Air Preschool Theme

Words to learn : airbag, airborne, angle, blow, energy, fall, fast, faster, gas, guide, inflate, invisible, lift, parachute, rescue, sky, steer, trap, wind

Blow the Man Down, from Bubbles, Rainbows and Worms
What you need :

• Balloon
• Straw
• Cup

Tie the balloon to the straw and put it under the cup. Using the straw, blow the balloon so until the cup tips. Then try to tip the cup just by blowing with the straw.

Bags of air (a Variation, this is what we actually did)

We didn't have any ballon so we used a small ziploc bag. The inflated ziploc bag turned into an airbag and we were having our best air preschool theme activity. We watched 'Animal Rescue' on the weekend and saw how the firefighters used an airbag to rescue a dog trapped between two rocks.

So we used our 'airbag' (the ziploc bag and straw) to rescue people trapped in cars (Don's little toy car and an imaginary figure), animals trapped between rocks (his toy animals), and other things around the house. He was off playing firefighter rescuing all his toys.

Cotton ball Race
What you need :

• Straws
• Cotton ball

Play soccer using the straws to blow the cotton ball. Which cotton ball goes faster ? Why ? The harder you blow, the faster it goes. You can also let children try steering the cotton ball by blowing from different angle.

Kite making

Flying a kite is fun. Children will learn that a kite won't fly without any wind. The wind pushes the kite up and keeps it airborne. Making the kite is a fun air preschool theme activity, but flying it (well, you need to wait for the wind).

What you need :

• Paper bag
• Stickers, crayons, markers, anything to decorate your kite
• Streamers
• Yarn or string

Decorate paper bag with stickers or color with crayons, markers, anything. Put a few streamers to make the tails. Use punch holes to make four holes in the corners of paper bag. Tie with string/yarn.

Parachute

A parachute is another way to help children see how air help us. As a parachute falls, air is trapped under it and slows the fall (without the air, there'll be a crash).
What you need :

• A piece of fabric, or handkerchief
• string
• a small object, i.e. pinecones, spool

Attach four strings to each corner of the fabric. Tie a spool to the end of the strings. Drop the parachute (choose a chair or staircase).

Use different materials and shape for the parachute and help children figure out which ones make the best parachute.