A beautiful windmill high on a hill in the middle of field caught the attention of my nephew one day while we were driving in the country. He asked me what made the windmill turn, so I began to explain to him how it worked. He was interested, but not as thrilled as he was when I told him we could make our own windmills when we got home. After we made them we couldn’t wait to take them outside to the backyard and see how fast the wind would make them turn.

Instructions

1) Draw a 5.5-inch square box on any color piece of construction paper and cut it out.

2) Take the same square you just cut out and cut a 2.5- inch straight line from each of the four corners toward the center of the square. You will end up with a square with four attached triangles.

3) Punch a hole in the top right corner of each of the four triangles. Punch a hole directly in the center of the square. Color and decorate each triangle.

4) Now pull each hole in the triangles down to the center hole, leaving a gap where the wind can come through. When all the holes are matched, place the pushpin through the center hole and into the eraser of the pencil. We used the same construction paper to decorate the pencil.

Holly Harrison is a regular contributor to this magazine. Address comments, questions or craft suggestions to editor@lowcountryparent.com.