This craft activity is great for a windy, spring day. It’s would be a great Pentecost Sunday School craft. The children will make a pinwheel to teach them about how God is a spirit. A lesson can be taught, followed by making the craft and the children will finish by playing with their pinwheels outside. Click here to leave your comments or suggestions about this craft idea.
Target Age: 2nd-5th grade
Key Verse: John 3:8 “The wind blows where it wishes and you hear the sound of it, but do not know where it comes from and where it is going; so is everyone who is born of the Spirit.”
Time Needed: 20 minutes for the craft only (The children may spend a long time decorating their pinwheel. The length of craft depends on how detailed your children will want to decorate. You know your children best and can judge how long this craft will take.)
Materials Needed:
- One square piece of heavy construction paper per child
- One pair of scissors per child
- One thumb tack per child
- One pencil (with an eraser) per child, preferably brand new
- Crayons, colored pencils, and stickers for decorating the pinwheels
Procedure:
- Fold the construction paper on the diagonal from corner to corner. Open the paper up and fold on the second diagonal across the other two corners. When the paper is opened flat, the folds make an “X” across the square.
- Make one cut along each fold beginning at the corner and cutting toward the center. The cut should stop about halfway toward the center. The cut should not go all the way to the center of the square.
- Decorate each section of the square on both sides of the heavy construction paper using the materials provided.
- Take every other corner, one at a time and gently pull it up to the center of the square.
- When all four corners meet at the center, take the thumb tack and push it through all four corners through the center of the square.
- Push the thumb tack through the eraser of the pencil.
- Blow on the pinwheel and watch it spin!
Use this craft to teach the children about how we can hear and feel the wind, but we cannot see it. We can see the results of the wind, but we cannot see the wind itself. Relate this to God. We can hear His voice through His Word and feel His peace, comfort, joy, etc. We cannot see Him, but we can see the results of His work.
If you are using this for your Pentecost Craft in Sunday School, be sure to see our other resources to help you explain Pentecost for children.
Tips:
- I recommend using a square which is 6 inches or smaller in diameter. You want the length from one corner to the center of the square to be shorter than the pencil.
- The thicker the paper you choose to use, the more sturdy the pinwheel will be. Thick paper will better withstand to the wind and blowing by a child.
- Do not push the thumb tack all the way through the pencil eraser causing the pinwheel to attach tightly to the pencil. If pushed in too tightly the pinwheel will not turn.
- Here is another website we found with helpful illustrations of folding the pinwheel.
