How to Make a Paper Pinwheel Craft
Making a paper pinwheel teaches young children how you can take very simple items and turn them into something entirely different. You can use this craft to teach children about wind, movement and cause and effect actions. They'll enjoy these colorful personalized wind toys much more than any purchased pinwheel because of their active involvement in the creative process.
Things You'll Need
- Square double-sided scrapbook or origami paper
- Flexible plastic drinking straw
- Hole punch
Fold the paper diagonally into a triangle. Open it and fold again the other way. Open it up again. You should now have an "X" crease pattern in your paper.
Using your scissors, cut down the diagonal folds at least halfway to the center. Make all cuts the same size.
Using a hole punch, punch one hole into each corner and another hole in the center of the paper.
Make four or five cuts about a quarter of an inch long at the top of the straw. The cuts should be vertical cuts down the opening you would normally drink from.
Bend the straw at the flexible joint. Place the paper square onto the straw, putting the cut end of the straw through the center hole of the paper. Thread each of the corner holes onto the cut pieces at the center. The paper should make a pinwheel shape when this step is complete.
Open the cuts of the straw into a spread-out flower shape. This will hold the pinwheel paper onto the straw. The pinwheel is now ready to be blown on to make it spin.
- Wrap the straw with double sided tape prior to poking the hole to make the pinwheel even sturdier.
- When placing the corners onto the straw, be careful not to bend or crease the paper.