Pinwheels are a fun craft and also a way to introduce the idea of wind power to young children. Green energy is a great topic on Earth Day!

You can use the templates I've provided or design your own using:

• construction paper and stickers
• fun foam, or
• thin pieces of plastic (like one would use for overhead projectors)

Fun foam ones are nice and sturdy, but you'll need to use straight pins instead of push pins to make them.

Materials:

• paper,
• printer,
• something to color with,
• pencil with eraser at the end (unsharpened is best, I think)
• push pin or straight pin
• Optional:  a small bead (like a pony bead).

Instructions:

• Fold on the dashed line to make a square decorated on both sides.
• Note:  At this point, you can put a piece of thin cardboard or construction paper between the two halves to make your pinwheel a bit sturdier.
• Glue the sides so you have a square decorated on both sides.
• Cut on the diagonal dotted lines (don't cut all the way into the middle).
• Bend each corner to the center dot, but don’t crease your folds.
• Push a pin through the center into the eraser of a pencil (don't push it super tight).
• Optional: Put a bead in between the eraser and the paper ... some people find it spins a bit better this way...  I've never noticed the difference (maybe it's the type of pencil eraser?  I use fresh, unsharpened school pencils).
• Blow the edge of your pinwheel to make it spin (if it doesn't spin, loosen your pin a little or wiggle it around to make the hole in the paper bigger)

Templates:

• Close the template window after printing to return to this screen.
• Set page margins to zero if you have trouble fitting the template on one page (FILE, PAGE SETUP or FILE, PRINTER SETUP in most browsers).

Pinwheel template 1 (Planet Earth)           color  or   B&W

Pinwheel template 2 (Recycling Symbol)  color  or   B&W

Print friendly version of these instructions