Up to now we had been tracing things that are quite easy to see, but what if we tried to trace something we could not see? Something like THE WIND!
We began our exploration by looking at a wonderful poem about the wind, by Christina Rossetti:
Who has seen the wind?
Neither I nor you:
But when the leaves hang trembling
The wind is passing through.
Who has seen the wind?
Neither you nor I:
But when the trees bow down their heads,
The wind is passing by.
Source: The Golden Book of Poetry (1947)
It was our plan for me to make a real visit for the whole day on Friday 22nd March,
However although I had listened to the weather forecast that week and understood there was going to be some strong winds on Friday, we got much more than we bargained for. I awoke to blizzards of snow and the trip was postponed. In Belfast it was very bad snow and wind, but in Crossmaglen, at that point, Mrs Carolan told me over the phone there was none!
However Mrs Carolan, in my absence, introduced the poem to the children as a point of discussion, as to how we can try and ‘see’ the wind? Of course it is invisible, but the effects of the wind are what were going to set out to explore, once I could come down to the school.
Eventually I made it down, hoping once again for some windy weather. We have to be careful what we wish for….
So Friday 19th April I arrived for our final all-day session and we had a great day, although chilly, it was dry and a little windy, but good for our planned activities.
I had sent Mrs Carolan a link to a great website from USA which actually shows the map of the United States of America showing the wind direction across the country at different times. Have a look at this site and see the live map and weather system:
Although Mrs Carolan was able to link on to this away from class, it was a different matter in the classroom – we could get onto the site, but not see the ‘live’ wind direction flows. In preparation for the children to understand what the map was and a possible activity to plot the wind direction round the school, Mrs Carolan had discussed with the children the ideas of a plan as a shape that represented buildings, but she felt this was very difficult concept for the children. However we did have a closer look at the static images of the wind map from USA on the whiteboard in the classroom.
Our first task was to go outside and see how we could track the wind direction and the children had ready some bubble mixture and bubble blowers.
Everywhere across the school grounds, the children were working very hard to blow bubbles…. they blew and blew….
And blew…..
And finally …………
The children took great delight in seeing the bubbles zoom away in the wind…
By tying ribbons to the trees, the children were able to see exactly which direction the wind was blowing – “its blowing that way!” they said but none of us had a compass to chart it!
Back in the classroom we discussed what we had experienced outside and how we could again track the direction of the wind….. We decided to cut out shapes of clothes and hang them on a ‘washing line’ between two big trees.
I had come that day armed with some very special crepe paper… In black and amber….
It could only be the colours of the Crossmaglen Rangers Football Club!
Look at these fantastic shapes of shorts, shirts, swimsuits that were first drawn out on the whiteboard, then cut very carefully out of crepe paper….
First the children drew their clothing designs onto the back of the paper the next task was to cut the designs out and the concentration was great!
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Lauren and Courtney show their designs. 
Darragh and Pearse have made a complete kit! 
Finn holds his design up. Thats a great shirt! 
Mrs Carolan, Leeane and the children hang the paper clothing shapes out on a washing line between the trees.
Which way is the wind blowing them?
Pearse hangs his clothing out on the line. 
Children from other classes in the school come to see what we are doing! The girls are taking a photograph using an ipad! 
- Before all the paper remains were collected up as waste, we hung them out on the line! These are the ‘NEGATIVE’ shapes – the shapes that were left in the crepe paper when the clothing shapes were cut out. Look at how different they are to the clothing shapes. Their long floaty shapes are also great blowing in the wind!
Aoibhin and Ann gather up all the raggedy negative shapes, thank you! 
- Leeanne helps the children figure out how to make a kite!
Before we set out to make the kites, I introduced the idea of wind resistance. The children experimented with two sheets of paper. They left one sheet flat and the other one they scrunched into a ball. Then they dropped each one at the same time to see which one reached the floor first. It was the scrunched up paper and we had a long discussion as to why this might be………..
The children offered lots of ideas:
The ball was heavier.. but no we said the sheets of paper were the same type of paper!
They were two different shapes and one was a bigger shape – wide and flat and it resisted the air / gravity more.
We were ready to explore with a new activity which was to try to build a kite and see if it could be lifted by the wind outside.
Ann helped another group of children to plan the kite.
The children are using two bamboo sticks taped together as the structure of the kite and crepe paper for the kite body.
The children are figuring out how to attach the paper to the kite structure. 
Aoibhin helped. We were lucky to have so many helpers that day! 
Mrs Carolan and the children at this table are busy making their kite. 
Threading the string through the crepe paper was a very tricky task. 
Mrs Carolan and the children are nearly ready. We were soon ready to take our kites outside to the school grounds.
The children were ready to go. They sprinted off down a slight slope in the playing fields, one child holding the end of the string and another child holding the kite in preparation for take off…….. 
Aoibhin documented the scene using an ipad.
Some kites were lifted by the wind, others dropped.
Either way there were some great runs made! 
Children took it in turns to try and fly the kites. There was an audience too as some of the children from other classes on their break came to see what was happening!
Aaron runs fast with the kite, we thought he was going to take off! 
What was certain was that we were going to see the effects of the wind on our kites……
Holly has a look at the damage to the kite… 
Even though the kite was now ragged by the wind, Holly was persuaded to smile! 
Back in the classroom, the kites were definitely in worse shape than when they went out! Once inside, we had a short discussion about the fact that this was a TRIAL’ run in making the kites and that now we could see the effects of the wind and that we could plan a much better, robust kite so it could withstand the force of the wind.
The children said we needed longer string…
Better material – they suggested polyester not crepe paper!
Lighter weight sticks…
and more wind!
What a great day, full of exploration, making, running, helping each other and working together.
Thank you to the assistants that day – Ann, Aoibhin and Leeanne!
Thank you Mrs Carolan for all the enthusiasm and organizational effort over the whole project and a very big thank you to all the children of P2 class.
It was fun!
