Aircraft and airports

Plane
"A plane is landing at the airport" (5 years).

Children love aircraft because they have moving parts that whirl and whir. Their noises and capabilities are incredible. Toddlers may spot planes in the sky, while preschoolers may engineer their own paper planes. Also, aeroplanes are a form of transport that children may use during their holidays.

Aircraft can be for either military or civilian purposes. The most popular types of aircraft are planes and helicopters. Early childhood educators can also teach children about airships and blimps, gliders and paramotors, hot air balloons, and drones.

Children with a strong interest in aircraft may also love airports, air, and spacecraft.

EYLF learning outcomes

Planes and helicopters link to the Early Years Learning Framework as they promote curiosity and imagination (4.1). When children design, make and test their own objects of flight, they are solving problems, experimenting, hypothesising, researching and investigating (4.2).

Learning experiences

Make paper planes

Toddlers can decorate and fly their own planes, and adults can help with the folding. Preschool children can learn to follow instructions, fold their own planes, and compare which design flies best.

Try three paper plane designs by the CSIRO:

  1. Backwards triangle dart
  2. Nakamura lock plane
  3. Loop plane

Try ten more paper plane designs based on real planes from The Royal Australian Air Force.

Use STEM concepts: 

  • Which plane flies the greatest distance?
  • Which plane stays in the air the longest?
  • Which plane does the best stunts?
  • Experiment with different types of paper. Which one folds easiest? Which one flies best?

Make paper helicopters

Planes aren't the only paper aircraft. Make your own paper helicopters and drop them from a great height. Which ones stay in the air the longest?

Watch a paper helicopter instruction video by The Dad Lab.

Make recycled aircraft

Children can build aircraft from almost anything and pretend to fly them through the air. Try using recycled food packaging as it is tough and comes in different shapes and sizes. Ask families to bring in items from home (e.g. yoghurt tubs, plastic bottles, lids from bottles and jars). You will also need a lot of masking tape and strong glue.

Make pinwheel propellers

Paper pinwheels are easy to make (with some adult assistance) and fun to play with. They can teach children how plane propellers and helicopter rotor blades spin.

Follow instructions for a paper pinwheel on The Spruce, but experiment with your own ideas. Pins can be sharp, so try materials like split pins, pipe cleaners, sticks and bent paper clips. Instead of paper, try cutting out shapes from cardboard or stiff plastic packaging. Pinwheel making is a great engineering project for preschool children.

Build your own airport

Provide children with ample space to build an airport. Toddlers can just start building. Preschoolers can research and plan their ideas first.

  • What can we use? (E.g. blocks, toys, homemade planes, cardboard boxes, and masking tape or chalk for the runway.)
  • What features does an airport have?
  • How does an airport work?
  • What will be special about our airport?
  • Did you know some people live at airports? These are called residential airparks. Instead of a garage for a car, their house has a hanger for a plane! Read about airparks on Wikipedia.

Fly on a pretend plane

Children can make and ride on a plane together:

  • Arrange chairs in a long line. Add wings and a propeller by cutting out shapes from a large cardboard box.
  • Children can make pretend tickets and serve pretend food.
  • Children can take turns being the pilot, copilot, hostess and aircraft maintenance engineer.

Discussions

  • How do planes work? Find out how planes fly on National Geographic Kids.
  • Who has been to the airport? What did you see?
  • Who has been in a plane? What was it like?

Events

7th of December is International Civil Aviation Day.

Resources

24/7 live streams

Videos

Music