an 8 year old's view of early aviation

[AAC Cadet Leader]

Here's a bit of fun...

I subsitituted for a 3rd grade teacher a few days ago and brought along my rental DVD of "Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines" to show the class. They loved it! (Of course, so did I. The first and last time I saw it was when I was a little girl and it was playing in the theaters... I believe it was 1967.)

After we watched the first hour of the movie, I instructed them to pretend that they were one of the pilots in the race and they each needed to write a letter to the race organizer and ask him a question. (We renamed him "Mr. Big Wig," although in the film his name was Lord Rawnsley - I couldn't remember his name at the time.) I put a sample letter on the overhead projector for them to copy with blank underlines where the children were to insert their name and come up with their own question. Then I asked them to draw a picture to go with their letter. Here's a really cute one...



The next day, I was back in their classroom again and the class begged me, "Please, show us more of the 'aeroplane' movie." I gladly did.


~

[crankcase]

Boy, when I was his age, I would have been proud to have had simply SPAD in my vocabulary!
marc

[AAC Cadet Leader]

yeah, ha. that boy asked me for the name of a really fast one and how to spell it.

[mike_baram]

I was a little girl and it was playing in the theaters... I believe it was 1967

I was 23....God, I envy you.

[Sagittarius]

Cute little Letter... reminds me of my first encounter with early aviation

[Pat Daily]

Beautiful artwork--I am so glad we kept some of my daughter's artwork at that age--it is impossible for an adult to duplicate the freedom the kids exhibit in their art before they are corrupted by education.

Pat

[AAC Cadet Leader]

how true that is, pat.

[werner vontobler]

I think what you did is fantastic. As a father of two sons 15 and 7, I have always tried to let them find there own interests. I was introduced to aviation at birth ! My father always had model airplanes and aviation books and magazines. Those magnificent men is one of my all time favs, I even have the golden key comic book of the movie! Anyway my point was to thank you for finding a way to reach kids who in this day and time are so bombarded with soo much junk and negative influences, you found a spark that made them want to learn more. Thank You Again VonTobler

[FliegerJG1]

M.,
Three cheers to you for finding a fun and creative way to bring the joy of early aviation to today's children!!!!

I'm afraid that important elements of the past are getting lost in the crush of the busy lifestyles today.

FliegerJG1

[AAC Cadet Leader]

well, thanks for the compliments, but my reasons were partly selfish. it was pure fun for me to share with them something i enjoy so much and i didn't have to do the normal cold read out of some thick, boring textbook.

this particular teacher told me i could do my own thing. so i let them watch and showed them on the globe where france, england and the english channel were and where all the different countries were where the pilots were from in the movie. we managed to cover social science, geography, english and art into one lesson the best part was watching them roll on the floor, laughing at the different funny scenes. (they sat on the carpet to watch the movie.)

oh, also, afterwards i took them outside for phys ed. the teacher had on her lesson plan to have the kids run two laps around the baseball field as a warm up to our other activity. i had them flap their wings all the way around as they ran, i was the lead bird. i'm sure any adults who saw me must've thought i was nuts. i don't care.

also, as we were running, an ag cat flew over really low - this is out in rural farm country. i taught them how to waggle their wings at the pilot. if he sees you, he'll waggle back. unfortunately, this pilot didn't see us. oh well.