Airports range in size from small landing fields with one runway and a small plane making short local journeys to huge international airports with large terminals and many airlines flying long distances to destinations in many different countries. Help children in your setting to be part of a wider world by rehearsing and reflecting on the different aspects of travelling by plane.
Involve the children from the beginning and ask them to help you set up an airport terminal and departure lounge in the role-play area. Share yours and the children's experiences of flying or meeting someone at an airport.
Use the Nursery World poster as a stimulus for discussion.
Brainstorm with the children the things that people need when travelling by air and what should be included in their own airport. Make sure that their suggestions are put in place wherever possible.
Enhance the role-play area by setting up a 'check-in desk', where the children can show their tickets and passports and have their luggage weighed. Provide a desk, suitcases, bathroom scales and a trolley on which to despatch luggage to an outdoor loading bay. Put up a rope barrier to indicate passport control. Set up a small arrivals and departure section with a cafe and newspaper stand to give children the opportunity to carry on talking about the air travel as they wait for the next plane to arrive.
Also provide a map of the world, a large diary, booking forms, tickets, clipboards, computer terminal, an arrivals and departures board and welcome signs in different languages.
Developing the theme
* Involve everyone in listening and looking for planes that fly overhead during the day.
* Nominate daily air wardens to keep a log book of the number of planes heard on a particular day.
* Arrange a visit to the viewing platform of an airport to watch planes take off and land.
* Invite someone who works for an airline to come in uniform to talk about their job.
* Enlarge an aerial map of your area, place it on the ground underneath a swing or climbing frame and let the children 'fly' over it and describe what they see.
* Release some balloons with stamped addressed labels and requests to people to tell you where they found the balloons. How far did they fly?
Adult-led activities
Here we go
Make passports, visas, boarding cards and luggage labels.
Key learning intentions
*To extend their vocabulary and explore the meanings and sounds of new words *To develop mathematical ideas and methods to solve practical measurement problems
Adult:child ratio 1:up to 6
Resources
*Book-making materials *flipchart *digital camera or felt tip pens for drawing *access to a computer data programme *measuring tools such as height chart, string and rulers *small pieces of card, string and hole punchers *ink pads, date and school stamps and any other stamps that may be available such as 'cancelled', 'urgent', 'draft copy', 'official', and 'secret'
Activity content
* Show the children a passport and discuss why you need identification to travel abroad. Ask what useful information it should contain and write a list of their ideas on the flipchart. Talk about needing permission and a visa to travel to some countries.
* Encourage the children to make their own travel documents such as passports and visas. Use a digital camera to produce a photograph or draw a likeness. Suggest using the computer to print out data such as their birthday and personal details such as colour of hair and eyes and how tall they are. Ask other children to sign the back of the photograph or drawing to verify that it is someone they know.
* Encourage the children to invent passport numbers and to make an 'official' list in case the passport is lost. Some travelling teddy bears may also need to have passports.
* Use the stamps to make travel visas with the date stamp to show when it was issued and where.
* Suggest the children also make luggage labels, giving their name and destination, and boarding cards with flight and seat numbers. Extending learning
Key vocabulary
Passport, visa, boarding card, travel, fly, journey, name, birthday, height, measure, tall.
Questions to ask
Ask open-ended questions that encourage discussion and negotiation. Make statements that model a suggested answer to some questions. Use some of the key vocabulary in your discussions.
* I wonder which stamps most children are going to put on their visa?
* Some people I know put their boarding cards inside their passport to keep them safe. Where do you think would be a safe place?
* Did anyone find using our birthday list helpful?
* My favourite journey is going to collect my gran from the airport. Have you got a favourite journey?
* Shall we try measuring your height against the wall measure?
Extension ideas
Children go to the check-in desk to have their passports checked and their luggage weighed and loaded on to the airport trolley.
Additional resources
*Suitcases in a range of sizes *clothes for different climates *luggage labels *hats for airport officials to wear *notices such as check-in, passport control and cafe
Possible learning experiences
* Folding clothes and packing suitcases.
* Using language of weight such as heavy and light.
* Deciding what sort of things you need on a journey.
The practitioner role
* Encourage children to pack dressing-up clothes in suitcases.
* Discuss what sort of clothes you need in different weather conditions.
* Talk about what sort of things people take on an aeroplane.
Flying paper aircraft
Help children make these, using the instructions on the back of the Nursery World poster. Some children will have difficulty folding the paper to make aeroplanes, but they will enjoy making them fly.
