Activity #2: Create your own Airplane

Grade: Preschool

Source: Arts and Crafts

Duration: 30 minutes-1 hour

STEAM: This activity involves art as a part of STEAM. This activity engages students in the

form of creating their own airplanes out of popsicle sticks and clothespins.

Learning Objective:

The objective of this activity is to have students create their own version of an airplane with

certain materials they are given. This allows students to incorporate art within this unit and be

creative with the design of their airplanes.

Introduction to Activity:

Before this activity is to be completed by students, the teacher will show this linked video, which

is an introduction video to show the students what an airplane is and how it works. This gives

students an idea of what an aircraft is, and it will help students connect and transition into the

activity.

Video: https://youtu.be/UUBk_vmgRXY

Standards:

● Students create artworks that communicate ideas and feelings and demonstrate skill in the

use of media, tools, and techniques

● Students use basic media, tools, and techniques to create original artworks
Materials:

Clothes Pins

Popsicle sticks

Markers

Paint

Glue

Rubric:

Example of Activity:
 Activity #3: Centers

Center #1: Dramatic Play Center

Grade: Preschool

STEAM: Engineering

Duration: 35 minutes

How this involves STEAM:

Children need to achieve teamwork and critical thinking skills that are crucial to developing the

scientific mind in play. It is through play that children make sense of their experiences and

organize their understanding of the world, which can connect all aspects of STEAM. Making

decisions, repeating themes, playing different roles, and thinking about issues from alternate

viewpoints are essential elements in pretend play. Children use their imagination to expand on
their stories and to bring them to new places, increasing their curiosity and creative capacity.

These are foundational skills in a world that demands creative thinking, persistence, and an

ability to imagine things in a whole new way. Pretend play also fosters collaboration skills.

Learning Objectives:

The objective of this learning center/activity is to have children engage and explore the materials

and concepts of flight. This lets students be placed in the position of a “pilot” and lets children

explore the concept and idea that revolves around the topic of flight.

Standards:

● MELDS.CA.DE.PS.2 Represents fantasy and real-life experiences through pretend play

and the use of props and costumes

● MELDS.CA.DE.PS.3 Uses pretend play to represent known or anticipated situations

Objective:

The purpose and objective is to let children explore themselves and the materials that are in their

surrounding environment. Children learn to do things like negotiate, consider others'

perspectives, transfer knowledge from one situation to another, balance their own ideas with

others, develop a plan and act on it, explore new concepts, express and listen to thoughts and

ideas, etc.
 Activity #4:

Grade level: Preschool

STEAM: Science

Duration: 30 minutes

How does this involve STEAM: This activity involves aspects of STEAM because it involves

science. This involves aspects of science because in the creation process of the paper airplanes it

involves aerodynamics and flight stability within the paper and the creation of the design. This

allows students to explore the concept of paper airplanes and how the folds in the paper can

create a force in which the airplane can fly short or long distances.

Learning Objectives: The objective of this activity is to have children explore the concept and

idea of a paper airplane and how the folds and creases in their creation makes a difference in how

the plane flies.

Materials:

● Different-sized pieces of paper

● Markers and crayons

Rubric:

⭐ ⭐⭐ ⭐⭐⭐
The student did not Students grasped most of the Students grasped and
understand/grasp the concept concept of how to make a understood the concept of
of how to make a paper paper airplane and needed how to create a paper airplane
airplane and needed constant little assistance from a and needed little to no
support teacher. support from the teacher.
 Activity #5:

Grade level: Preschool

STEAM: Technology

Duration: 1 Hour

How does this involve STEAM: This activity relates to STEAM because it focuses on the

aspects of technology. This activity allows students to use a flight simulator app on their school

iPads, which allows students to fly an aircraft themselves. This relates back to the concepts of

learning about airplanes and the concepts of speed, going up, down, etc. This activity connects to

technology in a way that is integrated educationally in the classrooms to help students better

understand and connect with the concept of flight.

Learning Objectives:

The learning objective for this activity is to have students use the information they have learned

about airplanes for far and digitally connect and play with this flight simulator app. Students will

learn how to fly their own plane and use new concepts to navigate throughout the game.

Objective:

The objective is to let students be placed in the role of the pilot and experience flying a plane

through an app on their iPads. This allows students to freely explore the idea and concept of an

airplane and how it works.

Materials:

● Flight Simulator App

 ● School iPads

Week 3: Hot Air Balloons

Grade: Preschool

Source: STEAM

Duration: 1-week

Key Words:

● Air

● Fly

● Up

● Down

● Fast

● Slow

● Airplane

How this involves STEAM:

During this week of learning about hot air balloons, each day of the week-long unit involves

aspects of science, technology, engineering, art, and math and is explained throughout each

lesson. Each day of this week, the students will focus on learning about a different subject of

STEAM each day. At the end of the week, all five of the activities will all connect back to

STEAM and the overall unit of hot air balloons.

Learning Objectives:
The objective of this week's unit is to teach students a basic concept and understanding of hot air

balloons, what they do, and why they work the way they do. As children are so young and will

not grasp a huge concept of exactly how hot air balloons work, this will give students a slight

introduction to how flight works in aspects of balloons and why it is important for them to learn

information like this. This week will engage students in fun, entertaining, and knowledgeable

learning experiences.

