How to Make a Kite

Hi, friends!  It's Tiffany Gannon here from The Lemonade Stand.  I am so excited to be dropping in today to share with you some kite fun!  I am all about teaching with themes, and our theme a couple of weeks ago was kites.  We have a story in our reading series, Journeys, about two friends building kites together.  I took that theme and ran with it!  

We start out most units with a KWL.  Students complete their own first.  We then gather on the carpet and add their ideas to my larger KWL.

We read lots of other books related to kites, spring, and the wind throughout the week, too.  Here are some really cute ones.

  

      

The highlight of the week is, of course, building and flying our own kites.  I use this as a behavior incentive, as well.  If they do not move their clip more than a certain number of times, they get to participate in kite flying.  It really motivates them to do their best all week, because the kites are such a big deal!

I put together a little how-to on how your students can build their own kites.  There are lots of different versions of kites, but I found this one to be the easiest for the little ones to build.  It also doesn't require many supplies.

You will need:

-8.5 x 11 scrapbook paper

-tape

-thin dowel rods or bamboo skewers

-string

-crepe paper for tail

-hole punch

I forgot to take a pic of the final step.  {Oops!}  You will need to punch a hole about two inches from the top {the side where the wings are wider} on the folded part that is sticking up from the front.  Tie the string through the hole.

Here are my second graders with their kites in hand!  Not all of their kites flew super well.  The ones that did fly well, I noticed, had a shorter flap.  They were a bit flatter. Some of them had to do lots of running around to keep their kites up.  

I also let them bring in kites from home to compare.  If they didn't bring a kite, they got to buddy up with someone else who did bring one.

They had so much fun!  It was a perfect, windy day for flying kites.  As you can see, a few of them got way up there!  

Finally, I wanted to share these little main idea kites we made.  The main idea was on the main part of the kite, and the supporting details were on the tail.  

I made up a little template for y'all that you can snatch up in my TPT store, and it's a freebie!  

I hope you decide to give kite day a try with your class!  Your little ones will think you're the greatest teacher ever!  It was so great chatting with y'all, and I hope you have a great week!!!

Tiffany