Whirligig paper template

You will need dried, seasoned bamboo. Measure four inches up from the bottom of one of the 15 inch pieces. How do you make a wind spiral? How do you make a paper wind spinner? How do you make whirligig wings? How do you make a Beaufort spinner? How do you make a windmill generator? What are whirligigs made of?

The body is of hand whittled bamboo , fastened with rusty nails and wire and a single piece of string. The farmer is connected to the shaft of the whirligig by a bamboo stick with an offset where the stick connects to the shaft.

Who is famous for making whirligigs? What do Whirligigs symbolize? How do you make anything spin with a thrust bearing? Put the two ends of the string together and tie them with a knot. Position the cardboard circle in the middle of the string. Put the looped ends of the string over a finger on each hand. Move your hands apart so that the cardboard circle is suspended in between your two hands. Spin the circle piece around and around in one direction so that the string begins to twist and twist.

After the string is pretty twisted, gently pull your hands apart and the string will untwist, spinning the whirligig and re-twisting the string in the other direction.

As the string re-twists, allow your hands to move back together a bit so that the string can twist up more. Then gently pull your hands apart again and the whirligig will spin in the opposite direction and re-twist the string. It takes some practice, but you will get the feel of gently moving your hands in and out, spinning the whirligig and allowing the string to re-twist.

The paper whirligig will spin back and forth over and over again until your arms get tired! It is kind of mesmerizing to watch the decorated, spinning whirligig make a pretty pattern as your hands move in and out and the string twists, un-twists and re-twists again. If you wind the whirly gig up and then pull the strings tight it should come straight.

Possibly not pulling tightly enough? I remember the buttons. They were fun. LOL I bake a lot of cakes, and use the boxes for making templates. It is much easier to trace around them. Anyway I say that to say a person could glue a few thicknesses of them together to make these.

That is if your hands prevent you from cutting through thick cardboard. Just a thought. I am sad that this is a pdf. Great idea. Wish I could try it. That is strange. With a pdf you should be able to save it to your computer then double click to open in acrobat reader which is free and comes on most computers.

It should print in colour from there. Failing that try this: — trace a circle shape onto paper using something round like a roll of duct tape or use a compass to create a circle — decorate and cut out — glue to card — poke two holes in the middle and thread string through them. Same thing! What You Think? I However had fun making it by the way even though it was just a sample test project. Anyways I look forward to your reply asap. It should work on thinner card but I think it will spin better on heavy recycled card — I say this having not really tried it on thin card though so if you go with that try it first.

For 6 and 7 year olds heavy cardboard might be a bit hard for them to cut the older kids would manage better , so an idea might be to either help them with it on the day if they need help or have a stack of rounds already cut out and ready to go.

The rest should be easy, and it will be lots of fun. If you do not have access to a printer, you can download the file and open it on your computer, then use a pencil and ruler to draw the whirlybird shape on a piece of paper, based on the dimensions in the template.

Follow the directions on the template to cut out and fold your whirlybird. Procedure Now it's time to drop your whirlybird! What do you think will happen when it gets dropped? Have an adult help drop it from a safe high place such as standing on a chair or a stepping stool. How did the whirlybird fall?

Now drop the whirlybird a couple more times—in the same fashion, from the same height. Why do you think it is important to drop it more than once? Now, attach a paper clip to the bottom part of the whirlybird and drop it again.

Do you think it will fall faster? Pay close attention. How did it fall with a paper clip attached? Keep adding paper clips, one at a time, to your whirlybird and drop it after each new paper clip. What do you observe as you add more and more paper clips?

You can also use a stopwatch to time how long it takes the whirlybird to fall with different numbers of paper clips on it. Write down the times to help you remember how fast it falls when you add different numbers of paper clips.