Do you remember the last time that you flew a kite? Unfortunately, I myself had to admit not having made a kite since I was 9 and that was many moons ago....

Do you remember the feeling that you had as it rose into the sky ? I remember the feeling it was something like - Wow!! it actually got off the ground ...Amazing

Kites can become a part of your curriculum, whether you are teaching math, science, history, English, art and craft, sport - Kites are an activity that can be used in any home educators program. Here are a few examples of different ways you can include kites:

• In a science class, kite building can demonstrate basic aerodynamic principles such as the aerofoil and the dihedral, and factors affecting stability of flight.
• In art classes, kites can be decorated with paints or crayons, or various other techniques such as marbling.
• In craft or sewing classes, kite-making can be used as an introduction to machine sewing and appliqué, and can be used to draw boys into a field traditionally dominated by girls.
• In children's' groups, kite-making can be included as a useful creative activity with the reward, at the end, of a fun-thing to take home. It can be geared to almost any age and ability with greater or lesser amounts of preparation and supervision.

We thought a kite making activity day would be a great idea for our children to learn to make kites and enjoy the much appreciated sunshine outside Allhumdulilah.

We have also included some extra resources and links at the bottom of this page so don't forget to check them out Insha 'Allah.

Please be patient while all the pictures load Insha 'allah.

Please do not take these pictures - Copyright © 1999-2007 Muslim Home Education Network Australia
All rights reserved.

The Kite Making Activity Day

Allah (swt) is Most Merciful and provided the perfect kite flying weather and our wonderful Mums and their kids all enthusiastic and rearing to go.

We decided after lots of research that because we were catering to children between the ages of 4 and 12 the simplest kite to make and assemble was the Diamond Kite.

The kite pieces were prepared this involved alot of work for little hands and fingers:

We had many ideas for the kids to decorate their kites - paints, crayons, glitter, and coloured paper for cutting. The kids were so imaginative in the many ways they decorated their kite paper. Masha'Allah

We had many pre-school age Home Educated kids and we carried the theme of Kites with their colouring in as well. I have enclosed a zipped file with 9 colouring pages for you to print out. Insha'Allah - Download Kite Printouts

Our young homeschooled kids did a great job with their kite printers.

After painting and decorating their kites we left them to dry for a while - Didn't the kids do a great job. Masha'Allah

Whilst the kites were drying - One of our older young sisters played games with the kids and they had a great time singing Islamic Nasheed.

The pictures above show the completed kites and the wonderful creative minds our children have. Masha'Allah

The children ran and laughed as their kites went up and down.

And then when kite tails and pull strings became twisted - it meant using lots of patience to unravel it all.

The day was a great success Allhumdulilah

Thank's to Allah and the wonderful co-operative spirit of Our Muslim Mums and their children.

May Allah bless and protect them all. Ameen

Lesson Plans & Resources:

Build a Kite Instructions How to build a traditional newspaper kite.

How to Fly Lessons on the Physics of flight.

How Do Learn2 Make a Kite Set of instructions for a kite made from tissue paper and straw.

Learn2 Make a Kite Instructions for making a simple kite.

Make Your Own Kite Here is a simple kite you can make yourself.

Build a Kite Instructions How to build a traditional newspaper kite.

20 Kids * 20 Kites * 20 Minutes A lesson plan with "complete time tested instructions to get 20 kids making their own kites and flying them in 20 minutes."

Chronological Table of Kite History A detailed chronology. Many items have hyperlinks to further information

Sky's the Limit Well written but limited perspective. Covers Ben Franklin, Homan Walsh, Wright Brothers, Alexander Graham Bell, and Paul Garber.

KidKiteWeb This site has organized information about kiting and kite building with kids into three sections: FAQs (general info, safety information); Fun Fest (activities and events for kids at festivals and kite flys); Projects (links to kite plans that are suitable for kids at home or school). They also have a feature article on kite safety

Kite Flier's Site A meta-list on kite flying. Here are three links from this site that contain educational resources for teachers and students.

Kites for Kids Only Specially designed for kids, this site has ideas, plans, and tips

Peter's Kite Site A wide-ranging site with *extensive * sections of the site dedicated to kite pictures, flying basics and tricks, kite plans, and links (pointers) to other sites. See also the "FAK" section (has FAQs) and the "terminology" page (has a glossary) for less detailed but still valuable information. Some pages provide links to external resources while other pages contain information written by the author.

[The] Virtual Kite Zoo Philip Le Riche provides the equivalent to a "kite zoo" with live exhibits (pictures of kite specimens), building plans and useful, relational, anecdotal or historical snippets on the exhibits. Check out the section "Kites in the Classroom" for links to web sites with kite-based lesson plans and activities as well as ideas and suggestions for how kites can be integrated into the curriculum.