Make Pinwheels with Your Grandchildren

Pinwheels!

That means it’s springtime.  Soon to be summer.

There’s no better time than the present to spend some time making pinwheels with your grandchildren.

I decided that I would make a pinwheel pattern to share with all of my wonderful grandmother friends so they could make pinwheels with all of their wonderful grandchildren. I made a papa-sized pattern and a baby-sized pattern.

Pinwheels are easy to make. Using the pattern, cut a square from some paper. Cut on along the diagonal lines. With a hole punch, punch holes where the dots are on the pattern. Use scissors to make a small hole in the center of the pinwheel.

With a hole punch, make a hole at one end of a plastic drinking straw. (Preferable an unused drinking straw. But, hey, if you want a pinwheel on a straw sticky from soda pop, that’s your choice . . .)

Bend the corners of the paper with the holes toward the center. Align the holes and push the ends of a brad fastener through all of the holes. Push the end of the fastener through the hole in the straw. Bend back the ends of the fastener. And there you have it. Your fabulous pinwheel.

There. Simple, huh?

Well, that’s what I thought this activity would be. Simple. Quick. Piece o’ cake.

Ha!

After several hours of frustration, let me share with you what I learned.

• Scrap booking paper is colorful and bright and fun to use.  (It’s hard to tell but my red pinwheel has purple tyrannosaurus rex dinosaurs on it.) But pinwheels made out of scrap book paper don’t spin easily in the wind or when you blow on them.
• Using a brad on a straw doesn’t work too swell, either. The pinwheel doesn’t freely spin.
• Plain white copy paper (what we grandmothers know as typing paper) spins the best. If you use this, your grandchildren can use their creativity and color their own designs on the paper.
• Using a straight pin to attach the pinwheel (made out of typing paper) to a pencil eraser works great.
• The straight pin might be longer than what you want. If that’s the case, hold the pin with a pair of pliers. Bend it back and forth until the pin breaks (where you are bending it). This will shorten the pin and be better for your pinwheel.
• If you use a colorful pencil, it’s not as drab and boring as a plain yellow No. 2 pencil.
• When taking a picture in my family room that has amber colored light fixtures, the pictures have a yellow cast to them. And, there are tons of shadows in the picture. It would be far better to take the picture using natural lighting (meaning in the daytime — but I’m at work then. Phooey!)