When we study Wind and Flight, our Question of the Day is simple: What will blow around in the wind? A simple question, yes, but it’s so enlightening and so much fun to explore this question with hands-on activities.

Sorting activity – Can the Wind Move It?

Set out tools kids can use to create a breeze, such as balloon pumps, bellows, paper fans, electric fans, hair dryers or straws to blow through. Then put an assortment of objects out for them to test.  Have children try blowing the objects around on a table. For young kids (age 3 – 4), put out two bowls to sort into, labeled “Blows in the Wind” and “the Wind Can’t Move It”. Put out heavy objects the wind obviously can’t move, and light ones that blow easily.

For older children, put out three bowls “Easy to Move with Wind”, “Hard to Move with Wind” and “Didn’t Move” and a wider variety of objects. They’ll discover that, in general, lightest weight things are easiest to move, heavier things are harder, and heavy things don’t move. Help them notice that the strength of the wind and the shape of the object matters too.  (If you lay a block on its side so it’s low to the ground, it’s hard to move it with air, but if it’s balanced on one end, it’s easy to knock it over. Paper may be easier to move when it’s folded into certain shapes than when it’s wadded into a ball.)

You could also just let them walk around a room with a balloon pump and test whatever they want to test. Just remind them to put things back where they found them.

We also blow up a balloon and hang it from a string elsewhere in the room and encourage kids to think of lots of ways to move the balloon without touching it.

Make a Kite

We built kites with paper and bamboo skewers (full tutorial here). This is definitely an adult-assistance project for kids. Our design doesn’t fly in the wind on its own, but if kids hold the string in their hand and run, it flies up and out behind them.

You could also make a kite from a paper lunch sack. (Instructions in the printable table cards below.)

Playing with Electric Fans

Set up a fan and put scarves or streamers or balloons or other lightweight objects out so the children can hold them up, see them blow in the wind, then let go and watch them flutter away. Optional: also put out objects that are too heavy for the air from the fan to lift so they can discover that.

We also have some specialized equipment that we used in this class:

Wind Tube

Tutorial for how to build one is here. There’s endless fun in testing out various items in the tube: scarves shoot out the top, then flutter to the ground, making them fun to catch; snow cone cups will float – if you turn them upside down; we have a little plastic Frisbee that never escapes – it just bangs around inside the tube. My favorite is food trays (what we call “snack boats”). Not only do they float on their own – but even better, you can put toys inside of them that are too heavy to float but the boat catches the air so well that it can carry those toys up.

Ball Levitator

The ball levitator (click on that link to learn how to build your own and see videos of it in action). We started with a shop fan, then mount a duct hood on it so we can float a lightweight plastic ball on the current of air.

Airtoobz

These Airtoobz (affiliate link) are a super fun toy, though not as versatile as the wind tube, so for the cost, I would build a wind tube. You build a set of tubes into whatever shape you want, insert a soft ball, and it launches into the air.

Sailboats – Craft and Water Table Play

We made sailboats using corks from wine bottles, rubber bands, popsicle sticks and stiff plastic sails. Read about my design process and see the “how to” tutorial here.

Then, we filled a water table and gave each kid a straw (labelled with their name) so they could use the straw to blow their sailboat around the water. (During COVID time, we tried adapting this by giving them a balloon pump to blow the boats with. But then they figured out you could use the balloon pump to pump water into a tall splashing fountain! Super fun but not a great match for an indoor classroom.)

Anemometer and Weather Vane

Check out my separate post on how to make a simple weather vane that shows which direction the wind is blowing and an anemometer to show how fast the wind is blowing.

Learning about Wind Power

We have a LED mini-turbine toy that lights up when you blow on it. That gives us a lead-in to talk about wind power. We also have built a wind turbine from an older K’nex Education – Exploring Wind and Water set.

