IPS/Butler University Laboratory School

We have discovered that our class has a great interest in creating and flying our own airplanes. After watching the children create all week, I decided that we would take this interest and pair it together with our interest in length and measurement. Today during Math Workshop, one of our friends, Hutton, showed the entire class how to make a paper airplane. We worked together to help friends that were struggling and made sure that each child had an airplane. Then we decorated and personalized our airplanes so we knew which one belonged to us. We then decided to take turns flying our airplane to see which could go the farthest. We started with a question, “How will we know which is farthest?” Some ideas were to measure in miles, floor tiles, and with kids. McKinley brought up inches. We then took a look at a 6 inch ruler. Regan said, “That’s not big enough silly!” So we pulled out a 12 inch ruler. We decided it was still not going to be big enough to measure our flights. Regan then found the large, 60 inch measuring tape in my basket. The class decided it would be sufficient to get us started. We sat as a class and counted down a takeoff for each child (“One, Two THREEEE!!!”) and watched the planes soar. Some of the planes made it past 60 inches. We then had to problem solve as to how to measure past our measuring tape by adding another large ruler. The kids wrote their distances on a big chart and we discussed the results afterwards. Make sure to take a look at your child’s airplane in thier take home folder this weekend. They did a great job with this activity!

"My airplane is pink. Isn't it nice?" - Messi

Cameron and Dylan preparing their airplanes for flight.

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