I know most of us are over the fidget spinners. Right? So, I decided to take some of the fun out of them by turning it into a project! I had my kids examine their fidget spinners and discuss the various parts. Why does it spin so long? How can we make something similar using only the supplies we have in the classroom? We made several different versions. (I forgot to take pics of the failures.) . This was one project that the kids didn't mind going through the design/test process repeatedly! They really wanted to make a fidget spinner that worked especially my kids who didn't own a spinner.
Here's how we made it. We cut a large craft stick almost in half and used a fingernail file to smooth out the corners. Then we used a pair of scissors (teacher only job) to make a round hole in the center. Add a straw with a bit of hot glue to hold it in place. We snipped the end of the plastic ink tube (from inside the pen). We added a dot of glue to each thumbtack and attached it all together. We experimented with different weights, but pennies were the only weight we had handy in the classroom that could be easily attached to the spinners.
The kids loved this project and kept them busy on one of the last days of school!