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Make a hot air balloon from coloured card and a split pin!

You will need:

• Coloured card
• Scissors
• Pen
• Pencil
• Modelling clay
• Split pin (paper fastener)
• Thread or cotton
• Small box
• Paint

Take a piece of thin, coloured card and use a pen to draw a long, thin oval.

Cut the shape out - to give you something that looks like this.

Snip off a few centimetres at one end with a pair of scissors.

Use the piece of card as a template to draw round, and cut out five more, so that you have six in total.

Make a hole in the curved end of each piece of card by pushing a sharp pencil through into a ball of modelling clay.

When you've done this to all the pieces, join them together using a split pin (also known as a paper fastener).

This can be quite fiddly, so take your time! Make sure that the pin goes through all the holes.

When all the pieces are threaded onto the split pin, open the ends out.

Now fan the card pieces out into a circle, like this.

Turn the whole thing over. Take any two of the sections that are next to each other, curl them up...

...and tape the ends together at an angle, like this.

Take the next adjoining section, curl it round, and tape it in place too.

Go round all the pieces until a balloon shape emerges.

Next, cut six equal lengths of thread...

...and tape them inside the hole where each of the sections join.

Find a small box, or cut the end off a larger box...

...and tape the ends of the thread to the inside of the box at equal distances.

And once you've done that, you'll have a hot air balloon like this!

It's a good idea to pop a ball of modelling clay into the box, to add weight to the balloon. Here you can see that the box has been painted to look like a basket.

Tie some cotton around the split pin at the top, so that you can hang it up.

How about making a selection of balloons in different sizes and colours? You can also make some cotton wool clouds!

And how about making cardboard people to go in the baskets? Try it yourself!