How to Make a Windmill out of a Milk Carton

Creating crafts that are not only fun to make but also teaches kids about certain principles of science is a great way to introduce kids to it. Involving kids in simple science projects gives them a better idea about the working principle involved in that particular project. It is even better when these projects can be made with ordinary household materials. One such project that you can make with your kids is a windmill. Most kids are fascinated with windmills and by making a windmill you can explain to your kids how a windmill works and how it generates electricity. Windmill projects can be made out of a number of materials, but the most sturdy and simple one is the one made with a milk carton. The beauty of creating a windmill out of a milk carton is that you can find a milk carton very easily at home and you do not need to run about trying to find essential supplies for the project.

Making a Windmill out of Milk Carton

Before we explain how to make a windmill out of a milk carton, let us know a bit more about windmills. A windmill is a machine or a mechanical device that converts the energy of the wind into another form of useful energy, generally electrical energy. A windmill consists of vanes or blades which are either flat or curved surfaces that are radially mounted along an axis and are rotated by the wind. Traditionally windmills were used for milling grinding grains and pumping water, however windmills are used extensively for generating electricity. With the depletion of fossil fuels, wind generated electricity has emerged as an environment friendly alternative. Given below are the steps for making a windmill for kids out of a milk carton.

Things required

• 1 empty milk carton
• 1 knitting needle
• 3 corks
• Cardboard
• Pencil
• Scissors
• Sand

Procedure

To make this milk carton windmill, first rinse the milk carton and allow it to dry. Next, fill the milk carton with sand until it is ¼th full. Now push the knitting needle through the upper portion of the milk carton. Pull the knitting needle out of the milk carton and place the milk carton aside. Now it is time to make the vanes or blades of the windmill. To do this we will be using the cardboard. Draw a pinwheel pattern on the cardboard with a pencil and then cut the pattern out with the help of scissors.

Next, insert the knitting needle into the milk carton in the place where you had inserted it earlier. Push a cork on one end of the knitting needle, making sure that there is no clearance between the cork and the surface of the milk carton. On the other end of the knitting needle, push another cork. Make sure that you push the cork in gently but firmly, otherwise the cork will disintegrate in your hand. Once you have inserted the cork into the needle, push in the cardboard pinwheel that you have made earlier. Finally, insert the last cork on the knitting needle. Now blow on the cardboard blades of the windmill and you will see it rotating. Your milk carton windmill is ready.

If after blowing on the blades of the windmill, it does not rotate, then you have to make some minor adjustments to the corks on the milk carton windmill. A bit of clearance is necessary for the blades of the windmill to rotate. You can also prettify the milk carton windmill by coloring the cardboard blades and the milk carton itself.