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Kite Activities and Wind Theme for Preschool
Kites and Wind--so much fun! Use this theme to teach about wind, shapes and more! This Kite Activities and Wind Theme page is filled with preschool activities and ideas for all areas of your classroom. You can either scroll down through this page to see all of the preschool activities for your theme or click the link below to go to specific preschool activity types you are looking for. Circle Time Activities Cooking Recipes Library and Literacy Math And Manipulatives Activities Music and Movement Sand and Water Table Science Activities Writing Activities CLICK HERE to go to our Rain Forest Theme CLICK HERE to go to our Spring Activities Theme
Cloud Painting Materials Needed: clothespins, white paint and blue paper Paint a great cloudy scene! EXTENSION: Add some gray paint for those windy, rainy days! Wind Painted Kites Materials Needed: Construction paper cut into kite shapes, tempera paint, a windy day! When outside, put a few drops of paint on the kite shapes and let the kids hold the papers up for the wind to move it around! When dried, add ribbon to the end for tails. EXTENSION: Bring straws outside for the children to blow the paint on the kites. This can also be done inside! Paper Bag Kites Materials Needed: White or brown lunch sized paper bags, markers, crayons and stickers, paint--whatever you'd like to use to decorate them. The children decorate their bags. When dry, hole punch a hole in the top side of the bag (use re-enforcer tabs or tape to make the hole sturdy). Tie a piece of yarn or string in the hole. Take them outside and fly those kites! More Kite Activities Materials: Thin, wooden dowel rods (2 for each child); fabric in the shape of a kite or sturdy paper in the shape of a kite; tacky glue; string; markers (or fabric paint if using fabric) to decorate the kites. In advance, prepare the dowel rods. Each child will need one full size rod and one that is cut in half (and sanded so that there are not sharp edges.) In advance, prepare the paper or fabric into the correct sizes. The large dowel rod will need to fit on it. Have the children decorate their fabric or paper. The children help glue the dowel rods onto their kites. I place one vertically (the full size rod) and then other two a placed horizontally on either side of the full sized rod. When dry, attach string to the full sized rod in the middle. (If you need to, hot glue the rods for extra durability). Enjoy flying! NOTE: This is a several day project. If you want to finish is quicker, glue and hot glue the rods in place first. The children can then decorate around the rods and use the kites the same day. Parachutes I know, this doesn't technically go with a Kite Activities theme, however--they fly and they're cool and the kids will love them! Materials Needed: One fabric square for each child (12 inch square--like a bandana size); Four 12 inch pieces of yarn or string; empty spool (one for each child) or other items that you can tie onto the bottom. In advance, hole punch the 4 corners of the fabric. Have the children help to put one piece of yarn into each hole. Tie each piece of yarn. Thread the 4 ends of the strings into the spool or item. Go outside or into a large area and throw them into the air and watch the wind/air help them land! Kite Strings Materials: Sturdy string (twine works well), clothes pins to place on the edge of each piece of string; variety of paint colors in shallow trays; paper with kite shapes drawn on them with a thick black marker; scissors The children practice cutting on solid lines by cutting out their kites. Using the clothes pins to hold the sting, they dip the sting in paint and then glide the string over their kite shapes. When done, hang your kites in your classroom! Cloud Art Materials: paper, paint (watered down a little bit), plastic spoons, straws Place spoonfuls of paint on the paper. The children use the straws to blow the paint around! EXTENSION: Have the children cut the paper into kite shapes first. When done, glue straws on the kite to make the cross shape and then hang in your classroom. Wood Unit Blocks and small colored blocks These blocks are fantastic for a kite activities theme. Discuss the shape of kites with the children and have pictures of them around your room! Discuss the shapes in the kites: diamonds, triangles Encourage them to make different sized kites with the blocks by putting those shapes together. Circle Time is such a great time for children to learn the social skills of being together as a large group AND to learn more about your Kite Activities and Wind Theme! Peel an Orange! Ingredients and Items needed: One orange or tangerine for each child. Explain that air is everywhere, even around the planet! Even though we can not see air, it is there! Show the orange and ask what is inside it? Right Fruit! How do you know? We can not see the fruit!..much like air! Score the oranges so that they are easier to peel and let each child peel and eat their orange. Make Your Own Air Discuss kites and kite activities you have done or will be doing. Ask the children how kites stay in the air. Discuss the wind. Provide each child with a pin wheel and let them make their own air to get them going! EXTENSION: Bring the pinwheels outside today as well! Cooking with children helps develop their math skills and helps them to learn how to follow directions. It also allows for some great conversation! Ask many questions while cooking with your children to encourage conversation! Be sure to ask specific Space theme questions while making these fun snacks! Bubble Juice Ingredients and Items; juice (or milk), plastic cups and straws. OK, we are NEVER allowed to do this at home, so let the kids try this at school. Let them know that this is NOT something they should do with their snacks usually! Blow bubbles into your drink. What made the bubbles? Krunchy Kite Toast Materials: Bread, toasted; vegetable dip, carrot strips (or celery strips). The children spread the dip on the toast. They add the vegetable strips on to make the kite shape. Eat and enjoy! Double Take Provide diamond shaped paper on the easel that has already been creased down the middle. Place the diamond shape opened on