Key learning intentions
*Investigate why things happen and how things work *Interact with others, negotiating plans and activities and taking turns in conversation Adult/child ratio 1: up to 4
Resources
*Scrap paper *scissors *fine thread *tissues *polythene from plastic bags *paper clip or small, light playperson.
Activity content
* Help children make the aircraft of their choice.
* Take the children outside to fly them, or work in a larger space indoors.
Children stand on a chair or a small flight of steps to launch their aircraft.
* Encourage them to try several times in different ways, to get the feel of how the aircraft moves.
Extending learning
Key vocabulary
Fly, float, whirl, twirl, spin, twist, curve, up, down, along, faster, slower, further, nearer.
Questions to ask
Challenge children's thinking by asking
* Where do you think the helicopter is going to land?
* Can you aim the aeroplane so that it curves round when it flies?
* What will happen when you let go of the parachute?
* How did you make the fish spin like that?
* Can you make the plane go further next time?
* What will happen to the helicopter if you stand higher up, on the next step?
Extension ideas
Additional resources
*Airborne seeds, such as sycamore *feathers *polystyrene balls *shuttlecocks *Frisbee Possible learning experiences
* Find ways of measuring the distance the aircraft (or the seeds) travel from the take-off spot. Use tiles or string or skittles, or a tape measure.
* Compare different ways objects fly through the air and describe the flight. After a while, predict what the flight path will be, and where the object will land. Decide which things fly better than others, and think about why.
Child-initiated learning
Outdoor area
Support the success of the airport by developing the outdoor play. Rope off a section of the outdoor area with enough space to contain an airfield, a loading bay for luggage and a self-build jumbo jet plane.
Additional resources
*Very large plastic stacking crates for children to sit in and use as single-seater aircraft with cardboard wings attached *plastic seats in pairs to make a jumbo jet *taped pathway to act as a runway *small set of steps to be used as air controller's seat *headphones and table tennis bats to use to guide planes along the runway *tape recorder for recording flight plans *noticeboard for journey plans *windsock made from shirt sleeve attached to stick *inflated balloons tied to fence to help in identifying wind direction
Possible learning experiences
* Discussing their plans and making clear what they intend to do.
* Using language to imagine and recreate roles and experiences.
* Exploring space outdoors by running backwards and forwards along the runway.
* Co-operating to build a jumbo jet using materials at hand.
* Using the roped-off runaway to pretend to be aeroplanes by running about with arms outstretched.
* Playing at being luggage handlers by loading the luggage on to and off the jumbo jet and wheeling it on the trolley back into the 'air terminal'.
* Deciding who is going to be the air traffic controller.
* Recording flight plans by recording them on tape or in drawings.
The practitioner role
* Discuss the children's flight plans and suggest routes across the world that they might take.
* Help children discuss, negotiate and plan together when they are constructing a jumbo jet.
* Explain that aeroplanes fly into the wind and suggest that the balloons and the windsock will show the direction the wind is coming from.
Creative workshop Set up the area for making parachutes, flying passenger balloons and light aircraft.
Additional resources *Balloons with sticky fix tops *small-world figures such as dinosaurs and teddies *plastic tops from coffee jars *sticky tape *paper of different weights and sizes *balsa wood *glue gun *parachute making resources such as circles of material, string and small staplers *small-world characters Possible learning experiences
* Experimenting with ways of attaching a plastic lid, as carrying basket, to a balloon.
* Attaching small-world characters to parachutes made from pieces of fabric.
* Observing what happens when a parachute is dropped from a height.
* Displaying as mobiles all the balloons and parachutes that have flown by suspending them with string from the ceiling.
* Cutting balsa wood and using a glue gun to make an aeroplane that flies.
The practitioner role
* Demonstrate how to make a parachute by stapling strings to a piece of material and weighting them with a small toy.
* Encourage the children to experiment with different types of material for the parachute.
* Suggest safe places such as the climbing frame to release parachutes and balloon carriers.
Sheila Ebbutt is managing director, and Carole Skinner is project development manager at BEAM Education (tel: 020 7684 3323)
Books
* Hot Air Henry by Mary Calhoun and Erick Ingraham (HarperCollins, Pounds 3.99)
* The Grumpalump by Sarah Hayes (Walker Books, 2.99)
* Barney's Book of Aeroplanes by Mary Ann Dudko, Margie Larsen and Lance Raichert (Puffin Books, 2.99)
* The Story of a Helicopter by Angela Royston and Philippe Dupasquier (Kingfisher Books, 2.99)