Marshmallow Shooters

Trouble shooting

Today we made Marshmallow Shooters using an Instructable tutorial. I've been wanting to do this for months and just never had the gumption to try it on my own with the kids. Finally, we found the time today and it couldn't have been easier! I just needed to be shown where the saw and vice were, then the shooters were super easy to make.

The interesting thing is that we loaded the marshmallows incorrectly at first. We were a bit disappointed with how our shooters were working (or not working) and we played for a little while. Then we figured out a way to load the marshmallow better and we started getting better results, but intermittently. Then we finally figured out where to put the marshmallow to get the best results and BAM! we were shooting super far with amazing speed. The sounds of the pop were satisfying and we found ourselves laughing amidst our joy and pain (When we got better at shooting and aiming, the marshmallows did sting a little bit when they found their target!)

I'm sure it would have still been fun if we figured it out the first time, but struggling at first and then figuring it out definitely made our success that much sweeter. Our failures definitely led to problem solving, experimenting and learning. Score!