Lovely handmade crafts

Handmade spinning tops with everyday materials! Easy ideas you can enjoy for New Year’s too

10 years as a kindergarten teacher / elementary school teacher / junior and senior high school teacher / childminderkepiko
Graduated from Kunitachi College of Music, Faculty of Music (now: Department of Music Culture and Education, Early Childhood Music Education major). In elementary school, my homeroom teacher was Jun Kusaba, a game researcher. After graduating from university, I worked for 10 years as a kindergarten teacher and for 7 years as an after-school childcare instructor, then took a post as a music teacher at an international school in Singapore. In addition to music education, I also engaged in activities that shared Japanese culture, traditional games, and recreational play, working with many children. Afterwards, through freelance writing, planning, and editing work at Shogakukan, I met many delightful adults and experienced the joy of communicating and conveying ideas. Leveraging the perspective cultivated in educational settings and my experience as an editor, I aim to deliver practical information—focusing on fields related to music and children—that values both input and output. Hobbies include instruments, singing, handcrafts, toys, drawing, traditional play, the outdoors, books, DIY, and crafts. Special skill: spinning-top tricks.
Accompanist / Piano Instructoryuri
Accompanist pianist × piano instructor × web writer. I began piano lessons at age four and, inspired by my piano teacher, decided to pursue music. I went on to specialized music programs in high school and university, where I discovered the appeal of accompanying instrumentalists and singers. Currently, alongside teaching piano, I work mainly in my home region of Aichi as an accompanist for flute, voice, choir, and more. Through lessons, my students often introduce me to trending songs, and my hobby is trying anything on the piano—Japanese and Western pop, commercial jingles, and beyond. Since 2021, I’ve also been active as a web writer, covering music and a variety of other genres.

As New Year’s approaches, you may find yourself wondering what kinds of games to enjoy with the kids.

Here, we introduce ideas for handmade spinning tops that you can easily make using familiar materials found at home.

Using items like bouncy balls, paper plates, plastic bottle caps, and origami paper, you can make them right away without any special preparation.

They’re designed to be easy for small children to spin, and you can have fun decorating them in bright colors, so the excitement lasts from the making process through playtime.

This New Year, why not have both kids and adults try making spinning tops together?

Handmade spinning tops with everyday materials! A simple collection of ideas you can enjoy for New Year’s (51–60)

newspaper spinning top

#shorts Spinning Tops with Newspaper

newspaper spinning top

Let’s try making a spinning top using a newspaper you have at home! Amazingly, with this newspaper top, both the shaft and the body are made entirely from newspaper.

First, for the shaft, roll the newspaper tightly into a thin stick.

The key is to shape the tip of the shaft so it’s slightly pointed.

Next, wrap another long, thin strip of newspaper around the shaft.

Once you finish wrapping, slide the wrapped part slightly to create a small step so it forms the shape of a top—and you’re done! It’s surprisingly easy, so give it a try with a newspaper you have at home.

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Spinning top made from a milk carton

[Wakuwaku-san’s Craft Class] Perfect for New Year’s! Let’s make a big spinning top out of a milk carton!

Spinning top made from a milk carton

Let’s make a big spinning top using a milk carton you have at home! Cut off the bottom and the spout of the carton, open it up, and divide it into four equal sections.

Fold each section in half, arrange the four folded pieces in a tic-tac-toe shape, then pull the ends to form a pinwheel-like shape.

Next, sharpen one end of a chopstick with a craft knife and insert it through the center of the top.

Finally, cut the part you’ll spin to a suitable length, and you’ll have a very stable spinning top.

If you add colors or patterns, it looks beautiful when it spins! When pushing the chopstick through, be sure to check that your hand isn’t on the other side before you do it.

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paper tape spinning top

I made a spinning top with paper tape • Easy • Just wrap it tightly • Paper tape top • Colorful • New Year’s game ❤︎ DIY/tutorial/How to make a spinning top/paper tape ❤︎ #605

paper tape spinning top

Did you know you can make a spinning top out of ribbon-like paper tape? Speaking of paper tape, it used to be the stuff that connected travelers departing by ship with the people seeing them off.

Then again, many people today may not know about that custom.

It’s said that this paper-tape farewell was popularized when a Japanese trading company sold it at the 1915 Panama–Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco as a substitute for a parting handshake, and it became a hit around the world.

This top is made by wrapping the tape around a rod-shaped core.

If you change colors partway through, it looks very beautiful when it spins.

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Hirakawa Masako (Bōkarisuto: Sakata Mizumako)

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CD spindle

[Craft] Let's make a spinning top with a CD!

CD spindle

Since CDs always spin when they’re played, they might be the number one easiest thing to spin.

If you prepare blank white CDs, there are computer programs that let you add designs to the disc surface, so you could try adding patterns that way.

Or maybe you have CDs you already own but no longer listen to—when you spin them, they might look very beautiful.

Making one is very simple: just press a marble into the hole in the center of the CD from above and secure it with tape.

It’s easy, so give it a try.

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Hirakawa Masako (Bōkarisuto: Sakata Mizumako)

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Handmade Tops with Everyday Materials! Simple Ideas You Can Enjoy for New Year’s (61–70)

origami spinning top

[3 sheets of origami] Let's make an origami spinning top!

origami spinning top

When it comes to homemade toys, many are made from recycled materials and household items like milk cartons or wooden chopsticks.

But sometimes you don’t conveniently have those at home, or you can’t gather enough for playtime at daycare or kindergarten, right? In those cases, how about making a spinning top out of origami? This top uses three sheets of origami paper, so the steps are a bit numerous and it might seem difficult, but if you follow the steps slowly, you’ll be fine.

Try using three different colors of origami paper to make a colorful and cute spinning top.

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In conclusion

Handmade spinning tops using familiar materials are not only perfect for New Year’s play, but can be enjoyed by people of all ages, from children to adults. You can easily make them with items you have at home—like paper cups, origami paper, or jelly cups—so why not give it a try over the New Year? Watching the colors and patterns change as they spin, competing to see which one spins the longest, and both the making process and the playtime will surely become memorable experiences.