Paper craft

Rotating Weather Wheel Scene

Challenge (level 5 of 5)
45 min
9 steps
Ages 9–14 (a guide, not a rule)

Uses scissors
Uses glue
Adult help suggested

Start Making Print with template

A wheel needs an axle. Here the axle is a folded paper strip: it passes through a diamond-shaped hole in the panel that is wider than the strip, so the wheel can turn, and its ends are glued only to the wheel. Turn the wheel by its bottom edge and the window shows a new kind of weather. No metal fasteners or sharp tools are used.

Before you start

You need

Card stock printed with sheet 1 (front panel, cap, pivot strip), 216 x 279 mm (8.5 x 11 in (Letter) or A4)
Card stock printed with sheet 2 (picture wheel), 216 x 279 mm (8.5 x 11 in (Letter) or A4). Thin card stock (about 160 g/m², 60 lb) keeps the wheel flat while it turns.
Blunt-tip scissors
Glue stick
Ruler (to check the scale bar)

Decorating (optional): The scene and the four weather pictures are printed. Add birds, a garden or your own weather to the empty parts of the wheel and panel.

No card stock printed with sheet 1 (front panel, cap, pivot strip)? A short paper drinking straw can be the axle: snip its ends into flaps and glue them flat to the wheel and cap.

For the grown-up: Help cut the window and the small diamond holes: they are cut from a fold. Check that no glue touches the panel at the pivot, or the wheel will not turn.

Use blunt-tip scissors and cut away from your fingers.

Do not use metal paper fasteners or pins; the folded paper pivot does the same job safely.

How to place the paper before the first step — **Your paper:** Print both sheets at 100% (Actual size) on card stock. Check that each 5 cm bar measures 5 cm.

Valley fold: blue dashes. Fold toward you, like a valley.
Mountain fold: pink dash-dot. Fold away from you, like a mountain.
Cut: a thick solid line with scissors.
Glue: a yellow area marked "glue".

Step by step

Each step shows what to do (left) and how it should look after (right).

Do this

Result

Step 1 of 9 Cut Cut out the front panel, the wheel, the cap circle and the pivot strip along their outer lines.
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Result

Step 2 of 9 Mountain fold Fold the panel in half along the dashed line with the picture outside: the left half goes behind.
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Result

Step 3 of 9 Cut Through both layers, cut out the half-window shape and the small half-diamond at the fold. Then open the panel flat.
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Result

Step 4 of 9 Cut Fold the wheel in half along its dashed line, pictures outside. Snip the small half-diamond at the center of the fold, then open it.
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Result

Step 5 of 9 Valley fold Fold the pivot strip in half.
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Result

Step 6 of 9 Put together From the front, push the two ends of the strip through the panel's diamond hole, then through the wheel's hole. The pictures face the panel. (A side view: the panel on the left, the wheel behind it, the folded strip in front.)
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Result

Step 7 of 9 Glue Behind the wheel, bend one strip end up and one down. Glue them flat to the back of the wheel only, not to the panel.
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Result

Step 8 of 9 Glue In front, rub glue on the strip's folded loop only and press the cap circle onto it. The panel stays free between cap and wheel.
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Result

Step 9 of 9 Check Hold the panel and push the bottom edge of the wheel sideways. The window shows sun, then rain, a rainbow and night. (Back to the front of the card.)

A paper landscape with a fan-shaped window in the sky showing a sun; a yellow cap marks the pivot and the colored wheel peeks out below.

You made it!

Yours may look a little different. That is part of making things by hand.

Print the steps

Template

Print the template at 100% (Actual size), not "Fit to page". Then measure the check bar with a ruler: it must be 5 cm (2 in) long.

Sheet 1: front panel, cap and pivot strip · 176 × 154 mm. The window is cut from a fold; the diamond hole is 10 mm across so the strip can turn. Print at 100%.
Sheet 2: picture wheel · 150 × 152 mm. The wheel is 140 mm (about 5.5 in) across. Print at 100%.

Print the template

If something goes wrong

The wheel will not turn.

Glue may have reached the panel. Check that the strip ends are glued only to the wheel and the cap only to the strip loop.

The wheel wobbles and the pictures slide off the window.

Pull the strip snug before gluing the ends, so the panel sits close between the cap and the wheel.

A picture shows upside down.

The wheel is in backward: its pictures must face the back of the panel.

The strip tore in the hole.

Cut a new strip from paper, fold it in half and push it through gently; a double strip is stronger.

Helpful hints

Turn the wheel by its edge, not by the cap.
Line up a picture with the window before the glue dries, so the sun shows when the card is closed.

An original PlayOwl project.