DIY Craft: How To Make a Tetrahedral Kite With Your Troop

on June 07, 2020

Tetrahedral Kite

Difficulty: Hard

Great for

7th – 12th

grade girls

Estimate time to make

hour

minutes

Learn how to make a 3D kite also called a Tetrahedral Kite. This craft is great because after it is made girls can take it outside and play with it.

Did you know? The Tetrahedral kite was invented by Alexander Graham Bell. It came about from his experiments and his attempts to build a kite that was scalable and big enough to carry both a man and a motor. He worked on the kites between 1895 and 1910.

You can learn through directions and pictures and a short video at end of post showing how to do it. Let’s get started!

For this craft you will need

Straws
Tissue Paper
Sticky Tape
Wooden Piece

How to make craft

First you will need to create the structure of the kite that will be a few pyramids assembled. For that purpose you will need same sized straws. The simplest way to get them is cut the straws just after the part where they need to be folded. You will need to create 4 pyramids. For each one you will need 6 straws so 24 straws in total
To create one pyramid as I said you will need 6 straws. To create it you will also need some thread. Put the thread through the straws and create a triangle first. After that all the three parts need to go up. If the thread that you are using is thin and you are having some difficulties putting it through the straws you can use some wooden stick to help yourself. Repeat the same procedure and create 4 same pieces as you can see on the picture.
For the next step you will need to cover two next sides with tissue paper. As you can see on the photos I’ve used a few different colors of tissue paper but you can make it in one color or maybe use the colors of the rainbow.
I think the easiest way to cover the two sides is to cut one bigger square of the tissue paper and start gluing the tissue paper on the structure one by one. I’ve used sticky tape for gluing but you can use any other glue that you want. As you glue one side you can cut the excess off that side and repeat the same procedure until you have covered two sides as you can see on the photos. Repeat the same procedure for all 4 pyramids
To finish the look of the kite you will need to attach them all together. You will need to order them three on the bottom and one on the top. Secure all the meeting ends together by tying with the thread so you will get one structure at the end. To fly the kite you will only need to tie one larger thread and go outside to have fun with your kids waiting for the wind. It is tested and it really flies.