Marshmallow Shooter

If your kids are anything like my kids they love to shoot, launch or just plain throw anything. LOL. If so, this marshmallow shooter is the perfect activity for you! We actually did this activity during spring break, but it is a perfect summer activity.

Making these marshmallow shooters was fairly simple, but we did run into one fairly big problem while we were creating the marshmallow shooters. We used plastic cups initially and when we attached the balloon the cups collapsed into themselves. This created a fantastic opportunity to encourage my boys to use their critical thinking and engineering skills to figure out what was wrong and how we could solve the issue. We determined the plastic cups were not sturdy enough. Luckily, I had one paper cup on hand. When we compared the two cups we noticed a significant difference. The paper cup has a reinforced bottom, we decided this would make it strong enough to handle the force. We experimented with the paper cup and viola! It worked perfect!

So learn from our mistake….aka engineering process… only use paper cups if you want it to work the first time around.

Once we had a working model we ran outside and spent the afternoon having shooting competitions. I was impressed, this simple little marshmallow shooter could really launch the marshmallows quite the distance. The boys had a fantastic time trying to beat their own score and their brother’s score. If we had more than one shooter that had turned out I’m sure an all out marshmallow war would have followed and they would have loved it! We will be doing this again, once I buy more paper cups!

Marshmallow Shooter Activity

Boy using the marshmallow shooter by pulling back on the balloon

Materials for the Marshmallow Shooter

PAPER cups (plastic cups will not work)
Balloons
Scissors
Mini Marshmallows

Materials to make the marshmallow shooter: paper cups, balloons, marshmallows and scissors.

How to Make the Marshmallow Shooter

Step 1

Cut a hole in the bottom of the paper cup. I used scissors with the 7 year old, the 12 year old thought it was a good opportunity to use his pocket knife. Hahah, both ways worked… although the pocket knife did end up being easier.

Hands using scissors to cut out the bottom of a cup.

Here is a comparison of the plastic cup (first picture) and a paper cup (2nd picture). Notice how the paper cup has a reinforced edge around the bottom, you will need this in order for the cup to be strong enough.