On December 17, 1903, at Kill Devil Hills near Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, Orville and Wilbur Wright made the first flights in a powered airplane a pilot could steer. By law, December 17 is Wright Brothers Day, and each year the President issues a proclamation for it. These texts tell how two brothers who ran a bicycle shop in Dayton, Ohio, got there, by reading, watching birds and testing their ideas again and again.
Six pages. Page 1 holds two short texts with questions: the brothers in Dayton, and their gliders at Kitty Hawk and the wind tunnel. Page 2 tells the day of the first flights. Page 3 matches six flying words to their meanings and page 4 causes to their effects. Page 5 is a timeline from 1870 to 1910, and page 6 a letter home written as someone who watched the first flight.
Read page 2 on December 17. Measure 120 feet in a hallway or on the playground to see how far the first flight went, then 852 feet for the last. Before page 6, talk about what a witness might have seen, heard and felt that morning.
Make a paper airplane together, change one thing at a time, and test how far it flies, as the brothers did with their wing shapes.
Short history texts on Wilbur and Orville Wright, from a toy helicopter and a bicycle shop to the gliders at Kitty Hawk and the first flights of December 17, 1903. Students answer questions, match flying words and causes to effects, read a timeline and write a letter home as a witness to the first flight.
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