Activity: What Flies?

• Print

Objectives

• To improve observation and classification skills.

Materials

• Worksheet
• Crayons

Procedure

• Duplicate and distribute worksheets (following page) and ask the students the following questions:
• Have you seen any of these items?
• What have you noticed about these items when you saw them?
• What do you now notice in the pictures?
• Are the items similar and, if so how are they alike?
• What do you notice that shows likeness?
• How they are ALL alike?
• Are some items different and, if so in what ways are they different?
• After similarities and differences have been discussed, classify the items into living and non-living groups. The children can circle living things in one color and non-living things in another color. Ask questions like: Which of these is a living thing? Which is not a living thing? What is it about the item that made you decide it is (or is not) living? After they have finished they can color the items as they choose.

Extensions

Do other classifications like Sound (Noisy and Quiet) or Size (big and little). Make your own worksheet using items like a rocket, airplane and helicopter for noisy and the balloon, snowflake and seed for quiet. You can also use the same items for big and little but make sure you draw the items appropriately larger and smaller. As much as possible, let these activities involve active interaction with the item itself.

For texture, you might have children use cotton balls to make clouds and then draw a picture using the clouds in the sky. Or attach cotton ball clouds to colored pipe cleaners that have been formed to make an arc for clouds and rainbow that can be hung. Or, have children touch a balloon filled full with air and one not so full and discuss what they notice. Ask what specific differences did they notice between the two.

The worksheet can be used as an Inventory List. Have the children look for real items, items in magazines or on TV and have them cross the item off as they see it. Ask them what they noticed when they saw the item. When they have found pictures, have them bring it in for a flying bulletin board.

Discuss which items the students can fly now and the ones which they can fly when they are older. Take a minute to talk about what it might be like to be a pilot or a hot-air balloonist and how they might get to be one. Ask if they know any pilots or balloonists. If they have flown, ask them to describe it. What did they notice? How did they feel?

Objects that Can Fly