The theme for this week in topic was toys that create an illusion. The children were fascinated by this. We progressed from simple thaumatropes to slightly more complex movie wheels. These are both early examples of animation. If you wish to make more of these yourself visit this site.

I can't think of anything better to do on a sunny Wednesday afternoon than what you see below.

Today we created another toy that flies. Again there was a lot of science behind it. Unfortunately we didn't get any photos or video of this afternoon's learning but the video below shows what we did and the science behind it.

We kicked this off this afternoon with one of many examples of toys that fly. The tumble glider results from a simple bit of paper folding to shape a wing that tumbles as it gently descends to the ground. By walking behind it with a large, flat object, an updraft is created to keep it aloft.