Irresistible Ideas for play based learning

Paper planes, straw gliders, pyramid pointers and now another ‘flying machine’ is zooming around our playground and has become a favourite amongst the children this week. This time it’s a……… helicopter thingy! This invention came about when the children were practicing with different ideas for flying machines. You know how it is…an accidental discovery.

It involves two pieces of thin card which we collected from Reverse Art www.reverse-art-truck.zoomshare.com in Ringwood.  The children joined them together in a X with masking tape …

… and decorated them with crayons.

Working out the best way to throw it was very interesting. Some children threw it flat which caused it to spin and travel slower and to the side, while others threw it like a boomerang, which travelled faster as the blades sliced their way through the air.

With all the wonderful flying machines the children have been making it looks like an airport has sprouted up in the playground these days!

When we were discussing how an object flies through the air or goes through the water with more ease when it has a pointed shape, we tried to throw a flat piece of paper. It went a very short distance then floated down to the ground.

This led to a chat about how the air supports that flat, wide shape, causing it to float to the ground rather than drop straight down.

We showed the children how to make pyramid pointers to illustrate this – fold a square of paper into diagonals, open it up, then do it the other way.

Open and see four triangles. Pinch one triangle in, push its sides together and tape them.

They were fascinated at how they always descended point first, regardless of how they were thrown up, due to the pointy end moving through the air faster than the bigger end.

As the pyramid pointer floated through the air the children wondered whether it would float in water – which naturally led onto what floats and what sinks and why!