Description

Pneumatic Mini-Beasts Activity – Class Set (30)

• Hands-on educational project

• Online support for setting up and delivering the programme

• Virtual workshop given by Scientific Sue

Want Scientific Sue to run this session in your school, for your event or even to create a bespoke session for you? That can be arranged too!

Although we have called this activity ‘Pneumatic Mini-Beasts‘ your children can use the contents to make any toy which uses the inflated balloon to open or move it. This creative activity helps to develop children’s understanding of control through investigating simple pneumatic systems and designing and making a model of a toy that has moving parts controlled by moving air – pneumatics.

Enough material to make 30 models

• Balloon pump
• Balloons x 40
• Paper plates x 60
• Double sided stickers/sticky dots x 250
  

  Is this a friendly spider?

• Pipe cleaners x 300
• Plastic tubing x 30
• Ping pong balls x 60
• Wiggly eyes x 60
• Wire ties x 40
• Plastic ‘throat’ rings x 30
• Rocket balloon
• Pneumatic Monsters Art Kit:
• 30 Creature Design Sheets with Name Cards
• 30 Boolmarks
• 30 Mini-Beast (Monster) Profile Cards
• Teaching notes

The children create a toy which can be opened using air moving out of an inflated balloon.

Extra balloon pumps can be order by clicking this link.

Teaching notes included

This creative activity can also be used to investigate camouflage as an adaptation and why it helps organisms to survive. The activity can reinforce the usefulness of being able to ‘hide’ in an environment in a fun way – and which child doesn’t like playing hide-and-seek?!

Engage your children in an exciting hands-on activity by introducing them to a simple pneumatic toy project. This delightful creation, powered by the inflation of a balloon, offers an excellent opportunity for students to explore basic principles of air pressure while unleashing their creativity.

In this project, children construct a charming creepy crawly toy with a unique twist—the toy’s mouth is animated by the inflation of a balloon. This dynamic feature adds an element of surprise and fosters curiosity among students. Not only does it serve as an entertaining toy, but it also provides an interactive platform for learning about pneumatic systems.

Encourage students to personalise their creepy crawlies by decorating them with vibrant colours and patterns. This creative aspect opens the door to discussions about camouflage in the animal kingdom, making the project an interdisciplinary learning experience.

Through this hands-on activity, students will not only grasp the fundamentals of pneumatic systems but also gain insight into the fascinating world of adaptation and survival strategies. This project not only enhances their understanding of science and engineering but also cultivates artistic expression and critical thinking skills.

Note: The balloon can be inflated by the children directly blowing down the tube or with the aid of a balloon pump.

The Mini-Beast Art Kit will allow your children  to:

🟩 Activity 1: Creature Design Sheet

🎨 Objective: Children will sketch and decorate their own creepy crawly creature.
🔍 Focus: Shape, colour, pattern, camouflage techniques, body structure (legs, wings, antennae).
💡 Top Tip: Encourage them to think about how their creature hides in its habitat—leaf patterns? Muddy textures? Bark-like colours?

✏️ Add-on: Give their creature a name and write one “super power” or adaptation that helps it survive.

🟦 Activity 2: Creature Fact Bookmark

🔖 Objective: Children will choose a real-life insect, bug, or small animal that inspired their pneumatic toy and create an information bookmark.
📚 Focus: Name, habitat, adaptations, diet, and a fun fact.

💡 Challenge: Can they link their design to something real? (e.g., “My creepy crawly is based on the stick insect—it’s almost invisible in the woods!”)

🟨 Activity 3: Monster Profile Card

💌 Objective: Create a “Meet My Monster” profile card.
📖 Focus: Drawing of the final creature, a short story, character traits, habitat description, and what makes it unique.

💬 Optional Prompt:

• My monster’s name is…
• It lives in…
• It eats…
• It hides by…
• When it feels threatened, it…

📸 Extension Idea: Use the envelope to create a habitat pocket! Decorate it and tuck the creature design or profile inside.

🌟 Bonus Idea: Display Wall

Create a class gallery of monsters! Use string and pegs or a wall board to hang:

• The Monster Profile Cards
• The Bookmarks
• Photos of the finished pneumatic creations

Science2Life’s Science iT! activities and programmes

Children love to be engaged in learning, especially through interactive projects that they can really get involved and be hands on with.

Science2Life’s Science iT! activities and programmes are part of our STEAM Academy. The activities use everyday life objects, toys and knick-knacks and turns them into fun, innovative, hands-on experiences designed to encourage children to:

• discover the amazing world of science and engineering
• to perform engaging activities that show how science and engineering is at work in their everyday lives
• to foster a lifelong love of science and engineering
• to give a basic grounding in scientific concepts and scientific thinking
• to increase children’s motivation to learn and
• enhance their perception, creativity and logic.

Hands-on learning is learning by doing.

Children involved in our ‘Science iT!’ activities and programmes are introduced to various STEAM learning methods and activities. Our creative programmes involve learning activities that require active thinking and experimenting to find out how things work. We all know how curious children are about the world around them and how they love using the word ‘why?’

The aim of our activities is to provide optimal learning opportunities that strategically help children grasp mathematics, engineering and science concepts.

The inclusion of the arts component into STEM makes it more fun to learn, and more approachable to children.

Art education allows children to learn things in a more open-ended way and make them applicable to real life.

Links to the curriculum

All of Science2Life activities can be used to entertain children – however they have been created with the curriculum in mind, so are perfect activities to generate mesmerizing examples of the topics they can be used to explore.

Plus our Science iT! activities can up scaled-up to be used in workshops within the classroom, for festival and birthday celebrations, which provide opportunities for children to collaborate on initiatives, explorations and creations.

The idea behind our Science iT! activities is to ignite children’s natural innate curiosity about the world around them (and the items in it) and to channel their enthusiasm for scientific discovery as early as possible.

Currently Science2Life have the following Science iT! activities:

1. The Magical EVANESCO Spell
2. The Magical AMORTENTIA Spell
3. The Super Bouncing Bubble Kit
4. Make your own Fossil Kit
5. Colour Changing Bracelet Kit
6. Pneumatic Mini-Beast Kit x 4
7. Creative Circuits
8. The Magical Wandarama
9. Gone Fishing
10. The Jitter Bug

Each of the above activities can be turned into a workshop programme! Interested? Give us a call!

Scientificsue@science2life.com

+447970884728

Note: All of Science2Life’s STEAM ACADEMY shows and workshops are designed to not only motivate and fire the spirit of discovery within your children but also ignite curiosity in their minds.

For more information on our shows visit our website: https://www.science2life.com