Schedule:

Week 3: Hot Engineering: Technology: Math: Science: Art: Hot Air

Air Balloons Paper Mache Paper Mache Paper Mache Balloon Balloon
Experiment Experiment Experiment Experiment Creation
 Activity 1, 2, 3: Paper Mache Hot Air Balloon

Grade: Preschool/ Kindergarten

STEAM: All aspects of STEAM are incorporated throughout this activity.

Duration: 3 days

Objective: The objective of this learning activity is to have children work together in groups and

create a paper mache balloon and design it together as a class. This allows children to explore

creativity, try new things, and the idea of creating a hot air balloon together as a whole.

Activity Day 1:

● After the introduction of the activity is shown to the children, the teacher will have two

tables set up for small groups of students to work between, and at each table, there will be

a teacher directing the activity.

● Teacher will have all materials laid out and ready for students to begin the project. The

teacher will give students a basic demonstration of how the paper mache balloon is

created and after the demonstration, the teacher will let the students start to create the first

layer.

● Once the first layer is dry, the teacher will have other stations that the children can rotate

to.

Activity Day 2:
 ● The next day the teacher will repeat the same process as the first day, as the students will

be placing a second layer of paper mache on the balloon.

Activity Day 3:

● On the third day, the students will be placed in the same groups as the previous days, and

the teacher will have multiple different colors of paint ready for students to work with.

● Students will have the opportunity to decorate and be creative with the design of their hot

air balloon creations.

● On the next day of this week, the teacher will hang up the two balloons the students

created and display them throughout the classroom.

Standards:

● Students create artwork that communicates ideas and feelings and demonstrate skill in the

use of media, tools, and techniques

● Students use basic media, tools, and techniques to create original artwork

Materials:

● Glue

● Scissors

● Paper Mache Mix

● Newspapers

● Balloon

● Paint
 ● Clean-up Supplies

● Paper

● Pain Brushes

Rubric:

⭐ ⭐⭐ ⭐⭐⭐
Students do not engage with Students mostly engage with Students fully engage with
the activity or understand the the activity or understand the the activity and fully
concept of using the materials concept of using the materials understand the concept of
given. given. using the materials given.

Introduction to hot air balloons: (Shown at the beginning of the week)

Monday: At the beginning of the week, after morning center time, there is a simple seven-minute

video and a three-minute video that the teacher will show to the children. This gives them an idea

of what a hot air balloon is and the concept of how it works. This is just an introduction to a

week-long unit of hot air balloons.

Video 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KeLnEUapL38

Video 2:

https://www.google.com/search?q=introduction+to+teach+kindergrateners+about+hot+airballons

&oq=introduction+to+teach+kindergrateners+about+hot+airballons&aqs=chrome..69i57.17731j

1j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8#fpstate=ive&vld=cid:ebcda902,vid:ABsVP41-EeY
 Activity #4: Balloon Experiment

Grade level: Preschool

STEAM: Science/Engineering

Duration: 1 Hour

How does this involve STEAM: This activity involves an aspect of STEAM because it targets

and focuses on science. This activity lets students use experimental methods and test, trial, and

error methods that are used throughout science experiments. As students are learning about flight

this week

Key Words:

● Air

● Helium

● Up

● Down

Learning Objectives: The learning objective of this activity is to engage students in the new

idea of experiments and test, trial, and error. Students will learn how the weight of balloons can

impact the weight of the bag, and students will learn new things about why certain numbers of

balloons will pick up the bag.

Standards:
Objective: The objective of this activity is to have students experiment with helium-filled

balloons to find out how and why so many numbers of balloons will pick the bag up. As well,

there can be paper clips added to this, so once the students get the bag floating in the air, they can

figure out how many paper clips it takes to bring it back to the surface. This activity allows the

creativity of the mind, exploration, and concepts of new ideas.

Materials:

● Paper bag

● Paper clips

● Helium-filled balloons

● String

Example of Activity:
 Activity #5: Hot Air Balloon Craft

Grade: Preschool

STEAM: Art

Duration: 20 minutes

How this involves STEAM:

Learning Objectives: This activity's objective is to enhance children's hand-eye coordination

and build levels of fine motor skills. Students will work with various tools, processes, and
materials. They learn to make choices that enhance the communication of their ideas and creative

thoughts.

Schedule:

Morning Center: The teacher will read Curious George and the Hot Air Balloon to the class. This

book will give an introduction to the activity the students will complete today.

Breakfast

Workshop Centers: There will be four or five workshops that the students can go to during this

time, such as dramatic play, writing center, puzzles, and art center, and the last station will be this

art activity. During this activity, there will be a teacher at this station to help students with

creating their own hot air balloons.

After centers, students will continue with the normal school day schedule; this is recess, lunch,

nap time, snack, and then pick-up.

Objective: Students will be able to use creativity and fine motor skills to create their own hot air

balloon out of tissue paper and can design it anyway. Students should be able to use the materials

that are given to them and, with assistance from a teacher, complete this activity.

Materials:

● Different colors of tissue paper

● Glue

● Bowl

● Hot Air balloon paper outline

● Construction paper

● Markers
Activity:

Rubric: