One of my favorite movies growing up was Star Wars. I believe the first Star Wars film actually came out the year I was born. Of course, I had to share my love of the movie with my children. One day we decided to try our hand at a few Star Wars crafts. We decided to create Star Wars lightsabers, which ended up being a big hit.

• Age Guideline: 5 Years and Up
• Time Required: 30 to 45 minutes

This project can easily be modified to suit either younger or older children.

Materials Needed:

• Pool noodles
• Utility knife
• Duct tape
• Electrical tape
• Red felt
• Hot glue gun

Instructions:

Allow each child to select a pool noodle. The color the child chooses will be the color of the light on his lightsaber. Green, blue, and red are the most common choices.

Cut the pool noodle in half with a utility knife. This step must be performed by an adult. You have the option of making an educated guess as to where the middle of the pool noodle is, or you can be a little more accurate and measure the length of the pool noodle, and then divide by 2 to know exactly where the center of the pool noodle lies.

Cover the bottom six inches of the pool noodle with duct tape. Parents may have to cut strips of duct tape and hand them to younger children to place on the pool noodle. There is no right or wrong way to do this, so long as the entire bottom six inches of the pool noodle is covered in gray. This is the handle of the lightsaber.

Give your child strips of electrical tape next. The electrical tape adds a design to the lightsaber handle.

I encouraged each of my children to be unique in how they designed their lightsaber, as each of the lightsabers on Star Wars were different in design. One of my girls made two stripes going across the top of the lightsaber handle, and two stripes going across the bottom. My other daughter opted for a zig-zag pattern.

Add a button made out of electrical tape to the center of your lightsaber handle. I found it surprisingly easy to work with the electrical tape, so I had my daughter cut a circle out of the tape and place it on the lightsaber handle. My other daughter, however, wanted her button to be red. She cut a red circle out of felt and hot glued it into the center of the lightsaber handle instead. This button is the lightsaber's power button, and should be pushed when the child wishes to turn his lightsaber on and off (for pretend of course).

Play with the lightsabers. My kids had so much fun trying to pop bubbles with the lightsabers. They also spent an hour trying to use the lightsabers to keep a balloon from hitting the floor. We called this Jedi training. This is also a great activity to do when your children have a few friends over.

Tip:

Lightsabers are sold at most dollar stores, which mean each lightsaber only costs about $.50 to make.

Alternatives:

Instead of electrical tape, have your children color the lightsaber design with a permanent marker. They make permanent markers in a variety of colors, which means she can also draw the red power button in the center of the lightsaber handle.

Teenagers can get a bit more creative and actually carve the bottom of the pool noodle to make a lightsaber handle that has depth and detail.