Airplane High Frequency Words

I am pleased to say that Adam is loving our new High Frequency Word series. Each day he comes home from school and asks “what words we are playing with today”. I love that he uses the term “play with” rather than “learn”. As this weeks Unit Study Blog Hop is airplanes I created an Airplane High Frequency Words activity.

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Regular readers will know I have a Duck Tape obsession. Over the past two years we have used the colourful tape in a variety of different play activities.  You can imagine my excitement when Duct Tape sent us the latest addition to their range – Chalkboard Duck Tape. This is tape that you can write on with chalk and erase easily. We put the Chalkboard Duck Tape to the test when creating our miniature airport.

The Chalkboard Duck Tape was easy to cut, peel and stick to our craft table. Unlike most Duck Tape products the Chalkboard tape is smooth and lays flat against the table. I made a runway along with six plane hangars.

I decided to write the high frequency words onto the hangars rather than onto the individual planes. Adam has an amazing memory and I knew he would remember what coloured plane went with each word. I also wanted to be able to swap the words around easily and add new high frequency words when he received them from school. The chalkboard tape was ideal because I could write the words using White Chalk and rub them off.

Next I needed an air traffic control tower. Using a Black Permanent Marker I attempted to draw an outline of a tower onto a white cardboard tube.

During our first high frequency word activity I realised that Adam likes to have a sensory element to activities. For this activity I made an airplane sensory bin.

I added Green & Blue Aquarium Fish Tank Gravel Substrate (to represent the earth) and Cotton Wool Balls (to represent the clouds) into a White Ikea Trofast Storage Box. I wouldn’t recommend using fish tank gravel as a sensory bin base if there is a chance your little one will place the tiny stones in their mouth. I placed the airplane sensory bin next to the table at the end of the runway.

Finally I added six aircraft erasers that I purchased from Wilco (similar to these). It wasn’t until Adam was playing with the planes that I realised they looked more like space shuttles but it didn’t stop Adams enjoyment.

After Adam had explored the Chalkboard runway and airplane sensory bin we started the activity. I pretended to be an air traffic controller. “This is air traffic control. Plane “she” is ready for take off”. Adam had to find the plane in the “was” hangar and taxi it down the runway before taking off. Adam liked to fly the plane around the living room before it entered the airplane sensory bin.

Once each plane had taken off, the air traffic controller asked Adam to return planes and make it return to the correct hangar. “This is air traffic control. Please could the yellow plane return to “was” hangar.” Adam had to find the yellow plane in the sensory bin, make it land and taxi it back to the “was” hangar.

Once we had played the activity for some time I changed the words written on the hangars. The Chalkboard Duck Tape lived up to its promise. It was easy to wipe the chalk away and it didn’t leave any evidence of the previous word. I wrote new high frequency words using white chalk and play could continue. Our Airplane High Frequency Words activity was certainly a hit and I can see our Chalkboard Duck Tape being used a lot in the future.

Disclaimer: We were sent Chalkboard Duck Tape to review. All thoughts and opinions are our own.

For more Airplane inspired learning activities take a look at:

Styrofoam Cup Airplane Craft from Playdough and Popsicles

Exciting Reading List of Airplane Children’s Books from Crafty Mama in ME

Airplane Crafts for Kids from Look! We’re Learning!

Airplane Board Books for Toddlers from The Jenny Evolution

Airplane Travel from iGameMom

Learning Numbers with Airplanes from My Storytime Corner

Airplane Preschool Printables from Living Life and Learning

Airplane Color by letter Sight Words from Mrs. Karle’s Sight and Sound Reading

Clothespin Airplane Engineering Challenge from Schooling a Monkey

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