::: unidentified flying objects
Following our fun with the balloon rocket we started thinking about other ways of sending objects into space.
We decided to make straw gliders. The balloons were propulsed by the compressed air shooting out but the straw gliders needed a bit of human intervention to get anywhere.
As the weather is very cold and wet here in Melbourne at the moment, it was a great indoor activity and gliders went flying all over the room!
Great maths took place again – small piece, large one, rectangle, round, circle, cylinder, this end and that end, hanging the same way, the colours of the materials and so on.
Getting the right technique so they flew well was important too. A quick upward flick of the wrist had them flying over the rafters and in amongst our rockets and planets.
The next thing the children made was a more gentle flying object – a parachute.
We do try to avoid using plastic bags, but we still seem to accumulate some. We decided to recycle them and made them the basis of the parachutes along with a ball of string and we used gumnuts for our parachuters.
By simply attaching a piece of string, using masking tape, to each corner of the plastic and attaching all strings to the gumnut we produced pretty flash parachutes.
This time the rain let up and we were able to fly them outside from the top of the slide with very successful results!
Tags: flying machines, gumnuts, masking tape, paper strips, parachutes, plastic bag, sticky tape, straw gliders, straws, string
That looks like such fun. I know some little boys who would go ape over the straw gliders. They are very much into paper aeroplanes at the moment (which is driving me nuts because half of them aren’t at the stage where they can make their own yet and we seem to spend our days making aeroplanes). Straw gliders would be a big hit.
You’ve inspired me. Next week, our summer “camp” will be flying high!
ah great..haven’t done the gliders before will have a go on monday. have you tried helicopters yet? (rectangle of paper, cut down length to half way, fold one cut piece down then the other, the opposite way, so that it looks like a 3d ‘T’) when you drop them they twirl like helicopter blades. OOOhhh and twirling fish and i have a great simple kite pattern and……..must go and find some paper and have a play……..!
oh forgot to say – did you know that real parachutes have holes in them so that they fly straight?!!
Woah! Slow down finleysmaid, slown down we can’t keep up … hee!hee! We have tried helicopter type flyers but they are different to yours. Here’s the link http://www.playbasedlearning.com.au/2009/09/taking-to-the-skies-again/ We’ll try your ideas out too. Thanks for sharing.
Oh and no we didn’t know about the holes on parachutes! 
My kids have been excitedly playing with the straw helicopters for a good hour now. The cat is not quite so keen, but the kids are looking forward to playing with them again tomorrow.
folded paper helicopters (see above) need bottom folde up an weighted with paperclip for better flying