Pinwheels are an age old craft that your Grandma will remember. Put together these pretty wind decorations and stick them in your garden.  Encourage your kids to observe the pinwheel to get a look at wind speed and direction.

What you'll need:
  • Colored card stock or construction paper
  • Thumbtack or stick pin
  • Pencil with new eraser
  • White craft glue
  • Scissors
  • Sequins
  • Pattern
How to make it:
  1. Print the pattern onto plain copy or printer paper.
  2. Cut the square pattern out, cutting on the solid lines.
  3. Lay pattern on top of colored paper and trace the square. Cut out the square from the colored paper.
  4. Keep the pattern square on top of the colored square. Either hold it in place with your fingers or tape it down lightly on two of the sides.
  5. Cut through the pattern and the colored paper along the dotted lines but do not cut in to the center circle.
  6. Use a thumbtack or stick pin to poke out the holes in every other corner as indicated on the pattern. Set the pattern piece aside.
  7. Take one corner (one with a hole) and fold it toward the center of the square. Fold the next corner that has a hole and fold it toward the center on top of the first holed corner. Repeat with the other two corners with holes until all four are folded into the center. Glue the folds to each other and to the center. Hold together until dry.
  8. Push the thumbtack through the center of the pinwheel and into the eraser of the pencil. Make sure the pinwheel isn’t touching the eraser or it won’t spin.
  9. Glue some sequins to the flaps of the pinwheel and let dry.

As your kids observe the pinwheel moving, ask them these questions...

  • If the pinwheel blows faster, what does that mean about the wind?
  • When the pinwheel blows this direction, where is the wind coming from?  What if it changes direction?
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