We’ve been having fun with recycled materials and a few days ago when I heard my son say ” I’m bored!” I replied with ” Want to throw some eggs off the porch? ” He’s 5 so of course he said yes! I told him there was one rule we had to make a escape pod and try to protect the egg from cracking.

1. Gather your materials. We rummaged through our recycle bin, my art closet and playroom. This is what we decided we might use. Immediately there was talk of a parachute. When I found a treat box it was quickly tagged as a possible parachute.  We also used bubble wrap, an egg carton, some tape, cotton balls, party streamers and yarn. Use what you have that’s the whole idea, to use what you have to make something useful to protect the egg . 
2. First he lined the carton ( that we cut in half) with cotton balls and bubble wrap and added strips of party streamers.
3. Then we poked holes in the treat box to make a parachute and threaded yarn through.
4. Tied it on to the carton.
5. Added the egg. Closed it up and used a little tape too.
6. Then we trekked out to the porch and …. wait wait first we made predictions. My son predicted it would be OK. I thought it would be smashed. Then he dropped it .
7. It didn’t crack!
8. ” Let’s do it ’til it cracks!”  OK!
9. 2nd time it hit the flower box … as soon as it did my son said ” I bet that made it crack!”
10. He was right.  I asked him to explain why it would make it crack but the ground wouldn’t. He explained it simply but logically. ” The parachute didn’t have time to help yet and it hit hard.”

This wasn’t a planned activity but it was a blast. It would be so fun in a class to keep throwing them until only one survives!