How to Make a Pinwheel

Pinwheel paper crafts have been used by children as a toy for many years. I remember when I was a child, we used to make pinwheel with different paper sheets, and stick the paper to a wooden stick using a thumbtack pin. We used to make pinwheel toys in summer vacation, and waited for the wind to blow so that the pinwheel would start spinning. However, if there used to be no wind, then just out of sheer boredom, we used to go running around the whole place so that the opposite and fast motion will make the pinwheel move. It was a lot of fun, and a good way to pass the time during long summer vacations. If you want to know how to make a simple pinwheel for kids, then follow these instructions.

Making a Pinwheel

The stuff that you will need for making a simple pinwheel are:

• A square sheet of paper
• Scissors
• Marker
• Thumbtack
• Ruler
• A wooden stick (pencil will do)
• Glue

Step #1: To start making a simple pinwheel origami toy, hold the square sheet of paper, and from its center to the four corners draw lines. This means you will have to use marker and ruler along the two diagonals of the square paper sheet.

Step #2: Now cut the along the four lines till halfway using scissors. Now, hold the sheet of paper in front of you with the base straight line parallel to the edge of the table.

Step #3: Take the left edge of the first triangle cut out and place it in the center of the paper, and tilt the paper in an anti-clockwise direction, again making the next straight part of paper parallel to the table. Then again place the left edge of the triangle cut out on center, overlapping on the first cutout edge.

Step #4: This way place the ends of the other four triangular cut outs on the center too. Make sure you get this easy paper folding part right; it is quite simple, just work in anti-clockwise direction.

Step #5: Now, place a thumbtack pin in the center of the paper, to hold the pinwheel pattern together. Then hammer the thumbtack and pinwheel paper to the top edge of a wooden stick or a strong straw, place the pinwheel in a windy place and enjoy the show!

Pinwheel Patterns & Ideas

Above were the pinwheel directions to make a simple kids' craft pinwheel. Here, are some ideas to make different pinwheel paper crafts.

• Just like you made a simple pinwheel using one sheet of paper, you can also stack a longer sheet of pinwheel over a medium sheet of pinwheel, and a smaller sheet of pinwheel and then stick the thumbtack. This way you will have three different fans stacked on top of each other. You can color the three papers, with three different colors to make these pinwheel patterns look even more beautiful.
• You can also make circles starting from the center, till circles ending till the edge of the paper. These concentric circles, when used to make a pinwheel pattern, will give a hypnotizing effect.
• While making the above pinwheel pattern, you can divide the square sheet of paper into four parts and start coloring pages with different color, and then stick them using a thumbtack to create a 4 colored winged pinwheel.
• You can also experiment with other ideas of pinwheel patterns, by trying out different patterns of paper, different material of paper, more beautiful pins, or using colorful plastic rods, etc.

This was all about the pinwheel things to make with paper. So, follow the above instructions, but make sure that children are assisted by adults while cutting the paper and while hammering the pins into the rod.