Fun ways to explore the science of flight with kids. Kids are fascinated by aviation! Read some books and learn about pioneers of flight through hands-on activities.

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My husband is a third generation pilot. There aren’t very many people in the world who can say that! Most of his research today is focused on aviation, so between that and his family history, our family has a strong aviation focus! Four-year-old Anna recently found The Story of Flight on our bookcase. It inspired her to fly a few paper airplanes – something she was also doing in preschool earlier this year.

Her planes don’t tend to fly very well – she has some design work to do. But she has a lot of fun making and testing them. Over time, she will get better at building planes that fly how she wants them to as she learns the science of flight.

In the meantime, test flights are a great excuse to spend some time outdoors in our ridiculously nice California weather.
More Science of Flight Activities for Kids
What You'll Find on This Page
It turns out we have done many science of flight based activities over the years! I guess it isn’t surprising, given the family fascination with aviation! Many of these activities are pretend play based. Imaginative play can often lead to the level of interest in a subject that truly gets kids learning.
- Make a helicopter that flies
- Make and fly paper airplanes with friends
- Build a cardboard space shuttle with lights
- Build a cardboard airplane
- Make a fancy paper airplane
- Make a paper space shuttle
- Build a space command center
- Crochet an airplane
- Try this free flight stimulator
Science of Flight Books for Kids
We used The Story of Flight as the inspiration for this particular activity, but there are many great books about flight for kids! Here are a few of our favorites:
- The Story of Flight: The Development of Aviation Through the Ages
- Chuck Yeager Goes Supersonic
- Flight: The Complete History
- How to Build a Plane
- The Magic School Bus Taking Flight
- Moonshot: The Flight of Apollo 11
- Rosie Revere, Engineer
- The World Record Paper Airplane Book
- Who Was Amelia Earhart?
- Amelia and Eleanor Go For a Ride
Storybook Science
You can find more fascinating scientific activities inspired by children’s books here:
Do you have an science of flight themed book or activity you think we will enjoy? Please share any ideas you have on my Facebook page, or tag me on Instagram.
MaryAnne is a craft loving educator, musician, photographer, and writer who lives in Silicon Valley with her husband Mike and their four children.
I have a post on Fearless Female Aviators to go with this: https://www.pragmaticmom.com/2013/01/best-books-for-girls/
Love this! My son loves folding paper airplanes too!
My kids go through phases of being interested in paper airplanes, at which point I can’t keep up with all of the paper. Then they forget about them for months or years on end.
How amazingly cool is it to be a THIRD generation pilot?
You do have a lot of flight activity posts. Love it! My kids had me make paper airplanes for them earlier this week. We had to test them outside.