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Directions
- Cut a square or rectangular shaped cardboard for the ground.
- Use markers to color the runway and ground.
- Make two large rectangular towers with square roofs, using construction paper.
- Make one long rectangular building.
- Glue the long building in the middle of the two towers.
- Using cardboard, cut out a long rectangle, a large isosceles triangle, and a small isosceles triangle; these will become the plane's body and wings.
- Draw and cut out a tail for the plane. It will be a quadrilateral (a four-sided shape); choose angles you like.
- To assemble the plane, cut two slices in the center of the long rectangular.
Slide the large triangle inside the first slot, and the smaller triangle in the second. Use glue to keep them in place. These are the wings of the plane.
- Finally, glue the plane's tail to the rear top of the plane.
- Don't glue the plane to the board so you can play with it and make it fly!
Ideas
- One of your towers could be three-sided with a triangle-shaped roof, as in the photo. Or what about a 5- or 6-sided tower?
- You might try cutting out a few different tails to see which looks best, before gluing.
- Can you design a helicopter out of polygons?
- A cardboard airplane won't fly far! Make some paper airplanes, too. Try different designs and paper thicknesses and test how well they fly. What polygons do you see in the folded paper airplanes?
- See Number City or Little Village of Shapes for other ideas on making buildings from construction paper.
This math craft was created in January 2004 by Victor B., grade 5,
Philip G. Vroom Elementary School, Ms. Geis's class, Bayonne, New Jersey, U.S. |