the easel. When the children paint on the papers, encourage them to fold the paper and press (while it is still on the easel) to see their design print on the other half! How Strong Is the Wind? On a somewhat windy day, bring items outside to observe in the wind-some heavy and some light. Suggestions: a small wooden block, a leaf, a branch, a piece of paper, etc. Have the children observe what the wind does. Why does it move the leaf but not the block? Parachute Play, of course! Materials: We love to use different sized balls with the parachute! Remind the children that using the parachute is fun but also a listening game. When we yell FREEZE!, the children all need to freeze and stop shaking the parachute before we begin again. Let the children get their shaking out of their systems before you start! Ready, set, SHAKE THE PARACHUTE! GREAT! Now, FREEZE! Place a few balls on the parachute. Tell the children to listen to your story: Begin a wind story: "One day, we went outside for a walk and there was a very light, calm breeze (begin moving parachute slowly up and down). Keep adding to the story making the wind get stronger and stronger until it blows the balls off of the parachute. Blow Bubbles Outside Materials--enough said?!! Book Suggestions for the Library Air Is All Around You by Franklyn M. Branley Hi, Clouds by Carol Greene It Looked Like Spilt Milk by Charles Shaw The Cloud Book by Tomie dePaola Gilberto and the Wind by Marie H. Ets Kite In the Park by Lucy Cousins Kipper's Kite by Mick Inkpen (great touch and feel book!) Like A Windy Day by Frank Asch Millicent and the Wind by Robert Munsch Rain by Peter Spier Spring by Richard L. Allington The Wind Blew by Pat Hutchins
Matching Game Materials: In advance, cut out many kite shapes and laminate them for durability to use from year to year. Now, cut each kite into 2 pieces. Use different designs to cut out each kite such as cutting one simply in half, another as a semi-circle. The idea of this activity will be for the children to match the numeral with the number of dots. If each kite "top" fits ONLY into ONE kite bottom, you will have made this game self correcting, much like a puzzle. Program the kite halves using a dry erase marker. Program them based on the concept you are working on in the classroom such as: Write a number on the top half and the corresponding number of dots on the bottom half. Write an upper case letter on the top half and the lower case number on the bottom half. Or, make the set as a color matching set. Make one kite of each color. Laminate them. Cut them in half and have the children match the colors. Additional Kite Matching As a variation to the above activity, make kites but do NOT cut them. Instead, add a tail to the bottoms of the kites. Program the kites with a number AND the corresponding number of dots. Pre make bow shapes from paper and the children place the appropriate number of bows on the kite tail to match the number on the kite! Wind Socks Materials Needed: Strips of cardboard cut into about 1 inch by 18 inch pieces; crepe paper of different colors; scissors; tape Let the children use the scissors to cut strips of paper and then tape them to their cardboard strips. Encourage them to create a pattern with them. Examples, depending where your children are at with pattern recognition: AB or ABB patterns work great (AB might = blue, red, blue, red; ABB might equal blue, red, red, blue, red, red). When complete, staple ends together. Hole punch and hang wind socks using yarn or string. Blow, Blow, Blow the Wind by Diane Thom-- Sung to Row, Row, Row Your Boat Blow, blow, blow the wind Gently through the trees. Blow and blow and blow and blow. How I like a breeze! Blow, blow, blow the clouds, Blow them through the sky. Blow and blow and blow and blow Watch the clouds roll by! Moving like Kites Materials Needed: CD with different tempos of music. Have the children "move like kites" based on the tempo, slow, medium, fast. Name movements as they do this: The kites fly up, up, up and then glide slowly down and around..... Moved by the Wind Materials: Collect different items for your children to try to move with breath! You'll need straws and items such as cotton balls, craft sticks, pieces of ribbon, leaves, a small book, etc. Have children try to move each item by blowing them with their straws. EXTENSION: Make a chart with each item and list the children's guesses! Will the wind move it? How many think yes? How many think no? There is AIR! Materials needed: A large, deep bowl of water with bright food coloring in it; tall, clear drinking glass, paper towel. Push the paper towel into the bottom of the glass in front of the children. Ask them what will happen to the paper towel if you put the glass into the water? Accept (and record!) all answers! Invert the glass and push it straight into the bowl of water (so, the opening of the glass is going into the water. Be sure to hold the glass straight--don't tip the glass while doing this!). Lift the glass straight out of the bowl. Remove the paper towel and pass it around. Note to them, if they don't state it, that the paper towel is dry. Ask why they think the paper towel did not get wet? There is air in the cup which pushed the water away from the paper towel. EXTENSION: Put water into bowls and give them paper towels and plastic cups to do this experiment on their own. Paper Plate Kite Writing Materials Needed: White paper plates, crayons, streamers, stapler, yarn, craft stick (large ones) In advance, using the hole punch, make a hole somewhere on the paper plate near the edge (this is for the string to use this as a kite later on). Encourage the children to print their names and the word K-i-t-e on their paper plate and then color and decorate it as they want. They then print their name on one large craft stick. When done, they can staple (supervised!) streamers on the opposite edge of where the hole is punched. They thread string through the hole and tie (or you tie!). Show them how to wrap the extra string around the stick. Go outside and fly the kites! CLICK HERE to go to our Rain Forest Theme CLICK HERE to go to our Spring Activities Theme
Go to the MAIN THEMES page from this Kite Activities and Wind Page
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