Parent/Child Paper Airplane Designs

This activity requires parent participation. There are two parts to the experiment/contest: distance and length of time airborne.

First children will make paper airplanes in their classrooms with their teachers. We will record their time and distance.

Then they will take their planes home and work with parents to determine if they need to start over or just change a few things to improve on their time and distance. Parents must work with their children at home to come up with the best paper airplane design.

Building the Paper Airplanes:

Step 1 — Encourage the children to research aerodynamics before they being designing their own planes.  Look up “what makes paper airplanes fly”.

Step 2 — Provide four 8.5″ x 11″ sheets of paper to each child.  Three planes must be made of paper, only one place can be made using the following materials: one standard paper clip, three inches of tape, a dab of glue, three staples.

Step 3 — Allow children to work on their paper airplanes for as long as they need.  Only two planes will be admitted into the competition.

Distance Test Rules:

Each student must throw his or her own paper plane while the teacher records both feet & inches.  All distances must be measured from the starting line to the point where the plane first touches the ground or floor.  Each student has up to three changes to get their best distance.

Time in Air Test Rules:

Each student must throw their airplane while the teacher times the flight with a stopwatch.  We will report times in seconds & hundreds of seconds (i.e. 2.45 seconds).  Each student will have up to three chances to get their longest time in the air.

Please bring the paper airplane back for the contest on March 14, 2025.