DLTK's Crafts for Kids
Weather Pinwheel Crafts
Pinwheels are a fun craft and also a way to introduce the idea of wind power to young children.
You can use the templates I've provided or design your own using:
- construction paper or decorated paper
Materials:
- paper,
- printer,
- something to color with,
- pencil with eraser at the end (unsharpened is best, I think)
- push pin or straight pin
- Optional: a small bead (like a pony bead).
Instructions:
- Fold on the dashed line to make a square decorated on both sides.
- Note: At this point, you can put a piece of thin cardboard or construction paper between the two halves to make your pinwheel a bit sturdier.
- Glue the sides so you have a square decorated on both sides.
- Cut on the diagonal dotted lines (don't cut all the way into the middle).
- Bend each corner to the center dot, but don’t crease your folds.
- Push a pin through the center into the eraser of a pencil (don't push it super tight).
- Optional: Put a bead in between the eraser and the paper ... some people find it spins a bit better this way... I've never noticed the difference (maybe it's the type of pencil eraser? I use fresh, unsharpened school pencils).
- Blow the edge of your pinwheel to make it spin (if it doesn't spin, loosen your pin a little or wiggle it around to make the hole in the paper bigger)
Templates:
- Close the template window after printing to return to this screen.
- Set page margins to zero if you have trouble fitting the template on one page (FILE, PAGE SETUP or FILE, PRINTER SETUP in most browsers).
Weather Pinwheel Template color or B&W
Print friendly version of these instructions
