident · about 35 minutes

Paper-Roll Rocket

Uses scissors · Uses glue · Adult help suggested

Card stock or thick paper printed with the rocket template, 216 x 279 mm (8.5 x 11 in (Letter) or A4)
Blunt-tip scissors
Glue stick
Markers or crayons
Ruler (to check the scale bar)

For the grown-up: Help cut the small tabs around the nose cone, and hold the cone closed while the glue sets.

Safety: Use blunt-tip scissors and cut away from your fingers.

Safety: This is a model to stand and play with, not a flying toy: do not throw it at faces or anything fragile.

Finished

Blue dashes: valley fold (toward you). Pink dash-dot: mountain fold (away from you). Thick line with scissors: cut. Yellow: glue.

Start. Print the template at 100% (Actual size) on card stock and check the 5 cm bar. Color the cone, fins and window.
1. Cut: Cut out all the pieces along the solid lines: the body, the nose cone, three fins and the window.
2. Glue: Decorate the body, then glue the window on the circle near the top.
3. Roll: Roll the body into a tube with the decorated side outside, so the plain edge overlaps the glue tab.
4. Push: Press along the seam to glue the tab inside the tube. Hold it for 30 seconds.
5. Curl: Curl the nose cone piece into a cone, sliding the plain edge over the glue strip until the bottom is as wide as the tube. Glue it.
6. Valley fold: Fold the small tabs around the bottom of the cone inward.
7. Glue: Rub glue on the folded tabs and push the cone into the top of the tube.
8. Valley fold: Fold the tab of each fin along its dotted line, so the tab sticks out sideways.
9. Glue: Glue each fin tab onto one of the three printed lines at the bottom of the tube. Line the fin bottoms up with the bottom of the tube.
10. Check: Stand your rocket on its fins. Ready for countdown!

If something goes wrong

The cone does not fit the tube. Slide the cone edge over the glue strip a little more or less until its bottom is the same size as the tube, then glue it.
The tube springs open. Use more glue on the tab and hold the seam for a full minute, or add a small piece of tape inside.
The rocket leans. Make sure all three fin bottoms line up with the bottom of the tube, and that each fin sits on its printed line.

Template · print at 100% (Actual size)

Measure the black bars with a ruler: 5 cm and 2 in. If they are shorter or longer, print again at 100% (Actual size), not "Fit to page".