How to make a cat’s ears paper plane

Making paper planes is a simple paper craft activity for kids that lead to lots of fun outdoors as they fly their paper planes. This cat's ears paper plane design has forward rudders to give it good directional throw power.

What you need:

• 1 x A4 sheet of paper

Number of players:
1

Activity:

Place your sheet of paper on the table with the short edges top and bottom. Fold it in half – by folding the left side over. Open it out.

Now fold it in half by folding the top edge down to the bottom. Open it out. Now flip it over.

Fold the upper left corner down to the lower right corner. Unfold.

Fold the upper right corner down to the lower left corner. Unfold.

Squash fold it so that the two triangular shapes on each side collapse into themselves (see video) You will end up with a pitched-roof house shape if you do it correctly.

Fold the upper layer of the lower left corner up until the top edge of the fold is horizontal.

Do the same on the other side.

Fold the upper layer of the bottom edge up until it matches the horizontal edges you just made. Unfold.

Fold the bottom edge up to the crease you just created. Flip fold it up along the crease. Flip the whole thing over.

Fold the point down until it matches the level of the layer below. Flip the whole thing over.

Fold the left side over to and even with the right side – fold it in half in other words.

Fold the top layer on the right over to the left to make a wing and fuselage, leave about 1.5cm for the fuselage.

Take the top left layer over to the right as far as it can go, make sure the crease is vertical. This will create a little cat's ear on your wing.

Now fold the left edge over to the right about 1cm. Flip the whole thing over.

Do the same thing again: make a wing and fuselage, fold back a cat's ear flap and then fold a 1cm edge along your wing.

Pop it open and curve the forward 'rudders' by drawing a thumb nail along the inside of the cat's ears.

If you make them even, you will get a good flight. Happy flying!

• Thanks to our sister company Kidspot Australia for creating the instructional video.