A popsicle stick fan full tutorial

It is getting to be that time of year, especially in Utah where everyone starts to get so hot! If you are anything like me you cringe when everyone says, “it’s just too hot!”. We have been waiting for this heat to come, so let’s enjoy it while we can!

School is out and nothing is better than to help them continue to refine their fine motor skills and have some summer fun!

easy diy summer craft popsicle stick fan

Next time, instead of having all the kids complain about the heat, help them find a solution to their problem, which is by creating their very own fan! The question now is, how do we create our own fun summer fan?

Teach the kids how to make a fun summer fan to help keep them cool this summer. Allow the kids to be creative and make it their own. I know there are so many varieties to making a fun fan, I would love to see some of your fans.

I am simply showing you how to create the hand held fan, but make it special by helping them use different designs and accessories. Some great accessories that I did not necessarily use, but that could be fun to use are things like, ribbon, strings, large hole punch, design hole punches, fabric, stamps and paint.

One word of caution I would like to share is to be careful that your fan doesn’t weigh too much or that there aren’t too many holes in it. As you can imagine what effects this would have on the fan.

Supplies you will need to create the Fan:

Glue ( I used basic school glue, but hot glue would work as well)
Hammer
Screw
Small picture nail (The length of the nail will depend on how many sticks you use. If you use 5 sticks you will need a nail that is approximately half an inch long)
Crayons (Or something to color with some of which may include, markers, paint and pens)
Scissors
5 popsicle sticks (More popsicle sticks if you are wanting the extra support on the fan)
Hole Punch
2 pieces Cardstock Paper (You can use colored paper as well, just remember if kids are coloring on it you may not be able to see it as well.)

Step one is to poke a hole at each end of the stick that the small nail will fit into. I just used a screw and turned it a few times on each side until it poked through. When all the sticks have a hole in the bottom take the nail and poke it all the way through the popsicle sticks.

Once the nail breaks through all of the sticks, hammer the pokey side until it lays flat on the popsicle stick. The key is to make sure that the sticks open and close easily.

While you are doing this hand two pieces of paper to each of the kids to have them color and design. Like I said previously, depending on the age of the child you can provide many other accessories to apply to the fan.

Once the kids are finished, trace a half circle on each piece of paper, this is what will make the fan. You will want the circle to take up as much of the paper as possible. Then cut a smaller half circle at the bottom. As seen below.

Next, you will lay the sticks around one of the pieces of paper spacing them out evenly. Then glue each stick to the piece of paper. Make sure to glue the sticks well. I ran a line of glue completely down the stick so that the whole stick was going to stay on the paper.

You will glue both sides of the sticks to each of the papers so that the fan is two-sided. Try to keep the glue on the sticks to help the fan fold up easier.

Allow the glue to completely dry. This step is so important as you don’t want to glue the fan shut. The glue also will leak out a little bit so don’t over glue the product.

Finally, once the fan is dry, fold back and forth with the sticks allowing the fan to close tightly. Fold the fan from one side to the other and folding the stick behind each other so that it stacks. Be sure to take your time as you really want to make sure that it creases well.

Spread the fan back out and use it whenever you’d like! My son has had tons of fun playing with his fan outside when he is hot, while play pretend and with friends.

A couple of things I learned while making the fan is to be sure and keep the glue only on the sticks. Don’t spread glue all over the paper because it will make the paper stiff and you don’t want that.

Another thing I learned, is that you can use more sticks. Just make sure that you space them out evenly so that you can still fold the fan nicely.

Lastly, this is a great activity to have stored up and ready to go on either a very hot summer day, when you need a break from outside or even a rainy day.

When storing the product make the stick part of the fan prior and keep that on hand. That way when you don’t have time to sit and make this part of the fan you can still do the activity for the kids.

Overall, this project can take anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour. The more details you place on the fan the longer it will take. Again don’t feel rushed when making the fan, let the kids enjoy the fun! If they are able have the children cut the papers, and build the stick part as this will teach them new skills and to be more independent.

Now comment and share with me some of your summer craft fans and what you liked best when creating them! I love to see all the creativity and fun that you have with your kids!