Paper craft · Challenge · about 45 minutes
Rotating Weather Wheel Scene
Uses scissors · Uses glue · Adult help suggested
- 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)
- Blunt-tip scissors
- Glue stick
- Ruler (to check the scale bar)
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.
Safety: Use blunt-tip scissors and cut away from your fingers.
Safety: Do not use metal paper fasteners or pins; the folded paper pivot does the same job safely.
Blue dashes: valley fold (toward you). Pink dash-dot: mountain fold (away from you). Thick line with scissors: cut. Yellow: glue.
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Start. Print both sheets at 100% (Actual size) on card stock. Check that each 5 cm bar measures 5 cm.
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1. Cut: Cut out the front panel, the wheel, the cap circle and the pivot strip along their outer lines.
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2. Mountain fold: Fold the panel in half along the dashed line with the picture outside: the left half goes behind.
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3. 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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4. 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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5. Valley fold: Fold the pivot strip in half.
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6. 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.
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7. 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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8. 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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9. Check: Hold the panel and push the bottom edge of the wheel sideways. The window shows sun, then rain, a rainbow and night.
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.