We made these simple wooden tops at the preschool earlier this month.
With wooden wheels, wooden dowels, a pencil sharpener, paint and sandpaper this sweet toy can be made in less than ten minutes.
- pre-cut the wooden dowels into about three-inch sticks (make sure the dowel fits snugly in the hole on the wheel!)
- give the wheel an acrylic paint wash (water down the paint to just lightly stain the wood the color of choice)
- while the wheel is drying, use a pencil sharpener to sharpen one of the ends of the dowel into a point
- use sandpaper to smooth out any rough spots
- lightly hammer the dowel into the wheel-no glue necessary
- then spin, spin, spin
I loved all the little hands busy with the sandpaper.
Learning how to spin the top can be quite a challenge for some, but with practice they had the tops going well into the afternoon.
