M ATH L ITERATURE U NITS 5 th grade

G O F LY A K ITE The first kites were thought to have been flown in China between 2,500 and 3,000 years ago. Legend has it that a Chinese farmer got the idea for a kite when the wind blew off his hat, and he managed to grab one of the hat’s tie-strings. Kites were later introduced in Japan. Kites play an important role in Japan’s culture. In Japan and all around the world, many different kinds of kites are flown for a number of reasons. In this center, you will learn about geometric shapes or polygons. You will look at the geometric shapes or polygons used to make kites. Kites were also used to measure and track the weather. For many years, meteorologist used kites to carry instruments into the atmosphere to make weather measurements. In this center, you will also work as a meteorologist by studying distances on number lines and a coordinate plane. Begin your center by doing a picture walk through your guidebook. Look at the pictures, read the captions, and write down some questions you have and hope to have answered after completing this center.

W HAT I S A K ITE ? GDY A kite is formally defined as a convex quadrilateral with two adjacent sides. Kites have diagonals that are perpendicular to each other. Draw a kite in the space below based on that definition. If a kite must have two pairs of equal adjacent sides, and a square has four equal sides and four right angles, can a kite be a square? ________ Draw a picture in the space provided to support your answer.

W HAT I S A K ITE ? ( CONT.) If a rhombus must have two pairs of parallel sides and all sides must be equal, can a rhombus be a kite? ________ Draw a picture in the space provided to support your answer. The shapes you drew on the previous page are polygons. Polygons are closed figures made up of line segments. Based on that definition, can you draw some other polygons in the space below?

H AMAMATSU K ITE F ESTIVAL Read pages 4-7 and answer the following questions. What shape is being used to fly the kites shown in the video and in the picture on page 4? _________________ What are the attributes of that shape?_____________________________________ _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ ____________ What shape is being used to fly the kite shown in the picture on page 7? _________________ What are the attributes of that shape?________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ ___________________

Read Pages 8-11 and answer the following questions In China, the earliest kites were made of what material? ______ _____________________________________________________________ They were probably used in religious ceremonies and were thought to scare away evil spirits and bring __________________. How were kites introduced into Japan? ______________________ _____________________________________________________________ A Chinese philosopher name Mo Zi spent ____________________ making a wooden flying hawk, only to have it break after ______________________. Who made a bird-shaped kite that could fly up to three days? ____________________________________________________________

K ITE F ISHING O3Y If General Han Hsin flew a kite over an enemy palace and then measured the string of the kite to be 200 feet, how long would they have to make the tunnel? _______________________________ How are the Japanese using kites in the picture on page 10? Page mention several ways in which kites have been used. Come up with some ideas of your own in which kites can be useful.

M ETEOROLOGISTS Read pages and answer the following questions. As you have learned, kites were once used by meteorologist to measure and track the weather. Use the space below to create a map. Draw an x-axis with a range of -10 to +10. Draw a y-axis with a range of -12 to +12. Plot and label the following weather stations using the points provided. Ellendale, ND (-4, 11) Kansas City, MO (1, 3) Pike’s Peak, CO (-4, 3) Mount Weather, VA (8, 3) Carson City, NV (-8, 4) Boston, MA (10, 9) Fort Worth, TX (-3, -11) Kitty Hawk, NC (10, -1) Phoenix, AZ (-9, -11) San Francisco, CA (-9, -3)

E ARLY A VIATION _I Read pages and complete the following activity. Project: Design the following in the space below: a kite that will lift an object off of the ground, a kite that will carry an object across water, and a kite that will pull an object across land. Label the geometric shapes or polygons you use in your designs.

R ECORD K ITES Read pages and answer the following questions. A basketball court is 94 feet long and 50 feet wide. How does the size of the MegaBite compare to the size of a basketball court The world’s smallest kite is 5/16 inch by 6/16 inch. See if you can create a smaller kite. Does it fly? About how many times longer than the MegaBite is the Cracken? In 2003, a 192-foot-long train of 230 kites was flown to set a Guinness World Record. On average, how many inches apart were the kites? Look in the Guinness World Records to find what other records have been set related to kites.

C ONVEX OR D ELTOID ? Read page 22 and answer the following question. What is the difference between a convex quadrilateral and a deltoid?

A REA OF A K ITE Investigate the Area of a Kite Directions: Follow the directions on page 23.