Making kites in the classroom?

[sarahsthreads]

I'm supposed to run an activity for the "spring fling" party in DD1's classroom next week. At first I was contemplating tissue paper flowers, but now I'm considering kites.

I found this link which seems pretty easy and inexpensive, and I'm going to go try to make one with stuff we have around the house to see how well it works, but I'm open to other suggestions!
http://www.allfreecrafts.com/phprint.php

Has anyone done kites in a K or 1st grade class before? I was thinking I'd pre-wind the string, and either draw the lines that need to be folded, or maybe even pre-fold all of the kites and have the activity be decorating them, taping them, and tying on the strings. Each group that I work with will only have about 15-20 minutes, and it's groups of 4-5 kids so they have to be able to do a lot of it independently.

TIA!
Sarah :)

[updacountry]

I think I'm going to do this for our class also. Hopefully spring will be here soon and they can fly them. Looks easy too!

[Jen841]

My son's K class friends still talk about the time we made grass heads. I got the instructions from Family Fun. It was fun!

[sarahsthreads]

OK, so DD2 and I made a couple right after I posted this. They are super easy, but you'll want to play around with the right angle to fold the "wings" back, since there are no measurements. I used a regular sheet of copy paper, packing tape, bamboo grilling skewers broken to the right length, cut up newspaper bags for the tail, and leftover sock yarn for the line. :) They fly pretty well but not tremendously so - maybe the packing tape makes them too heavy? The instructions said to use masking tape, but we didn't have any in the house. I'm also going to try a couple more with steeper and shallower folds and see which flies the best before making them all.

I also took out a few picture books from the library about kite making for the kids to look through, and got "Someone Bigger" - a hilarious story about a kite that pulls Sam's dad, a whole variety of people, and even animals from the zoo up into the air until Sam manages to reel them all in - to read to the whole class.

I don't know if there will be time to go outside and fly the kites, but I did send the teacher an email letting her know about the kites and she loved the idea, so maybe she'll build some time in to the party if it's a nice day!

Sarah :)

[sarahsthreads]

I thought about grass heads too, but the last time DD1 tried to bring a growing thing home on the bus it didn't quite make it intact. And it's right before spring break, so it's not like they could sit on the class windowsill and grow for a bit first, they'd be bringing home dirt and seeds in a pot. Otherwise, I totally would have done grass, or some little fast-growing flower!

Sarah :)

[updacountry]

OK, so DD2 and I made a couple right after I posted this. They are super easy, but you'll want to play around with the right angle to fold the "wings" back, since there are no measurements. I used a regular sheet of copy paper, packing tape, bamboo grilling skewers broken to the right length, cut up newspaper bags for the tail, and leftover sock yarn for the line. :) They fly pretty well but not tremendously so - maybe the packing tape makes them too heavy? The instructions said to use masking tape, but we didn't have any in the house. I'm also going to try a couple more with steeper and shallower folds and see which flies the best before making them all.



Sarah :)

We are going to do this also. I'm going to use scotch tape and I think drinking straws so it will be lighter. Let me know what angle you decided on. We don't have any wind to try it just rain!
Thanks

[sarahsthreads]

We are going to do this also. I'm going to use scotch tape and I think drinking straws so it will be lighter. Let me know what angle you decided on. We don't have any wind to try it just rain!
Thanks

After much testing and tinkering, I've come up with the following:

- From the open side of the folded paper, A = 5", B = 1.5"
- Using these measurements, the spar is more than 8" long - so these are probably not the proper measurements, but they work.
- Between packing tape and scotch tape, there's really no difference in terms of flying ability, and the packing tape is sturdier.
- Because I'm using bamboo skewers, I've found a longer/heavier tail works better. I used two 6' lengths of the surveyor's tape, folded in half and knotted in the middle, then taped to the kite. So there are four 3' streamers hanging off the kite.
- Point E is about 3.5" from the top of the kite.

We build ours in DD1's class tomorrow! All the kite bodies are folded, the spars and tails cut, the strings wound and the packing tape ready to go. Cross your fingers for me that it goes well!

Sarah :)