20 Kites in 20 mins

20 Kites in 20 mins

These are the complete time tested instructions to get 20 kids making their own kites and flying them in 20 minutes.

What you need

20 sheets of brightly colored 8 1/2″ x 11″ typing paper.
20 8″ bamboo BBQ shish-kebab sticks.
1 roll of florescent surveyor’s flagging plastic tape.
Available at any hardware store. A plastic bag cut in a 1″ wide spiral all around.

Instructions

These are Uncle Jonathan’s easiest classroom kites ever.

For over 15 years the Big Wind Kite Factory has been giving kite making classes for the children on the island of Molokai in Hawaii.

These are the complete time tested instructions to get 20 kids making their own kites and flying them in 20 minutes.

Kite Instructions

Fold a sheet of 8 1/2″ x 11″ paper in half to 8 1/2″ x 5 1/2″.

Fold again along the diagonal line A in Fig.2.

Fold back one side forming kite shape in Fig.3 and place tape firmly along fold line AB. (No stick is needed here because the fold stiffens the paper and acts like a spine).

Place BBQ stick from point C to D and tape it down firmly.

Cut off 6 to 10 feet of plastic ribbon and tape it to the bottom of the kite at B.

Flip kite over onto its back and fold the front flap back and forth until it stands straight up. (Otherwise it acts like a rudder and the kite spins around in circles).

Punch a hole in the flap at E, about 1/3 down from the top point A.

Tie one end of the string to the hole and wind the other end onto the cardboard string winder.

This Project was contributed by Big Wind Kite Factory.

Comments

  1. quick fun and easy with everyday idems. What a great activity. Could even be made at the beach from a takeaway menu, fishing line and a stick.

    I don’t think the measurements matter that much, it’s the general concept which counts.

    A great party favour idea, can be made by children while they wait as all the children are arriving.

  2. first of all, CM to inches and back are easy enough to get. gogle will do it for you even.
    Second, 8 1/2 x 11 is standard sized notebook paper in the US. Use A4 if that’s your standard.

    Geez… how can you people build a kite if you’re not motivated enough to even bother figuring out the conversions yourself..

  3. or you could just use what you were taught in school to figure out how many cm are in an inch and go from there. jeez.

    cute idea, thank you for sharing.

  4. watergoddess1998 says

    add some cm because in canada we don’t work in inches

  5. Good, but can you include cm for those of us in the World that work in cm, thank you

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