Halloween // Spinning paper toy

I love thaumatropes. They have been around forever and make very cool toys. All you need is some paper, a stick (or straw), some sticky tape and five spare minutes. If you haven’t got a printer then you can draw your own.

I used to live in Fremantle (Western Australia) so I made a redback version too!

If you fancy having a go you will find the files at the foot of the post as usual. There are also some other non-Halloween designs here.

PRINTABLE FILES
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Each file makes two thaumatropes
Spider thaumatrope
Redback thaumatrope

YOU WILL NEED:
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Good quality A4 paper
Scissors
Glue
Stick/straw

HOW TO
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1. Print out your thaumatropes. Set your printing preferences to ‘text & image’ or ‘photo’. Cut around the outside of your thaumatrope.

2. Take your straw and carefully stick the spider to one side of the stick and the web to the other side of the stick. You can use glue or sellotape.

3. Put your stick between your flat palms and spin your stick. Can you put the spider back in his web?