School project - Old fashioned toy to make yourself?

Question

Help! My five year old daughter has been given the task of designing an old fashioned toy that you either push or pull as part of her science lesson. We have to get all the materials for her to make it so that she can do it herself. Any suggestions would be fantastic! Nothing too complicated as she is only five!

Answer 1

Get a stuffed toy dog/horse and tie cotton reels on it's feet and a piece of string round it's neck. Then she can pull it along!

Answer 2

That is ridiculous for a 5 yr old, should be learning writing and basic sums.
Try this.
Get some small match boxs about 6, cover each one with a fabric, then stick them together either 3 on bottom and 3 on top. Then get 6 paper fastners, push each one thru a box so it looks like a drawer. It should look something like a jewellery box, does not take alot of time and not much money she could even colour the boxs, this pulls ( drawers ) and i think her teacher would be really happy.

Answer 3

Get a small horse, about 10" height. Paint the horse an old color pattern like off white, black and highlight with red. (wood horse would be perfect). Glue the horse to a board about one inch longer and wider than the horse. Add wheels to it from old toys around the house and paint the wheels black. Add a hook or clasp from an old necklace at the front end of the board then just attach a pull string. It doesn`t take long at all except for drying the paint.

Answer 4

Let her decorate a shoe box as a wagon... the place some little wheels on it and attach a string so she can pull it. Fill it with some little candies for her classmates. She can pull it along and give one to each. Or.. if the teacher would not be upset, she could design Santa's sleigh from that same box. The sleig would not need wheels, just some runners made from coat hangers or large candy canes. It could still be pulled

Answer 5

I have a great easy one...

I am not sure of what the technical name is, but I tried searching a description and came up with the following.
The website link below shows a picture, it is on the bottom right. They are calling it a buzz saw.

This is a Native American toy- from tribes that lived in the present day Midwest.

All you need is a heavy circle with a whole in the center, and a string.

you can use a button, if you can put some weight on it. You spin it around and around, tightening up the string. Holding it horizontally with an end of the string pulled taught in front of you. Then pull, and while it spins to unwind it makes a cool noise.

PS- why am i getting SOOO many thumb downs?
okay- i know the toy isn't PULLed in the traditional sense that you drag it on the floor, but you have to PULL the string taught inorder to make the string unwind, thus producing the noise.

Answer 6

HI!
1. roll up some construction paper to make it look like and ice cream cone.
2. Tie a piece of string around a ball. A bouncy ball would do!
3. Tape the string (not the end with the bouncy ball tied to it) inside the cone made out of paper.
Hold the cone and try to get the ball into it my moving your arm!
~maddie

Answer 7

Try going to a good arts-and-crafts store. Tell your story to the clerk. They should be able to hook you up with a few wooden wheel, axles, rods, eye-hook and string to make an inexpensive pull toy. You may even be able to get a doggie head and tail, and some decals to give it a little pizazz.

Answer 8

for a five year old sounds challenging and more like a parent project. apart from anything that can be done with wheels one can make a top from a simple square of wood with piece of dowell put in one corner and then spun with the opposite corner on the floor.

Answer 9

Wow that is a complicated task for a 5 yr old try a wagon or a carriage ... dog / animal of some sort.... also depends on what you are making it out of.......how old fashioned???

Answer 10

when i was in first grade we did a project similiar to this.I made a cokebottle with 4 coke bottle lids as the wheels and a long solid stick as the thing that pulled my toy car