Learning About Korea Through Its Kites

title: Teaching the Korean Bird Kite

Level: Primary (grades K – 2/3)

Length: two to five sessions, including student readings, kite making, and kite flying. Sessions can be taught in a different order, with some combined or omitted. The kite alone can be constructed in 40 minutes (minimal decoration and no flying time).

Curriculum Integration (readings with activities address the following grade level expectations):

Science: understands simple propertiesof common natural objects; understands how to ask a question about objects, organisms, and events in the environment.

Mathematics: understands meaning of addition and subtraction (cutting and taping tail pieces; more or fewer depending on wind conditions); understands attributes to describe and compare objects; understands concept of symmetry; estimates length using non-standard units.
Social Studies: identifies the ways cultural traditions are expressed through artistic creations and use of the environment.

Visual Arts: identifies line direction and free-form shapes; uses art tools and materials safely and appropriately; applies a creative process in the arts; identifies personal aesthetic choices.

Language Arts: uses context to predict and confirm meaning of unknown words; uses new vocabulary from informative/expository test; identifies important parts of informative / expository text; reads to learn new information; reads to perform a task; writes for different purposes; writes in a variety of forms/genres (answers to questions).

Cultural Integration: Asia

focus: These activities introduce simple Korean vocabulary and concepts about Korean culture for very young students through a reading about the country’s national emblem, which is represented in one of the country’s kites. They establish a cultural context for the easy-to-make, easy-to-fly Korean bird kite, which is available in a kit. These readings can be supplemented with a general reading about flying a kite.

Materials:

Student reading: The Korean Magpie [PDF file]

AND/OR

Student reading: Flying a Kite [PDF file]

Extension Activities: Writing & Discussing

Scissors; Scotch tape; markers, pens, crayons, and/or watercolors, per student
Korean Bird Kite Kit (with paper pattern, spars, flying line & winder), per student

session one: Student Reading (30-45 minutes)

The reading The Korean Magpie provides a cultural context for a design adapted from a traditional Korean kite that is simple enough for very young students to make.

optional session two: Student Reading/Activities (30-45 minutes)
Use the reading Flying a Kite to introduce basic concerns and techniques in flying a kite, including being safe and partnering with the wind. Extension activities (wind vocabulary and experiences, kite-eating tree; proverb) provided.

sessions three – five: Decorating, Constructing, and Flying the Korean Bird Kite (30-90 minutes). These activities could be grouped into one or two longer sessions: cutting out and decorating the sail; constructing the kite; flying the kite.

Follow assembly instructions from the kite kit.
Cutting and taping the tails will take the most time for young students. Teachers/ adult helpers can speed this process with a paper cutter. Tails can also be decorated.
Decorating the kite sail can be integrated with more sustained visual arts instruction in: free-form shape; primary and secondary colors; symmetry in design.
Take extra tails and spars, plus tape, to the flying field for repairs or additions in heavy winds.

Additional Resources

The website Magpie in Nature & Myth, edited by Peter Y. Chou, provides links to information and beliefs about magpies from several cultures. Life in Korea explains Korean associations with many animals, including magpies and tigers: clear color images make this an attractive site for young children. The site also links to a story, “The Magpie and the Bell,” about a young man who saves a magpie’s nest from attack by a huge snake and, in turn, is magically rescued by the birds. Illustration from the website.

More stories about the Korean tiger (a popular folk character, who has both good and bad characteristics) appear in Korean Children’s Favorite Stories by Kim So-un (2004), a newly illustrated edition of a 1955 collection of folk tales. The National Fish and Wildlife Foundation sponsors a Save The Tiger Fund: the “Kids and Teachers” section of its website includes three “Korean Stories of the Tiger” by Laurie Baker.

Seattle Art Museum offers “Visit to Grandfather’s House,”, an online exploration of Korean culture. Activities geared to primary-level students include creating “a balanced fan design” and a wrapping cloth. Among the resources is a Korean folk tale, “The Queen Swallow’s Gift.” Another avenue for introducing very young students to Korean culture is through the books of Newbery-award-winning writer Linda Sue Park, whose book, The Kite Fighters, is highly recommended for older students, grades 3-7, who are making the Kono Korean Fighter kite. Park’s Bee-bim Bop! (about Korean foods) and The Firekeeper’s Son (a legend set in the nineteenth century) are both appropriate for primary-level students.

Community members visiting the Renton Technical College International Fair, Renton , WA , in June 2006 made Korean Bird kites. Thanks to Beth Hale for organizing kite making projects at this event.

First posted December 2006.