Thematic Unit on Kites
Kites are a great way to teach children a variety of academic and fun concepts and it’s an entertaining theme that can end up with a kite-flying picnic in the park. The books recommended are only suggestions. You can replace them with any books you have access to. If you decide to buy them through Amazon, using my links to buy them or any other product on Amazon, helps pay the cost of hosting and maintaining this free site.
Here are some fun ways to teach through kites:
History:
Long, long ago, some people fished with kites. You might enjoy playing a fishing game with the kites you make at home. Place magnets on the fish and use another magnet to catch the fish. How can you use a kite to do the fishing? Let your child use his imagination to decide how the kites were used. Here is a link if you’d like to see how it’s done today:Hi Fly Kites
Geography:
Historians think kites might have started in China. Learn about China. Teach your child how to find it on a map and on a globe. Fly a tiny kite from China to your home over the map or globe and talk about all the places it has to travel to get there. Could a real kite fly that far? Read: The Emperor and the Kite
History and science:
Benjamin Franklin used kites to pull things in his experiments. Go outside with your kite and try tying things to the end. What can the kite pull? Don’t let the kite get away from you! (See right side bar for book ideas.)
Science:
Shape is very important in deciding if a kite will fly. With your children, make kites of all different shapes and then test them outside to see if they work. Can you test with miniature kites in front of a fan? What’s the largest kite your fan can make fly? What’s the smallest kite?
Learning About Shapes:
The diamond is the logical shape for this lesson, although kites come in other shapes, too. Diamonds aren’t an easy shape to learn, so you should save it until the child knows more common shapes well, especially squares. It’s challenging to understand the difference between a square and a diamond.
Cut both shapes out of flannel and teach this on the flannel board. Put one of each on the board and then talk about how they’re different and the same. Then hand your child a pile of flannel squares and diamonds to sort and place on the board. If he gets one wrong, casually move it to the other group, saying, “This one has straight up and down lines, so it’s a square. We’ll just move it over here.” Don’t make a fuss over it since this is hard.
Next mix up squares and diamonds on the flannel board and hand him lengths of yarn. Ask him to make each diamond a kite by adding a tail. If you have a child who is having trouble understanding the difference, place only the diamonds and let him place the tail. Then add some squares and again talk about the difference. Now you can remove the tails and let him try again.
Learning About Colors:
Kites come in all sorts of colors, so make lots of small construction paper kites in all different colors, but without the tails if you plan to do the second part of this activity. Let your child decorate a wall with them. As you place each one on the wall, ask him what color it is. If he doesn’t know, tell him. This is a low-pressure way to draw attention to colors. Next, hand him pieces of yarn in the same colors as the kites. As he takes the yarn in his hand, ask him to put it on a kite the same color as the yarn. This might be a little tricky if the shade isn’t exactly the same as the paper, but it’s a great way to help children with more experience learn to recognize colors even if they’re different shades.
Color Kites
To play this game, you’ll need paper kites small enough for a child to hold. The child chooses a kite and tells you what color it is. If he doesn’t know, help him. Then have him act out the rhyme. This game teaches both colors and the concepts high and low, fast and slow. Don’t say the parts in parenthesis. These are just instructions.
Colorful Kites by Terrie Lynn Bittner (Please respect copyright.)
One red kite up in the sky (Hold up kite during these two lines)
Flying low (stoop low), flying high (Stretch!)
Flying fast (run fast) Flying slow(move in slow motion)
High, low, fast, slow (move appropriately)
Where do you think
This kite will go? (Let the child answer.)
Kite Subtraction by Terrie Lynn Bittner (Please respect copyright.)
Five little kites were playing in the breeze.
The first one flew away with ease.
Four little kites were playing in the sky.
One flew away—I don’t know why!
Three little kites were stuck in a tree.
One got loose and flew away free.
Two little kites were twirling fast
One flew away. He was next to last.
One little kite flying all alone.
He landed quickly and went on home.
(You can make little kite finger puppets by drawing a diamond and then gluing a long strip at the bottom that will fit on your child’s hand. Make a set for yourself. You can decorate your kites and then act out the story.)
Counting:
You can, of course, just count your small kites. You can also do addition and subtraction story problems with them. “Two blue kites were flying through the air. Then a green kite decided to join them. Now how many kites were in the air? 2+1=3.”
The Letter K
Print letters on the kites used above. There are several ways to do this, depending on how much experience your child has with letters.
- Put capital k’s on some and lower case k’s on others. Have your child sort the kites. (The letters are very similar, so be patient.)
- Put on each kite one lower-case letter: k, i, t, e. Have your child find all the k’s. (This is harder than sorting.) If he’s starting to read, help him spell kite with his kites.
- Put k’s on every kite. As you play with the kite, just talk about the letters.
Suggested book:
Kites Sail High by Ruth Heller
Storytelling:
Help your child make a book about a kite. To prepare, place 5 pages of hole-punched construction paper in a notebook or tie together with yarn. Glue a piece of flannel to the top of each page. Cut out five identical kites from flannel. They should be able to fit onto the piece of flannel glued onto the book pages.
Invite your child to name the kite. Each page will contain a part of the story of the kite’s journey. If your child isn’t used to making up stories, you may need to coach at first. The kite might go to the park, then get tangled in a tree, be flown by a child and then flown by a big bird. If you’d like, tell your own story first, and then let your child make one up. Don’t worry if his sounds like yours or like a television program he saw. He will get more original as he gets older. Let him hold the kite while you write the story he dictates, just a short bit on each page. Then let him set the kite onto the flannel while he colors. He may want to do this over several days. When he’s done, read his book to him, allowing him to fly the kite from page to page.
Kite Books:
There are so many fun books on kites for you and your child to read together during Kite Month. Check your library or buy some of these:
The Most Beautiful Kite in the World
by Andrea Spalding (Author), Leslie Elizabeth Watts (Illustrator)
The Kite Festival
The Fun Stuff
Okay, it’s time to get out of the house and fly a kite. Here are some sites to help you make your kite before you go:
