Paper Plate Animation
When is a paper plate not a paper plate? When it's a zoetrope. Here's how you make one.
- You will need: two paper plates, scissors, a pencil, a small rubber animal stamp, a stamp pad, tape, and a mirror.
- Fold the paper plate in half, unfold it, and cut a slit in the outside edge of the plate about 1/8 inch wide and 1 inch long at each end of the fold. Make another fold in the plate perpendicular to the first fold. Unfold it and cut two more slits. Continue until you have eight evenly spaced slits about 2 inches apart.
- Put this plate over a new plate, mark the same slits, and cut them. On this new plate, put one animal stamp in between each pair of slits.
- Can you make your animal throw a ball? First draw the ball in its hands. Then in each frame draw the ball a little higher in the air. (Once you've got the hang of it, you can draw your own designs!)
- Stick the pencil point through the center of each plate (where the folds intersect) so that the slits and the two holes line up exactly and your pencil can slide in and out.
- Tape the edges of the two plates together back to back so that the stamp images are on the outside and all the slits are lined up. (Taping the plates together will make your zoetrope sturdy.) Flatten out your zoetrope and get ready for action.
- Hold the zoetrope with the animal-stamp side facing the mirror. Balance the pencil eraser on your chin, and spin the plate. Look into the mirror through the slits as they spin by. What happens?
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