We also put out the Duplo pinwheel kit, which encourages children to try following directions to build a pre-designed project, and a few toy pinwheels for children to explore. The children discovered that it’s fun to hold these in front of electric fans and watch them spin and spin.

Art, Crafts, Sensory

We made straw gliders. Instructions here.

We also tried out the “bamboo helicopters” and a flying saucer toy that is great scissor practice.

Easy crafts: Teach how to accordion fold a fan out of paper. This is just a helpful skill for all kids to know how to do.

Cut a spiral of paper so it becomes a wind spinner. (we tested these in the wind tube too…)(http://www2.scholastic.com/content/images/articles/m/msb_stormprint.gif

In the sensory bin, we put feathers, ribbons, and tissue paper and balloon pumps to blow them around with. We encouraged the kids to try to keep all the materials in the sensory bin, and it worked for the first class for 60 minutes of free play time and for the second class for 45 minutes, then one child discovered that they could blow everything out of the table…. sigh.

Books to read

We read I Face the Wind by Cobb, which is one of the best non-fictions for this 3 – 7 year old age group that I have read! (We skip the pages with the experiment of weighing air with a hanger.) This is just a really nice combination of readable text, nice illustrations, clear concepts, examples that are familiar to kids, and ideas for experiments kids can do. (Vicki Cobb has a video here where she talks through why she wrote this book the way she did, and offers teachers/parents more information which can help enhance their read-aloud of the book.)

Other options: Wind by Bauer is a simple non-fiction book about wind. Feel the Wind by Dorros also looks like a good option. You could also try Mouse’s First Spring, Like a Windy Day and the Fantastic Flying Books. Some others I’ve heard recommendations for are: Aesop’s Fable about the Sun and the Wind, One Windy Wednesday, Someone Bigger (about a kite), Frog and Toad – the Kite, Who Took the Farmer’s Hat, Gilberto and the Wind, Millicent and the Wind.

There is a video called Curious George Flies a Kite, and a companion activity guide: https://www-tc.pbs.org/parents/curiousgeorge/activities/pdf/CGDG_04_science.pdf. There are also probably MANY more kids’ shows about wind and kites.

Songs

Blow Wind Blow

Tune at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U5VlSX7Mdk8

Blow, wind, blow! And go, mill, go!
That the miller may grind his corn;
That the baker may take it, And into rolls make it,
And bring us some loaves in the morn.

This song requires some explanation, since most modern preschoolers have not heard of millers or wind mills, or know that grains are ground to make flour to make bread with. We take this opportunity to give them a mini lesson on this topic. Some years, we’ve also used it to lead in to a discussion of wind power. Here’s a verse I threw together on that:

Blow Wind Blow, And Go Turbines Go
That the Rotor Can Turn the Gears
Gen-rators Convert It, Pow’r Lines Transfer It
To Bring us Our Lights in the Morn

Wind is Blowing High

Wave scarves to this song! Tune is Farmer in the Dell
The wind is blowing high. The wind is blowing low
The wind is blowing fast fast fast. The wind is blowing slow
The wind is blowing high. The wind is blowing low.
The wind is blowing round and round, everywhere you go

Rhyme: the Playful Wind

The wind came out to play one day.
It swept the clouds out of his way.
(Make sweeping motion with hands.)
It blew the leaves and away they flew.
(Make fluttering motions with fingers.)
The trees bent low and their branches did too!
(Lift arms high and lower them.)
The wind blew the great big ships at sea.
(Repeat sweeping motion.)
The wind blew the kite away from me!

Or check out this Windy Day song which talks about dressing for the weather.

Related Activities

Be sure to also check out my post on the Science of Flight, and the one on Weather.

Lesson Plan and Table Cards

Here is the lesson plan that I print to remind my co-teachers and I how to set up the activities and what to cover in group time and the table cards we put on the table to show kids and parents one option for how to use the materials on the table (I generally print these double-sided and on the back of each one is a picture reminder of what materials to set out.)