The opportunity to incorporate various educational themes.
From science projects and experiments to artwork to culture and historical lessons, kites are a versatile teaching resource for many different age groups of children. Teachers strapped for classroom ideas will find an all-day kite building and flying lesson quite the relief — while their students will still benefit greatly!
Building Fine Motor Skills
Putting together the kite materials may seem simple, but it can provide a challenge for those with budding motor skills. Our kite kit activities promote the strengthening of these important childhood skills, while still allowing creativity and a feeling of accomplishment upon completion.
Arts & Crafts
An easy way to capture a child’s imagination is to tap into their creative mind and imagination. Many children who might normally fidget away during a science lesson may benefit from a hands-on kite experiment — adding a big dash of fun to a wind-themed lesson.
Physical Activity
Once the project is completed, as fun as that is, the real excitement kicks in. Many children now spend a lot of time sitting, glued to phones or televisions. Flying kites helps them to get up and move while still having fun!
Teachers, counsellors, and camp leaders can build an activity for the whole morning or the whole day — learning, building, decorating, and flying!
If a tighter schedule is needed, a lesson in constructing a kite kit can be completed in just an hour.
Run a wind theme over a week of lessons. Have your students build their kites, and then study them each day — especially if the weather changes. This makes for a wonderful extended science lesson!
Choose a different activity for each holiday programme. Teachers can have students decorate their kites with a different holiday theme, presenting the finished kite to a parent or sibling as a gift.
And more! See our Links for our kite-related resources.
Per-Subject Suggestions for the Classroom
English: Language and storytelling, writing, recounts, oral presentations, creativity.
Mathematics: From positional language and birds’ eye view in early childhood, to concentric circles, tessellations, area and perimeter in adolescence, our products provide practical, hands-on learning experience. The Bambi and Indestructa kites both provide a geometric diamond shape, perfect for tessellating!
Science: Weather, forces (lift, drag, gravity, thrust), Science Week. Compare the activity of a diamond kite like the Indestructa with the movement of a Windsock for a simple science experiment.
History: We have a whole page dedicated to Kite History — teachers will want to include a bit of that history with their lesson plans!
Geography: Multicultural activities, focus on cultures that use kites (Japan, Maori, Philippines, etc.). Our Frisbee is exceptional for teaching about mandalas!
Languages: LOTE, cultural days.
Arts: Decorate your kite – we love the artwork from one school where all their Prep students paint their own portraits on the kites as the culminating event in their “About Me” unit! You can send us your photographs, and we’ll feature them in our Gallery!
Health and Physical Education: As an activity in itself, or a culminating event when combined with other learning areas.
Information and Communication Technology: Banners and kites were among the earliest communication tools. Tie this in with a lesson in storytelling for English, and you have one fun classroom activity!
Design and Technology: Originally diamond shaped and made from bamboo and silk, students constructing their kite project can also investigate how and why kites fly, what materials are best for construction, the choice of design. All this, while also learning how Australia’s own Lawrence Hargrave discovered a curved wing surface increases lift — knowledge that was crucial in the development of airplanes — is suitable for design and technology learning across all year levels.
Civics and Citizenship: Our kite kits are wonderful for celebration of anniversaries and fetes, Harmony Day, NAIDOC week, sports events and Commonwealth Day, integration and harmony, anti-bullying and much more. Have students use teamwork to put together a Dreamcatcher in pairs. Teachers can even have a trio of students build and study the Windsock as it moves with different wind strength and direction for a science project and a lesson in teamwork all in one!
Kite Safety
Remember: supervise children and students carefully when they fly completed kites. While flying kites is not typically a dangerous activity, as with anything else, care and attentiveness can prevent many accidents from occurring. We encourage our kite creators to have as much fun as possible when they go flying! It’s still important to remember safety, though. The Kite Crew strongly recommends the careful supervision of an adult, teacher or other experienced person when children fly their kites.
Never fly a kite near powerlines, even if they appear inactive. Electricity can be very dangerous — even fatal. Use wide, open areas (parks and fields are great) to fly your kite.
Be aware of the weather: do not fly your kite in extremely windy conditions, rain or storms. Clear, sunny weather with a breeze is best for kite-flying. Strong wind gusts may look impressive, but they can easily lead to a broken kite.
Don’t fly your kite near roadways: they can be dangerous places. You don’t want to run into the road in the midst of your kite-flying fun.
The Civil Aviation Safety Authority prohibits the flying of kites near airports. Avoid airfields and other places where planes may be landing or taking off.
Don’t fly your kite in especially crowded areas. Be aware of others, and keep a close eye on your surroundings. An inattentive kite flier may run into another person, or a kite that has gone out of control may strike another person. The Kite Crew’s kites are lightweight and should not cause any damage, but accidents can happen and it’s better to be safe than sorry.
Avoid animals when flying a kite: horses may spook at the unexpected presence of a strange “thing” in the sky, and dogs may be confused by the presence of a small child running with a kite trailing after them. It’s important to be safe around animals, always, but it’s especially important when you’re doing an activity that an animal may consider “strange” — like holding a string attached to something floating in the air!
Avoid trees, tall structures, and anything else that may entangle your kite. While it’s disappointing to lose your kite, if you cannot retrieve it, you’ll be leaving litter in the environment — animals may be caught in the string or attempt to eat the sail material. Respect the environment, and make sure you take what you’ve brought with you when you go flying.
Wear sunglasses on especially bright days, and sunscreen to protect against the sun. As your eyes are in the sky, watching your kite dance with the wind, it’s important to remember sun safety, too.