Spin & Twist Tops

Have fun designing your own colorful tops with Crayola® Twistables™. How long can you make your tops spin?

1. Playing with tops is an ancient game. Find pictures of different sizes and shapes of tops. Play with tops to explore the way they spin. How does the design on the surface change as the tops spin?

2. To make your own tops, draw circles of various sizes with Crayola Erasable Colored Pencils on cardboard. Recycled cereal boxes are great sources for cardboard.

3. Use Crayola Scissors to carefully cut out the circles. Ask an adult to make a small hole in the center of each circle. Use the cardboard circles as patterns to trace matching circles on white paper.

4. With Crayola Twistables™, make bright designs on the paper circles. Try colorful spirals or broad and thin rings of color. Experiment with shapes such as a huge star or a roly-poly heart.

5. Choose your favorite designs. Use Crayola School Glue to glue the designs on top of the cardboard bases. Dry.

6. Ask an adult to help you carefully poke the sharpened points of colored pencils through the center of the circle where the holes were started. Push the circles up onto the pencils.

7. Experiment with moving the circle higher or lower to make the top spin longer. Test different sizes of circles to find the best spinner. See whether it makes a difference to use short or long colored pencils. Try layering two circles on a pencil. Watch how your designs seem to change as they spin. Can you create tops that draw as they spin?

Adult supervision is required for any arts & crafts project.

Adult Assistance is required for this arts & crafts project.

Scissors—ATTENTION: The cutting edges of scissors are sharp and care should be taken whenever cutting or handling. Blunt-tip scissors should be used only by children 4 years and older. Pointed-tip scissors should be used only by children 6 years and older.

Catch a Falling Star

Playful Polar Bear Toss

Give a Puzzled Heart

Crafts

crayola supplies

• Erasable Colored Pencils
• Twistables®
• No-Run School Glue
• Pointed Tip Scissors

household supplies

• white paper
• cardboard

"At my son's birthday party, his friends were so busy testing their tops that they could hardly stop for snacks."
Ebony W., mother of 9-year-old.

"Simple toothpicks and foam trays for top-making were a big hit during Bring Your Grandparents to the Museum Day."
Trevor M., tour guide.

Tops are a favorite toy all over the world. In England, they have been enjoyed since the 14th century. Native American children in the southwestern United States call tops "dancers" and keep them spinning by hitting them with strips of buckskin. In Asia, tops are sometimes made from conch shells, their pointed tips ground flat. The Japanese make tops which contain smaller tops that are released as the larger top spins. Hollow tops that hum or whistle are popular in some African countries.