Printable: Lovebird Spinner

Sweet Lovebirds

This week’s Special Wonder is dedicated to Love Belle‘s special little friends: lovebirds. Aren’t they adorable? Have you seen them on Love Belle‘s page? See what happens when you click on them!

Lovebirds are small parrots, which live mainly in Africa. They’re called lovebirds because they stay with their partners for a very long time and love to cuddle up to each other! You can keep them as pets, but they like to have lots of toys to play with – especially mirrors - and you need to keep them company or they get bored. Love birds are cute, but they’re brainy, too!

Love Belle thought you might like to play with her fun lovebird toy – you can spin it round and make her lovebirds kiss!

It’s called a thaumatrope (which means ‘wonder turner’ in Ancient Greek). In Victorian times, children used to play with them a lot! Just spin it around and you’ll see the magic start to happen, as the two pictures on either side become one. Here’s how you do it…

Love Belle's Wonder Spinners

Make Love Belle’s Lovebird Wonder Spinners!

You need

Paper
Scissors
Glue
Blu-Tack or towel
Needle
Cotton
Chopstick or pencil

  • Print out Love Belle’s Wonder Spinners pdf and cut out the two circles.
  • Glue the circles together to make a disc – the birds should be the right way up and the hearts should be upside down.
  • Put the disc on top of a ball of Blu-Tack or a folded up towel and use a big needle to prick holes through each of the four dots.
  • Thread cotton through one hole, loop it through the hole next to it and pull it through. Make sure both sides of the cotton are the same length and tie a knot in the end.
  • Use another piece of cotton to do the same on the other side.
  • Spin the disc around and around so that the cotton gets tightly twisted on both sides, then pull the cotton on both sides to make the disc spin. Can you see the love hearts coming out of the kissing birdies? Isn’t it sweet?
  • For an even easier version of this toy, cut out the heart shapes and glue them together at the top of a chopstick or pencil. Spin the stick or pencil back and forwards in your hand and you’ll see two birds sitting together!

We hope you enjoy playing with this fab little toy - and making the lovebirds kiss! Have a fab week from the Magic Belles in Bellevue! xxx

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