Patriotic Pinwheel

What You Need:

• 8" x 8" piece of white paper
• Long pin
• Unsharpened pencil with eraser
• Bead
• Scissors
• Ruler
• Pencil
• Red and blue markers or crayons
• A small American flag, or a picture of one

What You Do:

1. Have your child color both sides of the 8" x 8” square of paper. On one side, use a pencil to draw five-pointed stars, and then color around them in blue crayon or pen. On the other side, use a ruler to mark out thick red stripes, alternating with white space. (As your child works, teach them about the history behind the flag's design. Show them a small American flag, or a picture of one, and point to the stars and stripes. Remind your child that this flag was one of America's first symbols of independence. An easy-to-understand way to explain the colonists' rebellion against England is to compare England to an older sibling telling a younger one what to do and demanding that they give them their allowance. The colonists wanted to make their own rules, and to provide for their own needs. They wanted to become an independent country. We celebrate the Fourth of July because it's the anniversary of the birth of the United States of America.)
2. Use the pencil and ruler to draw lines from corner to corner of your paper, and point out how this turns your square into four equal triangles. Then cut on the lines towards the middle, stopping about half an inch from the middle. You will have made four cuts across the square. If your child wants to “do the cutting,” make sure to draw horizontal “stop lines” on the corner lines to show them where to cease cutting!
3. Have your child draw a small “x” on the right corner of each of the four sections. With your child's help, bend the marked points of each section toward the middle and push a pin through them at the middle. If you find this step difficult to complete, here's another way to do this. Work with one corner at a time, pushing the needle through the paper to hold each section until you’ve bent over each of the four sections.
4. Slide a bead onto the pin and then push the pin into the eraser of the unsharpened pencil. Have your child blow on the pinwheel. Explain to them that the power of wind makes it spin. Happy Fourth of July!