Foyer Airplane

We love to travel, we don’t get to do it as much as we like or get to go as far as we once did but we still want to instill a love of travel, of exploration and geography in our son and between the trips we do make, playing with maps and activities like this I think we are getting to our goal. I like making props because I find they support more complex pretend play, and keep the activity going as well as the questions and learning going as well! It’s easy to sneak in letter and number learning to see how we did :

1. Gather your materials. You will need some chairs and your child. Really that’s all you need, but we also used some paper,crayons,  a marker, painters tape ( protect your chair finishes) our passports , an atlas and a backpack.
2. Start by making your boarding passes. We chatted about what to add, I asked him where we should be going and we grabbed the atlas and found our destination and decided on our seats ( letter and number recognition! ).
3. He decorated the boarding passes while I made
4. The seat numbers and pilot sign.
5. And a ticket counter sign.
6. Next we arranged the chairs
7. Added the seat numbers ( in order so it took some talking and figuring out)
8. Played- we acted out getting our tickets at the counter, showing them our passports, saying out name etc..
9. Find your seat
10. Fill the rest with friends
11. Next I pretended to be a flight attendant and passed out snacks- he’s sharing with Brother Bear.
12. Have fun by no means should you follow all our steps, make your own but don’t be afraid to use props. After we played like this my son played independently with his stuffed animals many many times, acting out things we did as well as many new scenarios.

Books!

” Planes” by Byron Barton is a basic little board book that kept my son’s attention as a 14 month old long enough to read it. It’s bold colors and basic text are perfect for introducing planes to babies and young toddlers. We used to read this before going on trips with our son when he was tiny and always took it with us as well.

“The Little Airplane by Lois Lenski is the exact opposite to the previous book.  I have been around airplanes all my life and I learned more about them from this picture book than I have from anywhere else before.  To say this book is detailed is an understatement , it goes step by step how a prop plane works, and what a pilot does during the flight. The retro pictures are both a favorite of mine and my son’s, they take you back and make you feel like you are in another place and time. This book will be too long for young toddlers, there is a lot of text.

“Angela’s Airplane” by Robert Munsch captures children’s fantasies about flying planes and adds in a cautionary tale about what could happen if the fantasy became reality. Angela finds her way onto a plane and starts pushing buttons, before she knows it she is in the air alone. The plane crashes but she is ok, and promises to never fly another plane. Do you think she keeps that promise? My son adores this book and while you may think that the crash would be scary for kids it’s not , the ridiculousness of a 5 year old flying a plane makes the crash equally as fictional though effective in opening a dialogue about touching buttons you shouldn’t!