kites with kids: a simple how-to

We had our Valentine's Day banner up embarrassingly late this year. But the Kindergarten teacher in me did not want to take it down leaving a blank wall. So, it remained in place, until this week, when Andrew and I assembled some kites to take over our seasonal decorations.

Here's how we did it!

Starting with a 4 1/4 by 5 1/2 sheet of white paper, I marked it at 3 inches down from the top on both of the longer sides.


I marked it at the halfway point on both of the shorter sides (the top and bottom). These marks will guide my diagonal cuts to create the kite shape.


I cut off the shorter diagonals.


and the longer diagonals. This gave me my kite shape.


I did this with white paper and colored paper and with the colored kites, I cut each of those into quarters.


Then I found a volunteer to punch out shapes from the colored triangles.


I saved the shapes that were cut out and the triangles he cut the shapes from.


When assembling the kites, I glued the colored triangles onto one side of the kite and the shapes onto the other side, as shown.


And...in the spirit of multi-sensory education, we made kite cookies too.


Now for some real kites...hmm....