Nov 06 2011
Test Flights and the Wind
Paper planes are back in full swing in room 104.
Our class has recently seen a resurgence in creating paper airplanes. We never stopped making them, but for a while there was a little lull. All of sudden, we have close to 20 airplanes made a day during studio and explore. On Friday morning, I asked the kids if they would be interested in flying their planes outside on the big playground. They immediately said Yes! I let them know that at the end of the day we would be flying them and they could work on them throughout the day during studio and explore. Some friends worked all day adding special modifications to their planes, some worked on making them look beautiful with colors, numbers, and labeled parts, some friends made more than one plane and were excited to test both. At the end of the day, we took our planes outside, learned how to safely throw them from the playground equipment and let them fly!
- Michael’s plane flies in front of him as he goes down the slide.
We made some pretty neat observations as we were outside. Many kids noticed the wind was manipulating where the planes would fly. Lucas said, “If the plane is flying that way, and the wind comes, it changes and goes with the wind!” We practiced making predictions and paying attention to the wind and guessing what direction the planes would fly. We also noticed the wind had varrying strength. Angela said, “If it’s big wind, the planes go far!”
Tajanaye getting ready to launch her plane from the dinosaur.
A group launch. Will the planes go the same direction with the wind?
The sky Friday afternoon.
