Just as they sang in Mary Poppins, ‘Let’s Go Fly a Kite’! On a windy afternoon why not introduce an activity that allows for creativity as well as spending some time outdoors. For both activities encourage your students to take a plastic bag from home, providing an alternative use for it other than being thrown away. Let your students know they can recycle plastic bags, including those used in their kite creation(s), at local grocery stores.
What You’ll Need:
- Two thin sticks (one of them twice as long as the other)
- String
- Tape
- Safe scissors
- Plastic shopping bag
Find two sticks and place them together so they look like a small “t.” Using string, show your child how to tie the sticks together where they overlap.
Next, form a diamond shape around the outside of the sticks with some more string. As you do this, have your child wrap the string around the ends of each stick a few times and tape the string tightly in place as well. This is the frame of the kite.
Now, cut a plastic shopping bag at its seams so that you have a completely flat piece of plastic. Lay the frame on top of the plastic and then cut around it, making sure the plastic is a couple of inches bigger than the frame.
Work with your child to put the plastic over the frame and tape it in place. Attach the kite string to where the sticks overlap. Just like that, it’s up, up, and away.
If this kite is a big hit, keep kites a-flying for your child with the mysterious kite activity detailed below.
CODED MESSAGE KITES
What You’ll Need:
- Permanent markers
- Plastic shopping bag
- Ball of string
- Ribbon
- Stapler and staples
Step 1: Using markers, encourage your child to draw some pictures on the plastic bag to make a coded message for a friend to read when the kite is in the air.
Step 2: Tie the handles of the plastic shopping bag together with the end of a ball of string.
Step 3: Staple a few 2-foot lengths of ribbon to the bottom of the bag for kite tails.
Step 4: Find a windy spot outdoors (away from any overhead wires), and instruct your child to run with the kite. As the bag fills with air, show him or her how to slowly let out the string. The kite should begin to soar and dive. See if a neighbor or friend can figure out the message drawn on the kite.
Don’t forget to take the kite in the house or collect for grocery store recycling when everyone is finished playing with it — plastic bags can be dangerous for small children and animals.
