Make a Patriotic Pinwheel

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Kids will be excited about patriotic celebrations with this pinwheel they can make, display and play with. They might even learn a thing or two about history and wind power!

 Each child will need:

  • One square piece of paper, about 8″x 8″ or 9″ x 9″
  • Long pin
  • Unsharpened pencil with eraser (patriotic pencils would be fun)
  • Pencil
  • Bead for center
  • Scissors, regular and patterned
  • Ruler
  • Red and Blue paint, markers or crayons
  • Glitter

What to Do:

1. Color your paper: Using crayons, paint or markers decorate your paper with red, white & blue stars and stripes. Add fun accents with glitter. Another option is to use pre-printed paper with a patriotic design available at most craft or scrapbook stores. Use this time as a learning opportunity to discuss the history of the American Flag, or our reasons for celebrating Independence Day.
2. Optional edge design: Make patterned cuts around the outside edges of the paper. Scissors with patterned edges work well for this. You can also use a standard scissors and cut wavy patterns around the outside.
3. Make the cuts: Use a ruler and pencil to draw a line from each corner to the center of your paper creating the look of four triangles. Using safe scissors, and helping the younger children, cut the lines towards the middle, stopping about 1/2 inch from the center.
3. Create the pinwheel: Have the children mark a small “x” on the right corner of each of the four sections. Bend the marked points of each section toward the middle and push a pin through them at the center.
4. Final steps: Slide a bead onto the pin and then push the pin into the eraser of the unsharpened pencil.
5. Try it out! Another great learning opportunity, talk about the power of wind.

 

 

 

 

How did your kids did with this project?

Your feedback will help us with future subjects and ideas. Let us know if the kids enjoyed this project, learned something and had fun!