The Chinese invented the kite thousands of years ago as a military tool. Today it is used it is used for recreation and sport and the largest kite festival in the world is in-you guessed it-China. As we were doing our sumi ink paintings while studying Japan, it had to be mentioned that Chinese also use ink and brush for calligraphy and nature images. We started our unit by watching a video about China and then comparing and contrasting the two cultures. Which one can claim the origins of Confucianism and which Shintoism? students wrote, typed and printed words and phrases for each other to sort into a tactile Venn diagram.
Day 2 we began to work on flags. students used bamboo skewers, wooden dowels, or straws as the skeleton for kites in various shapes and forms. Kids with some vision drew on on bulletin board paper, while those who were totally blind used dot makers, tape, stencils or collage to decorate their kite. Tales were made with string and with ribbons tied to them, or crepe paper streamers.
Then came the test of flight. The week before kite week was breezy but there was no wind on the days we tried to fly our kites. Students would run and hold their arm high to get it going, with a few glimpses of success. For for someone who'd never seen a kite, much less tried to fly one, it was pretty fun. Next breezy Saturday when my students' families are looking for something to do, maybe they can consider taking a kite to the park and trying it again.
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