#NoddyChallenge Make your own Noddy Thaumatrope (Flipstick)

When my boys were younger, they loved Noddy. It was a regular part of our day to sit and watch Noddy on the TV and sing along to the theme tune. They had Noddy toys, jigsaw puzzles, figures and so on.

So it's great to see Noddy making yet another brilliant comeback so Miss T can enjoy it.

As part of the #NoddyChallenge we wanted to make a Noddy craft that was fun and simple enough for anyone to make and yet had an element of learning to it too.

I remember being fascinated by the concept of how a 'Thaumatrope' works by tricking the eye to look like a moving picture. It is a similar principle to the old-fashioned zoetropes you may have seen in museums (the circular spinning things with still images all the way round which when spun look like a moving image). Even good old flip-books work in the same way.

The science bit is to do with 'persistence of vision' where the perception of the object continues even after the object moves/changes and so the sequence of images appear to blend together into a moving image.

So despite having the posh name of a thaumatrope, it's actually quite simple and lots of fun to make. We called it a flipstick to make it easier for Miss T.

You'll need:
2 paper plates
A rigid straw or stick
Some coloured paper or card (ideally pink or cream for Noddy's face, and blue for his hat)
4 googly eyes (we've used two smaller and two bigger ones to look different on each side)
2 small bells or beads to look like the bell on Noddy's hat
Some felt pens, glue or double-sided sticky tape and sellotape
Scissors

Miss T needed a bit of help with the cutting but she was able to help put it all together.

Instructions:
1) Cut out:

• two circles from the pink paper for Noddy's face and 4 ear shapes.
• two identical blue hat shapes from the blue paper. 
• 6 small yellow circles (as decorative buttons) 

2) Using sellotape, place the stick on the back of one of the paper plates and stick firmly into place.
3) Using glue or double-sided tape, stick the other plate back-to-back onto the first plate to cover the stick. You may need some extra sellotape around the edges to hold them firmly together.
4) Now you can stick on your Noddy faces, ears, and hats to each side. We flipped the hat over on one side to give the illusion of movement.
5) Stick on the bell or bead to each side as well as the googly eyes. We used bigger eyes on one side to help with the illusion of Noddy's surprised face.
6)  Draw on any extra features like Noddy's hair, nose, eyebrows and mouth. We drew a smile on one side and a surprised mouth on the other side.  You can also write 'Noddy' in colourful writing too.

7) A few yellow 'buttons' adds an extra bit of colour to the flipstick.

Then you're ready to test it out. Holding the stick in your hands twizzle it quickly and due to 'persistence of vision' it should a appear like a moving image of Noddy's hat / head moving side to side and his face going from a smile to surprise and back to a smile again.

Miss T loved it! Here's a teeny video showing how it works:



This is our entry into the #NoddyChallenge Blogger challenge with Tots100 and The Book People. You can find out more here.