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Little Toys

By: Arvind Gupta; Illustrations by D. K. Sharma; Published by National Book Trust, India.

Climbing Butterfly :

As you alternately pull the two strings of this butterfly, it surprisingly climbs up. As soon as you release the tension on the strings, the butterfly slides down.

Make three pairs of small notches on an ice-cream stick as shown in the figure. Tie two strings of length 90 cm at the two ends and a small loop of thread in the middle notch of the ice-cream stick (Fig.1).

First flatten a tetrapack and then mark out a butterfly on its middle rectangular portion. Cut along the outline of the butterfly (Fig.2).

You will get two similar butterflies, each having silver inside and coloured outside. Cut a thick straw in half. Glue the two straws on the silver side of one butterfly with Fevibond as shown in (Fig.3).

The straws should not be parallel. When stuck they should be slightly tapering narrow at the top and slightly broad at the base. Now glue the second butterfly on to the first. Weave the threads through the side where the two ends of the straws are closer. Tie two small handles at the end of the strings (Fig.4).

Hang the middle loop on the ice-cream stick by a nail. Now as you pull the strings alternately, the butterfly climbs upwards (Fig.5). On releasing the tension in the strings, the butterfly slides down.