Amanda Madden's Class

During our study of communities, we learned about various types of transportation - on land, in the air, and in water. We compared some of these types using Venn Diagrams. Here is an example:

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Next, we read a chapter book called The First Flight. It was about Tom Tate and the Wright brothers. We learned a lot about the first flying machine. It was much different than the airplanes we ride on today. Here are writings about some of our experiences on airplanes:

My First Trip On An Airplane

My first trip on an airplane was freaky. I could see everything and to me people looked like ants or even smaller. The best thing about a plane is that it has a restroom. They also serve food. On that plane ride I was going to Grand Cayman. It's fun to ride on planes.
By Jordan

A Trip On An Airplane

If you were going to Las Vegas it would take about 6 hours. You would even fly over the Grand Canyon. On the plane they would serve you food and drinks. They would have a restroom too. On some planes they even let you watch movies.
By Maya

My First Trip On An Airplane

On my first trip I saw birds. On planes they give you breakfast, lunch, and dinner. They let you sleep in your seat. You get a pin when you get out of the plane. If you want to use the bathroom, you can. If you are good they even let you have candy.
By Emelyne

Favorite Parts of The Trip

On my first trip on an airplane I was pretty nervous. My favorite part was turning. I also liked the take-off and landings.
By Emory

How The World Would Look From A Plane

The people would look like ants. The tall buildings would look like rectangles. Houses would look like squares with triangles on them. Clouds would look like huge cotton balls. I would stay the same.
By Stefani

Emory's mom brought in a huge banner to share with our class. It showed us a picture of the Wright brothers and their flying machine. It was autographed by the living relatives of the Wright brothers (and racecar driver Jeff Gordon). We thought it was really cool!

For homework, students created paper airplanes. They came in all shapes, sizes, and colors. Here are a few examples of our creations:

We took our paper airplanes outside and measured the distances of their flights. Here is a picture of some students measuring the flight distance of their planes.

Finally, we recorded our measurements and created graphs to show the flight distances of our paper airplanes. The longest flight made by one of our airplanes was 30 feet (or 360 inches). Here is one of our team graphs that we created with The Graph Club software.