Sam Squirrel's Activity Page 07

This month I thought you would like to try and make a whizzing disc.

You will need some stiff card about 10 centimetres square and about 1 metre of thin string.

First you need to draw a circle onto the card - like this.

Then you cut teeth all around the edge, you may need an adult to help you with this.

This is a picture of the one that Father human made. He cut 36 teeth in this disc, which is one degree per tooth.

Next you thread the string through two holes 1 centimetre apart in the middle of the disc. You can see the outline of the string in the picture.

Plan view

Here the disc is in blue and the string is in red.

You take an end of the string in each hand and twirl the disc round so the string winds up.

Then you pull your hands apart so the disc unwinds the string.

The disc will want to wind the string up in the opposite direction and you will have to let your hands ease together a bit to let it do that.

It's a bit like a side-to-side yo-yo action. Your hands will be alternately pulling and easing.

Once you get the knack of it the disc will be spinning quite fast and will make a whizzing noise.

Paints

You can paint your disc with different colours and see the effects.

I hope you are successful and enjoy the results.

See you again.