How to Use This Book All the toys in this book were made by children. They are not like the ones you can buy in most shops. These toys are made of simple everyday materials, based on folk toys created by toymakers from different parts of India. When we made the toys, different age groups reacted differently. The younger children were happy just making and playing with their toys. The older ones were much more curious to find out how they worked. And some of the adults wanted to know more about the toys and how children played. So we designed this book to be used by different age groups. This does not mean that the divisions have to be followed strictly. You may belong to a particular age group and find yourself interested in other sections as well. If so, go ahead and dip into the book in any order you choose. If You are Below 12 For each toy, these are the sections meant for you, which will tell you how to make the toy and play with it. The other sections are for older children and adults. Of course, if you find them interesting, feel free to read them. This is how we have divided your section. What it is made of Under this heading, you will find a list of the materials you need to make the toy. If you cannot find the material we have used, try using something similar instead. For instance, if you do not have chart paper, you can use thin cardboard. Just make sure it has similar qualities, like thickness or the way it bends. How it is made Here, we explain how to make the toy, step by step. Each step is illustrated. The first time you do it, try to follow the instructions exactly. Later, you can try out variations. For example, you can turn a Break-dancer into a bird, or a Jitter-bug into a monkey. What is does This tells you how to make your toy work. When it doesn't Sometimes a toy does not do what it is supposed to Maybe there is nothing wrong with the way you made it, you may just need some practice to get it to work. Or you may need to pay special attention to a particular step in making it. Here we tell you where you might have gone wrong in making the toy Games, Jokes, Stories and Tricks After we made the toys, some of the children were content just to play with them. Others came up with all kinds of other ways of using the toys. We have included them in this section, to give you ideas on what you can invent. If you are 13-16 Many of the principles that you have learnt in science can be seen actually at work in these toys. This section explains some complex scientific phenomena using the toys. A Scientific Principle Here we explain the main principles on which the toy works. Sometimes, if there are too many different physical laws at work, we have only talked about the most significant of them, to avoid making it too complicated. You will find that some of the toys, but not all, have diagrams that show the forces that are acting on the toy. We have drawn diagrams only if they help in clearly illustrating the principle. Try Here, we have suggested variations that you could try with the toy. Some of the variations give the toy a different look, others use the basic principle to make new toys. We have suggested experimenting with different dimensions, proportions and materials. Observe the changes in the way the toy works with these variations, and try to figure out why this happens. Think Once you know how the toy works, it is interesting to connect these principles to phenomena we find around us. For instance, the Screech works just like our vocal chords do. You might also be able to connect the way a toy works to what you are learning in class, either directly or indirectly. We have asked some questions to help you to think about these things. Hint: here we do not give you the answers, but leave you with a clue. If you are an adult The experience of making these toys with children led us to reflect on toys and play in today's world. This is something we rarely think about-after all, children have always played, with our without adult encouragement. Do we really need to spend time on something, which comes so naturally to children? Should not we, in fact, concentrate on getting them interested in more productive activities? On the contrary. Play is essential for children, it is the business of life. It enables them to be creative in unstructured, imaginative and individual ways. Our observations also convinced us that parents and educators today need to be concerned about the ways in which their children play, and the toys they play with. Because the quality of play-which we have always considered as innate in children-has changed in our times, particularly in affluent urban areas. Although we are led to believe that children today have it far better than a generation ago, we need to find out if this is really so. For one, many have too little time and space to play. Secondly, active play has been increasingly taken over by entertainment. And thirdly, a lot of play these days centers around expensive toys and games, with the media and the toy industry pressurizing children into believing that they need all these commodities. We cannot expect young children to deal with these pressures on their own. They need adult guidance This section of the book is intended to enable the concerned adult to make such informed choices. It discusses a number of current issues related to toys and play, in the context of larger pedagogical and social concerns. Our effort in this book is to bring back the now forgotten quality of play which arises from making and playing with folk toys, using everyday materials. We do not suggest that this is the only answer to today's consumerist culture that would be both romantic and impractical. As the section on the decline of traditional toy making demonstrates, a genuine revitalizing of this dying tradition is possible only with concerted action at many levels. Yet we do believe that these wonderful toys are a potent symbol of the direction we need to take. They revive many qualities we do not value today: simplicity, ingenuity and a sheer delight in play which is not tied up with expensive products. In the final analysis, we would like the reader to look at what is valuable and living in such traditions, and examine contemporary choices in that light. Contents   Screech Toys that Make Noise A Buzz 14 Buzz, Buzzer, Buzzest 16 Frequency of Sound 17 The Decline of Folk Toymaking 18 Screech 19 Sound Effects 20 Vibration of Membranes 21 Twenty-five Things 22 Stitch-n-time 23 Rhythm Band 25 Transport Mechanism 26 Short-lived Toys 27 Croakerdile 28 The French Connection 30 Transmission and Amplification of Sound 31 Things which Became Toys 32 Flute-hoot 33 Moody Toy? 35 Vibration of a Reed 36 Process and Product 37 A Hum 38 A Koan 40 Fluttering Caused by Air Flow 41 A New Year Gift 42 Rat-a-tat 43 The Penguin Game 45 Conversion of Mechanical Energy into Sound 46 True Interaction 47 Rock And Roll Toys that Dance Break-dancer 50 Thirst Prize 52 Centre of Gravity 53 A Material Difference 54 Jitter-bug 55 The Jittery Monkey 57 Friction and Elasticity 58 Play and Learning 59 Twist 60 The Sad Clown 62 Centrifugal Force 63 Truly Boring 64 Be-bop 65 Frog Race 66 Conversion of Stored Energy into Kinetic Energy 67 Contemporary Tradition 68 Rock-n-roll 69 Son of an Owl? 71 Stable Position 72 Magic and the Mystery of Function 73 POP UP Toys which Play Tricks Clap-trap 76 A Practical Joke 78 Conversion of Kinetic Energy into Sound 79 Playing a Practical Joke 80 Flower-power 81 Magic Show 83 Two-way Hinge 85 Magic 86 Pop-Up 87 Hair Today Gone Tomorrow 89 Folding and Unfolding 91 Imagination and Imitation 92 SPINNING SARDINES Toys that Move With the Wind Retpocileh 94 A Surprise 96 Turning Force: Vertical Axis 97 Physics, Biology, Technology…What is a Toy? 98 Flutter-fly 99 The Race of the Pig and the Beetle 101 The Bernoulli Principle 102 Play Value 103 Spinning Sardine 104 Last is First 105 Turning Force: Horizontal Axis 106 Traditional Play 107 Naf 108 Naf-a-thon 109 Rotation Due to Air-Flow 110 For Boys and Girls 111 SHOOT A REEL Toys That Need Skill Huff-n-puff 114 Who is the Huffiest of Them All? 115 Air Pressure and Smooth Air Flow 116 Changing the Rules of the Game 117 Pencycle 118 Pencycle Games 120 Centrifugal and Centripetal Forces 121 Toys Without Form 122 Coma-toes 123 Round and Round 125 Conservation of Energy 126 What is Play? 127 Yankee 128 The Mystery of the Missing Pulp 130 Rotational Momentum 131 Documenting Tradition 132 Creep-jeep 133 Cable Car Race 135 Friction 136 Playing the Game 137 Shootareel 138 Fun and Games 140 Energy Conversion 141 Violent Toys 142

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