Many countries around the world were involved in World War II, including the United States.

Although the battles happened far away, people at home helped the war effort. Some people saved and recycled materials while others helped build airplanes. We combined those ideas in our activities below.

Everyone did their part, even if they weren’t on the battlefield. 

Make an Airplane Model      Create Nose Art      Design a Badge

A model airplane made out of cardboard and paper has a bright nose cone, decorated in orange and red markers.

Age 5 and up, with help from a grown up

Craft: Make an Airplane Model from a Paper Towel Tube

Watch the video for instructions on how to make an airplane!

What You'll Need: 

  • Paper towel tube
  • 3 pieces of paper
  • Scissors
  • Tape
  • Crayons or markers

Make A Model Airplane

  1. Take a piece of paper and fold it in half the long way. Then fold it again to make a long rectangle. This is your airplane wing.
  2. Decide how you want the ends of your wings to look, then cut them out. They can be wide, skinny, curved, or straight. Be creative!
  3. To make the tail, get another piece of paper and start by folding it like you did with the wing.
  4. Take the long rectangle and then fold it again to make a shorter rectangle. Think about what shape you want your tail to be, then cut it out.
  5. Now, put the airplane pieces together. Get your cardboard tube. Tape or glue the wing to the bottom of the tube, towards the middle.
  6. Tape or glue the tail to the end of the tube, farthest from the wing.
A woman in a red kerchief drives rivets into a silver reflective surface.

Air and Space Connection: Making the Airplane

  • Making airplanes was an important home front activity to support the war effort.
  • Many factories opened up around the United States.
  • This opened up new jobs for many people, including women and African-Americans.
A paper towel role made into a model airplane. The nose cone is decorated with the face of a chicken, drawn in markers.

Age 6 and up, with help from a grown up

Craft: Make Your Own Airplane Nose Art

Make a paper airplane look super cool with nose art!

What You'll Need: 

  • Template of nose cone
  • Scissors
  • Tape or glue
  • Markers or colored pencils

Get Template

Make Your Nose Cone

  1. Think about what you want your design to be. 
          - Do you want it to be scary? Funny? 
          - It can be an animal, a character from your favorite show, or a colorful pattern!
  2. Print out the nose cone template, and decorate your nose cone.
  3. Cut the nose cone from the paper, and roll it into a cone shape.
  4. Tape or glue it on the side to secure it. 

 

Bonus! 

If you made a paper airplane earlier, you can attach this nose cone. 

  1. Use tape to attach your nose cone to the biplane.
  2. Color your airplane to match your nose art. 
A vintage military aircraft suspended in a museum setting, with shark mouth nose art, marked with "LOPE'S HOPE."

Air and Space Connection: Nose Art

  • Decorating an airplane with names, pictures and mascots was popular in World War II.
  • It helped create team spirit, and make airplanes look tough and scary.
  • This airplane (a Curtiss P-40E Warhawk)  is an example of a plane flown by a team of pilots called the Flying Tigers. The noses of their airplanes were painted with shark faces.
A badge with music notes, leafs, molecules, cats, books, and the DC flag. Next to it is text explaining the significance of the badge.

Age 8 and up

Craft: Create a Team Badge

Create a badge for a team that you belong to. Your family can be your team too!

What You'll Need: 

  • Paper
  • Pencil
  • Markers, crayons, or colored pencils
  • Optional Materials: Stickers, magazines, catalogs, glue, something to trace a circle

Make a Badge

1. Take a look at the different patches in the image to the right. These patches belong to different Tuskegee Airmen squadrons.

How many different symbols can you find? Can you find: 
      - Wings 
      - Stars 
      - A big cat 
      - A globe 
      - Clouds 
      - Fire

The symbols in these patches have a special meaning for that team. 

Five circular badges, four have tiger or panther figures. One has a devil.

2. Decide what "team" you want to design a badge for. It could be your family, or a group of friends, or an activity group like a book club or sports team.

3. Make a list of things that describe your team and the things you like or all have in common as a team.

4. Think of what symbols you could use for the words on your list.

      - Is there a symbol you could use that would tell people about your team's favorite activities or things? 
      - Sometimes patches include flags or maps to show where aviators are from. Do you want to include a symbol about where you live?

5.  Decide what shape you want your patch to be—circle, triangle or rectangle. Draw this shape in the middle of your paper. Make sure it's big enough so you could draw inside the shape.

6. Draw the symbols of choice on your patch. Another option is to use stickers for your symbols or to flip through old magazines to find images you want to use.

7. Share your patch design with friends and other family members!

332nd Fighter Group Patch

Air and Space Connection: Badges

  • Squadron badges are patches used to identify members of a specific group of pilots that fly together.
  • Just like a sports team, squadrons had to practice, plan, and trust each other to succeed.
  • Members wear these badges to feel a sense of belonging and unity with their team.
A black field filled with small paper airplanes made out of cardboard and a Q-tip.
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Soar Together at Air and Space is made possible by the generous support of Northrop Grumman.