In this lesson plan about women's history and women inventors, children will make a kite. Students have been learning about the wind in this Kindergarten science unit. As elementary teachers often teach a wind theme around the months of March and April, this lesson will complement the theme as Women's History is celebrated in the month of March.
Materials Needed:
Book, Marvelous Mattie, by, Emily Arnold McCully. For a review of the book, click here.
Chart paper and marker
A resource to make the kite is listed below.
Prior Knowledge:
Ask the students what they have learned about the wind thus far in the
unit.
Teach:
Chart the information that is provided in the lesson.
Tell the students that March is National Women's History Month in the United States. When teaching about Women's History Month, there is a wealth of information available through the United States Patent and Trademark Office. So as not to be redundant, please use the book review and the US Patent references to add to this lesson about Margaret Knight.
Margaret (Mattie) Knight was born in 1838 and died in 1914. Mattie worked in a mill with mechanical equipment at a time in history when it was thought that women could not understand the complexities of mechanical equipment. Mattie not only understood machines, she began to design ways to improve them to improve safety for the machinists at the mill.
Read the book, Marvelous Mattie. Although Mattie is not credited with inventing the first kite, she did elaborate the design of the kite to improve it for her brothers to play with. In 1870, Mattie was credited with making a paper bag machine, which is still in use today. Define patent (a secure, official document of a person's idea or creation) and discuss how someone tried to steal her idea and plans.
Talk to the students about reduce, reuse and recycle and how we will take a brown paper bag and make it into a kite. Tell them that in celebration of Mattie and this science unit about the wind, they will make a kite.
How to make a brown paper bag kite can be found at Kinderart.
Share:
After you are finished making the kites, take the class and their kites, outside on a windy day and celebrate this Kindergarten science unit about the wind.
Talk to the students about the kite and what helps it to "fly." Is it only the wind or the shape, size and weight
of the kite? The force of the air flow creates a lift around the kite. What if we taped or glued pennies to the outside of the kite, what could happen? What might happen if we did not use the string? The string helps you to resist the wind when held tightly.