Toddler and Preschooler Activities for the Letter K

The letter of the week last week was the letter "K." We talked a lot about koalas and kangaroos, kisses and kids, and then made kites to fly outside. We made kites last year, but I have to admit that these are my new favorite. Apparently they were created by a kid in Hawaii who prided himself in getting 20 kids to make 20 kites in 20 minutes. Well, it took us about 20 minutes to make two kites, but they were quite easy and they fly!

Materials:
construction paper (8 1/2 x 11)
pencil
ruler
scissors
bamboo skewer
wire snips
masking tape
surveyor's tape or streamers
hole punch
string
piece of cardboard

Step One: Have your toddler decorate his paper to his heart's desire (we skipped this part and got straight to business, but it would be fun to color first). Fold the paper in half widthwise.


Step Two: Measure and mark 2 1/4 inches from the bottom and 1" on the top.





Step Three: Use your ruler (or a puzzle) to draw a straight line, connecting your marks. Crease the top layer of paper along the line.




Step Four: Once the top layer is folded back, tape along the fold and trim any excess tape.


Step Five: Trim the skewer to eight inches with the wire snips (or strong scissors) and tape it across the wide end of the top of the kite.


Step Six: Tape on your decorations (surveyor's tape, streamers, or curling ribbon, etc) along the bottom of the kite.


Step Seven: Flip the kite over and fold the flap back and forth until it stands straight up. Fold a small piece of tape over the flap about 3 inches from the top. Punch a hole and tie your string in the hole.

Tape the other end of your string to the piece of cardboard and wrap the rest of the string around it until it's a length your child can handle.



Go fly it! Make sure it's windy enough out there...my three year old had a small meltdown (that's weird...) because there was no wind the first time we tried to fly these kites. We took them to a park a few days later and they flew beautifully.

P.S.
Fun snacks for this letter: kiwi and Hershey's kisses.
YouTube videos: Cullen's ABC's and Sesame Street
Book: Kipper