Make a Kaleidoscope

Explore light, reflections, and symmetry, courtesy of BuggyandBuddy.com

Materials

• Empty toilet paper roll

• Mylar sheets

• Scissors

• Tape

• White cardstock

• Bendy straw

• Markers, stickers, paint - whatever you’d like to decorate with

Directions

1. Paint your cardboard tube (for decoration)

2. Cut your mylar sheets into three strips - should fit snuggly in your cardboard tube (about 9.7cm x 3.5 cm)

3. Line up your mylar strips, leave a tiny space between each one. (Place the shiniest/least scratched sides face down.) Tape them together over the spaces

4. Fold the taped mylar into a triangular prism and tape along the top to hold in place (prism should fit snugly inside your tube)

5. Cut off the bendy end of a straw

6. Tape it along the top of your tube with the flexible part of the straw hanging over the edge

7. Cut out 3 circles from cardstock each circle should be about 3.75 inches in diameter

8. Poke a hole in the center of your circle

9. Decorate the circle using markers, stickers, crayons etc. Play with different shapes & letters

10. Place the circle onto your straw with the design facing the kaleidoscope. You want the hole to fit over the flexible portion of the straw so it will turn easily

11. Look into your kaleidoscope and explore all the reflections created by your design

adapted from BuggyandBuddy.com