Project to Make for Fly a Kite Day June 15th
It may come as no surprise to you that Fly a Kite Day on June 15th is all about honoring the anniversary of the famous kite experiment conducted by Benjamin Franklin in 1752. Benjamin Franklin had always believed that nature had its own special form of electricity by the name of lightening. On a stormy night in June of 1752, with the skies flashing with lightening, Ben set off to prove his belief was true. Using a child’s kite and tying a metal key to it, he proved his theory that lightening is actually a stream of electrically charged air. We have Ben Franklin to thank for a great deal of the terms used to talk about electricity today such as: conductor, battery, charge etc.
As a way to honor the discovery of electricity and all of the wonderful things it has brought into our lives, it is very appropriate to celebrate by making a kite and flying it on Kite day with a metal key tied to its’ tail. Follow the simple instructions below for making a kite that is flight worthy, economical and absolutely the best thing to do with a child of any age (even one over the hill).
Getting Started -Collecting the Materials
- Full page newspaper or butcher paper
- Scissors
- Kite twine
- Rag strips (2″ x 6″ more or less (you will have to experiment with the length and weight of the tail during flight to ensure good stability) torn from old sheet
- Two Ã?½” wooden dowel rods cut to the length and width you want your kite to be
- 3″ wide masking tape
Making the Kite
- Take one double wide page of a newspaper and open to full width – can use butcher paper for this as well
- On the newspaper, draw a diamond the size you want your kite to be
- Cut the diamond out with scissors
- Take one of the dowels and lay it across the diamond shape being sure one end is in the middle of the top corner of the diamond and the other is in the bottom corner.
- Cut off two pieces of tape about 4″ long and cover the dowel at the top bottom of the kite. Use the masking tape to secure the dowel to the newspaper.
- Take the other dowel and lay it across the middle of the diamond (crossing over the first dowel in the middle) and tape it to the newspaper the same way you did the first dowel ( a piece of tape at both ends).
- Using the kite twine (do not cut it – use the end of the twine and leave the rest attached for flying), tie the two dowels together where they cross in the middle.
- Tie on one piece of the kite tail at a time to see how much tail you will need to be sure the kite soars.
- Just for fun, add a metal key in honor of Benjamin Franklin.
Flying the Kite
- Hold your kite in the middle where the dowels have been tied together and let out the twine a little bit at a time to see how it flies.
- If there is little to no wind, you can let out a little twine and run to let your kite fly.
- If there is a great deal of wind, you need to be careful that the twine is strong enough and won’t break.
- If the kite tips and won’t fly up add more strips of sheeting to the tail.
