Sometimes our ideas with the most impact, are for our most important clients, our little ones. From time to time, I’ll share some creative projects created with children. I’ve always had a close connection with children and sometimes I blend right with them and they don’t realize that I am an adult.
My favorite projects to teach are the ones that introduce concepts of engineering, after all the kids are mini scientists and artists. Last May, I had the opportunity to teach 14 3-4 year olds how to create kites.
It was a multistep process:
create a t-shaped spine of the kite with three bamboo skewer sticks: 2 for the height and 1 for the width.
create 4 indicator dots on the wrapping paper by putting the spine on top of the paper and then adding a dot at each of the 4 ends of the sticks.
using a pencil, draw 4 lines to connect the 4 dots. it should hopefully look like a diamond.
cut along the 4 lines and free the kite from the paper.
using 5 pieces of tape, attach the t-shaped spine to the paper:
1 for the middle slightly below the intersection
1 for each of the 4 stick tips.
cut a short piece of rope, and a long piece of rope for the spool
on one end of the short piece: two inches above the wooden intersection, poke two holes on either side of the kite and run one end of the string through. Tie a knot.
for the other end of the short piece: poke two holes two inches below the wooden intersection. run the string through and tie a second knot.
for the long piece of rope, tie one knot around the center of the short piece. spool the other end around a long stick or toilet paper roll.
Your kite is ready! Fly it on a slightly windy day where the wind speed is between 4 and 13 mph.
In the classroom, as much as possible, I provided verbal instructions and then a visual demonstration of the process. Of the 3-4 students at the table, for the one student that needed the most help, I re-demonstrated the process while repeating it verbally at the same time. Some students pick it up immediately and some would pick it up on the second demonstration.
The students were incredibly proud of their new kites!
