paper jumping beans

These paper jumping beans are a homemade version of the childhood classic. Your little helper can have fun drawing faces and shapes on the beans. Make sure you make lots because everyone will want a go.

materials

• Pencil
• Scissors
• Pieces of thin card
• Crayon or pen
• Sticky tape
• Marbles
• 

eco info

This is a great way to give old marbles a new lease of life.

hints and tips

• Your little ones can have a lot of fun decorating their jumping beans. Just remember to do this before cutting and folding the bean and try to avoid anything that might make the paper go soggy!
• When it’s time to test out your jumping beans you can experiment with how different surfaces affect the movement of the jumping beans. Do tilted, flat, rough or smooth surfaces make the beans go faster?
• If you want to make some ‘super grippy’ jumping beans why not make them from a sheet of fine sandpaper instead of card.

did you know?

• Real jumping beans are native to Mexico and grow on the jumping bean shrub (Sebastiana pavoniana).
• The beans themselves are actually seedpods through which the larva of a small grey moth has chewed. After consuming the seed within the seedpod, the moth larva throws itself, with great force, from one side of the capsule to another, causing the capsule to ‘jump’.

Step 1

Photocopy the template (see Using templates). Cut out the template and place it onto a piece of thin card. Draw around the template then cut it out (grown-ups only). Bring your jumping bean to life by drawing a face right in the middle of the template as shown, below.

Step 2

Place the card shape face down on a flat surface. Fold in each side section as indicated on the template.

Step 3

Now fold up one long end and bring it to meet the side tabs. Fix it in place using sticky tape.

Step 4

Next, place a marble inside the jumping bean.

Step 5

Fold up the other long end and stick it in place. Use sticky tape to reinforce the join.