Recently we had a student teacher with us and she was doing an activity with the children, the basis of which was boxes. Although it wasn’t the intention of the exercise, as usual (this is why teaching is so exciting!) some children thought outside the square and did their own thing…

 

 

… resulting in boxes being ‘flown’ from the top of the slide.

 

 

Other children decided they would like to make flying machines, and made smaller box aeroplanes and rockets which happened to fly more accurately and further than the larger rectangular ones.

 

 

We talked about why they flew better, the aerodynamics of it all, which led onto paper planes. Folding the paper into the right shape and creasing the folds is great for the children’s fine motor skills.

 

 

 

The making of the paper planes gave us a marvellous opportunity to talk maths.  How folding a large rectangle into halves creates a long thin rectangle, how when we turn over the top we make triangles, how the tip of the plane is pointy and it’s square at the bottom. We also talked about bigger, smaller, quicker, slower, high and low.

 

 

Then the children wanted to make other types of flying machines.  So we introduced them to straw glider making. 

 

 

Another maths opportunity arose when we talked about the straws and paper loops being different sized cylinders. 

 

 

We are lucky to have many high spots at our kinder – the top of the slide …

 

… the boat in the sandpit

 

 

and the best climbing equipment in the yard which is a long, strong willow branch. 

 

 

Paper planes were zooming everywhere for a few days …

 

 

… as were super straw gliders!

 

The children learned the results of throwing softly, fast or accurately when they saw where their planes ended up…

 

 

… some in very unusual destinations indeed!