Quelab’s Fireless Fourth 2021
Welcome to Quelab Makerspace’s 2021 Fireless Fourth, list of ideas, amusements and demonstrations for the kid in all of us. As always if you enjoy this post please share it with other families and friends and educators and kids who may benefit from this.
I Adric, your humble blogposter has been collecting these ideas and demos and posting every year since 2011, and while I love fire booms, it’s fun to try and scour the internet for ideas that don’t need big flames! Quelab is based in the middle of the Desert Southwest and fire danger is a real and growing thing in the western United States. So hopefully some of these ideas will help you wile away the long hours until its dark enough to see a public display, or responsibly do your own small fireworks. Remember to always have a hose in the ready, and a bucket of water.
Anyway on with the links! !!!!
A bit of a take on the typical alka seltzer film canister rockets. This one has some color and a base of sarch. To give a washable tie dye effect plus a pop and zoom. May need to source some other small snap top air tight containers since film cans are kinda rare these days.. Although Quelab’s darkroom might be able to spare a few. https://gluesticksblog.com/sidewalk-paint-rockets
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Super simple idea for those long hours waiting for after sunset to see the fireworks. Lay out some paper on the ground, or even a table thatsin the setting sun, align toys on the sunny side, trace the shadows when they look most awesome to you. https://imgur.com/r/nextfuckinglevel/4IeQrQa
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Need to stay up on your Periodic table? Why not laminate some periodic table of the element images and then use a dry erase marker to play a game of battleship. https://hackaday.com/2016/02/05/you-sank-my-dysprosium-periodic-table-battleship-game/#more-189363
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The Fourth of July is about fountains. Well this one is uses water, and it’s flat. https://youtu.be/D07aJB0Blzw
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Daredevil. Looping pendulum, dripping weights on a line over a bar. Makes for some nice long exposure pinwheels.
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Milk plastic, moon boot print.
https://milkit.com/milk-moon-print-mess-with-your-milk/
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Free idea from the City of Albuquerque Museum, how to do your own scratch art fireworks. https://www.cabq.gov/artsculture/albuquerque-museum/events/documents/fireworks.pdf
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Simple tape, and paper plate and cup, and tube marble tracks https://www.dollartree.com/diy-marble-track/idea-20/1803-34
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Need a little cool off? How about a water balloon pinata? https://www.dollartree.com/diy-water-balloon-pi%C3%B1ata/idea-201907-23
Links to past years Fireless Fourth posts.
- https://quelab.net/19715/quelabs-fireless-fourth-2020/
- https://quelab.net/19628/2019-quelabs-fireless-fourth-links-and-ideas
- https://quelab.net/19560/2018-fireless-fourth-4th-of-july-links
- https://quelab.net/19439/quelab-2017-fireless-fourth-link-list
- https://quelab.net/19282/2016-fireless-forth-ideas-from-quelab
- https://quelab.net/19047/quelabs-annual-fireless-4th-collection-of-links/
- https://quelab.net/18426/quelabs-fireless-fireworks-2014-links-and-ideas/
- https://quelab.net/9114/quelabs-collection-of-fireless-forth-ideas/
