Airplanes for Kindergarteners?

[eilonwy]

My son is completely obsessed with airplanes; his two favorites are the Bell X-1 and the Beluga Airbus (he goes back and forth with them ). We've already checked out every single book about airplanes that the local library has and read them over and over again, and while he would be perfectly content just to keep checking the same books out in a never ending cycle, I'd like something a little different. I'm looking for some resources; coloring books, information that I can print out for him, and other books about airplanes. He'll sit for hours if anyone is willing to read to him, so reading level isn't a huge concern as long as there are tons of illustrations. His aunt bought a book about paper airplanes and we've been making planes from that on the weekends-- anyone else have ideas?

[BusyMommy]

We're having an airplane party next week & I called our local airline (Alaska AIrlines) and they sent me a little party package. Not too exciting, but pins, stickers, balloons, etc.

And, I'm still desperately trying to find an airplane cake pan. :

[jessica_bystander]

Perhaps you could get some of those cheap wooden model aeroplanes, and once you've assembled them together, have him paint them. Then take them to the beach and have a launching day. How fun!

[Lisa Lubner]

klutz makes a cute paper airplane book

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg...books&n=507846

[Karenwith4]

Hi eilonwy

My son was about 6 when he became flight obsessed. Some things we did:
~ measured out the size of a 747 on our (quiet) street and compared with some other planes he was interested in
~ found a computer flight simulator game for kids on ebay called kids pilot by edmark I think and that was a hit for a while until he wanted something more sophisticated - it would definitely be suitable for a 5 y/o
~ found a greeat book which had a poster of a flight panel, cardboard pilot's wings etc.
~ made our own flight control panel out of a cardboard box and various things (straws, buttons, bulldog clips etc), made tickets and went on flights
~ made more lego planes than I thought humanly possible
~ found an unused DK kit about flight at a garage sale - it was great, had models of different planes and I can't remember what else
~ made a flight timeline for around his room from pictures he drew or we printed out, or cut from magazines (hung these on a string from cup hooks in the ceiling so that any 3d versions he made didn't get crushed against the wall)
~ watched a videos about flight including "leonardo: a dream of flight", "Dawn of the Jet Age" and "the magic of flight" (which I think was our favourite but I can't remember for sure)
~ read the book and watched the magic school bus video about flight
~ did science experiments to demonstrate wind resistance, the Bernoulli effect etc -found most of these in lesson plans I googled
~ national geographic did a great edition on flight to celebrate the 100 yr anniversary of the wright brothers flight (dec 2003) and they had a great poster of 'significant' planes in the history of flight - you might see if ebay has a copy
~ we toured our little local airport, went to an airshow and a flight museum, and went to the big airport to watch planes.
~ went to watch a model plane flying club exhibition (they fly models of airplanes which are about 4 feet long - our local club does this about once a month in the summer)
~ we added to the collection of little planes he has (ie tinker toy size) whenever we could and he made his own flight museum and gave tours - they were a riot.
~ we had flight competitions with planes made from paper, cardboard, balsa wood and foam (the cheapo $ store version or ones we made from meat trays) on our street - the whole family chose a plane and we all tried to fly them to see which would go furthest
~ we made paper helicopters, chased hot air balloons to their landing pads,
~ I found this great UFO "toy It is just a huge very thin plastic garbage bag, open at both ends. You tie one end off, fill it with air and tie the second end off with a long string. When it heats up in the sun it will levitate/fly. The kids LOVED it. Unfortunately it isn't very durable and so it only lasted a couple of days before the amount of scotch tape made it too heavy to fly
~ I googled "airplanes for kids" for my son not too long ago and this site came up. I have not checked out all the links but it might be helpful.airplanes for kids. There are tons of things. Also try googling "lesson plans flight" for crafts and activities to try.

Ok - that was a lot of . Hope you can use some of this.

Karen

[eilonwy]

Karen, what a great list!

We actually have that copy of National Geographic and the poster; it was one of the ones I laminated a couple years ago. My son pores over it every single day, and it's actually falling apart despite the lamination. Same with the issue of the magazine, he'll just sit and flip through it and expect me or his father to read with him.

I can hardly wait to look this stuff up, thanks! Oh, and I thought that I saw an airplane-shaped cake pan at either A.C. Moore, JoAnn Fabric or Wal-Mart. I think it was A.C. Moore, though (craft store).