Hello, my name is Kate and I am from Calligraphy Circus, and today I'm going to teach you how to make your very own set of juggling balls. And we're also going to go through some tips and tricks on how to begin juggling. So you're going to need to collect quite a few materials today to make your juggling balls, and then let's get started.

Okay, so hopefully you all have your materials ready to go. So you now have some rice or something that is quite similar. You have a funnel and you also have a cup for it and we have six balloons and a pair of scissors. Now, if you are a little bit younger and you haven't quite got used to using scissors yet, make sure you get help from either an older sibling or a grownup for this one.

So the first thing we're going to do is we're going to pick out three balloons that are going to be out of base colours, and you won't see this colour very much and we're going to blow them up and then we're going to let all the air come out. Okay. So we're going to give them last week blow.
(blowing up balloons) 

And letting all the air come out each one.

(music) 

Perfect. So now these three balloons that were just filled with air and released, we're going to attach on one onto the end of the funnel. Now we're going to fill up a cup; well, just a little bit of rice. So I popped that in there and I'm going to gently pour this through my funnel and let it go into the balloon.

You'll find the balloon will fill up quite quickly and all of your rice will stay in. I don't know if you can see in the top of the funnel, so we need to create some space for the rest of the rice. So I like to push the funnel down and you're going to try and squish all of that rice into your juggling ball.

And it's up to you, how big you want to make your juggling ball. If you have quite small hands, you can make a small juggling ball. If you're a little bit older, you might like a bigger juggling ball, but you get to choose how big, how small, what colours. It's your very own juggling ball design so, that's it.

We're going to make sure I fill that nice and full. And I've got just a tiny bit more rice here.

And then you want to make sure all your rice is in the balloon before you take the funnel off. Okay. So you don't get a rice explosion everywhere. So then we're going to make sure that all of that rice is below the tail line. So this is our little tail and we're going to push all the rice in. Now we're going to trim our little tail off.

So we can trim, trim, trim. And I going to put that in the bin. Okay. So the next step we need to put the cover over the top. So I'm going to put a lovely cut fully pink over the top. So now I'm going to trim the tail off this one. And then again, I can put that tail in the bin and then I'm going to stretch this cover up and go over the top of the little opening. So we're going to stretch it over all the way over the top, and then you're going to shape it the way you'd like it.

And now we have our very basic juggling ball, but sometimes they can get a little bit odd shaped so I like to keep adding a few more layers in. So, uh, you need six balloons to make your base version, but if you would like to decorate with more colours, you will need more balloons and we're gonna keep going.

So I'm going to trim another one. We can also, um, cut some holes in your balloons so that you end up with this kind of pattern with all the colours sticking out. I'm just going to cover my up with it. Even trying to create a nice round a juggling ball. Excellent. Alright. So that is my first juggling ball finished and you can choose which colours and what designs you would like to do.

And now I'm going to continue on and make two more. Exactly the same. Okay.

(music) 

Okay. We now have our three juggling balls. Now, remember, I've done a few layers of balloons today to get them nice and round, and even you can keep going and keep decorating them and creating little cutouts by snipping little parts of the balloon to make all different circles and shapes, and you get all your colours showing through so you can go through and make them as beautiful as you like, or as simple as you like either is totally fine. And they're both functional. So, now we're going to pack up all about things and we're going to learn how to juggle. 

Okay. So now that we've made our juggling balls, we are going to learn some of the basic steps on how to juggle. So before we get started, make sure that you have a nice, clear space around you and that if you've got some lights hanging above and things like that, and make sure you move away from them.

Cause we're going to be throwing the ball up into the air and we don't want to hit anything. The best place to juggle is probably outside when you're first, first learning so that you can't knock anything over in the house. So make sure you got a nice, clear space around you and all let's get started.

So first of all, I'm actually not going to use all three. I am going to use just one. Okay. 

And our first trick is we're just going to throw up, clap, catch it. Throw, clap, catch. Throw, clap, catch. Throw, clap, catch. Throw, clap, catch. 

 Alright, drill number two, we are going to use two balls this time. So I've stepped it up a little bit and we're gonna throw them, but we're not gonna catch them.

So when we juggle, we want to have a box. So we have an imaginary box and we're trying to throw one ball to this corner and the other ball to this corner. Now, when they throw them, we're just going to let them fall on the floor. So we're going to go throw, throw; drop, drop. Now, we're going to have a look and it's like, Oh dear, they've gone way in front of me.

I actually want them to land just in front of my toe. You're going to keep practising, throwing over, over; drop, drop until they land right at your feet. Step number three, we're going to keep our two juggling balls this time, and we're going to see if we can catch them. So we're going to go throw, catch, catch, throw, throw, catch, catch, notice how I'm, what I'm saying is relating to what's happening and that can help with the tempo.

So throw, throw, catch, catch. Throw, throw, catch, catch. Now we have our little drill number four. So this time we are going to bring our three juggling balls in. Now, if you found any of the previous steps, really tricky, keep working on those first. Because it's better to build up your basics than to rush ahead.

So you're going to be a lot more consistent if you learn the basics first. Now with our three balls, we're going to do the same as what we just did before though. I've got two in one hand, one in the other hand, we're going to throw one from that double hand, then our single hand and then our final ball. So we're just going to go one, two, three, come drop on the floor.

Alright. And I'll find a little drill for today. If you feel like you've mastered all of the other things. And you may not master them today. You might keep practising them over the weeks and keep going and going until you get them. We're going to see if we can juggle with three. So you're going to do exactly the same as our previous one, but wait one, two, three, and let them drop.

We're going to see if we can catch them. So we're going to go one, two, three, catch. Okay, so we're going to throw one, two, three, catch. If you're getting super fancy, you can see if you can keep going and continue the pattern.  So you're going to throw one, two, three, one, two, three, one, two, three, one, two, three. Thank you so much for joining me today and learning how to make your very own juggling balls and learning the basics of juggling.

I hope you've had lots of fun and don't forget to keep practising you’re juggling.