Cleared For Takeoff

Forgot my helmet, but thankfully paper and Styrene airplanes do not cause to much trauma to one's head. :)

Today was airplane day!

We started the session with paper airplanes. The original plan was just for the Styrene kind, but since we were a little limited with that material (just enough for each kid to make one), and since I didn't think that would occupy them for 2 hours, we added paper airplanes to the mix. I found a great website (www.funpaperairplanes.com) that had bunches of paper airplane designs (complete with templates!). I chose two designs for us to do, then printed the directions for each plane for each table, and one template for each student. I printed one set on green paper and the other on some salmon/orange colored paper. That way they knew which directions went with which template.

After about twenty minutes of that, we started the main project. I took a little time to talk about lift and such (great kid-friendly explanation found at the same website as the paper airplane templates), and then we did the build phase step-by-step. For most of the other sessions I've let them experiment with their designs more from the start, but since we only had so much Styrene (and since I knew some of the kids from previous weeks and I knew they would need all the steps explained), I went over the basic assembly a little bit at a time. Once they'd all built their first plane, they had the rest of time to tweak it, add things, or make other designs with Styrofoam plates.

A few even thought really outside the box and made "not-planes" out of the plates. There were a few "flying saucers", a few hats (really, when you cut the rim off a plate what else are you supposed to do with it than put in on your head?), and even a sailboat! That kid should have been here a few weeks ago! :)

Another interesting happening today: when I was putting supplies away and doing a final clean-up of the room, a man came in. He was the parent of a kid that was signed up for today's class, but didn't come. He said they'd forgotten about it until it was too late, but he wanted to know if he could have some material for them to do the project at home. Thankfully, I had some extras, so I handed him a Styrene tray, some paper clips and the directions and templates for the paper airplanes. He seemed grateful and I got rid of some stuff! :)

Next week is the last Super Saturday, and while it's been fun, I'll be glad to be done! Hopefully it's not 95 degrees out next weekend because the plan is to make rockets and walk the 2 blocks to Riverfront Park to test them. Should be a fun finale.