How To Make a Thaumatrope (or Mini–movie)

Read all of the steps before starting.

Step 1: Project Preparation (Cut Circles)

Depending upon the ages and abilities of the children, precut 1½-inch circles from the cardstock—one or more for each child. Use a compass or small lid to accurately trace the circle. Use a hole punch if you have one that cuts circles between 1½ and 2 inches. Or you can cut squares with a paper trimmer, but circles work best.

Step 2: Draw Pictures

On one side of the circle draw a cloud and on the other side draw a lightning bolt. Color the images with pencils, crayons or markers—make the background sky blue.

Other design possibilities for the two images are a bird and a birdcage, cut flowers and a vase, two words, an airplane and a runway, or two balloons. Use your imagination to think of two images that when combined will make an interesting new image. Small rubberstamps, pictures cut from old magazines or clipart are other sources of images.

Tip: If your images have an up and down they need to be lined up with one of them upside-down or the magical illusion won't work properly.

Step 3: Punch Holes

Use the tip of your scissors (or an awl or eighth inch hole punch) to punch two holes on opposite sides the circle—left and right.

Step 4: Attach Strings

Cut two lengths of string about 10-inches long. Thread a piece of string through one hole and tie the ends together to form a loop. Repeat for the other hole.

Step 5: Magical Illusion

Spin the disk by twirling the strings between the thumb and index finger of each hand. Like magic, the lightning bolt and cloud appear together.

How does it work?
Your eye holds the image of a thing for a split second after it is gone. So after the cloud disappears, its image is still in your eye when the lightning bolt appears. You see both images together. Movies work in much the same way with one frame after another being superimposed in your eye to create the illusion of motion.