The Kites

Answer the following questions and share them with your teacher and classmates. (a) Have you ever flown a kite or seen someone fly it? Where? When? (b) Describe the kite—colour(s), shape, design of tail, any other detail. (c) What did you think when you saw the kite up in the sky?

Search the internet for videos on Kite Festivals and watch them with your teacher and classmates. (a) Share the things with your teacher that you saw and what the people were doing. (b) Would you like to participate in this kind of festival? Why? (c) What kind of kite would you like to fly?

Now, think and answer. (a) List two more things that you want to add to the picture. (b) If I were the child, I would _____. (c) If I were the kite, I would _____.

Read the poem silently. As you read, mark the given statements as True or False.

Complete the following sentences. (a) The poet says that the kites are like coloured birds – See the kites fly/Like coloured birds in the sky. The kites have been compared to _____ because they _____. (b) The child wishes to be like air – I wish I were small / And as light as air. The child wishes to be as _____ as _____. The child wishes this to be able to _____ on a kite and fly.

In the last stanza, the two words that the poet repeats are _____, _____ to tell us that the kite is flying _____ high.

Study each stanza and underline the rhyming words from the end of each line. Also, circle the end words in the stanzas that do not rhyme.

Read the given lines from the poem and answer the following questions. 'What fun it would be / To look right down, / Over the park / And the rooftops of town.' (a) Circle the word that does not share the same feeling as 'fun': joy, excitement, care, happiness. (b) Which line tells us that the poet was somewhere above? (c) Choose the scene the child saw.

Answer the following questions. (a) How does the poet describe the kites in the first two lines? (b) Why does the child say that they have to climb a tree first to get onto the kite? (c) What are the songs that the child hears when flying atop the kite? (d) Why did the people look up at the child and stare? If you looked up and saw that, what feelings would you have? (e) If you were the kite carrying the child high up in the air, what would you tell them?

Let us create a poem using words in a kite! The first line is the subject. Keep this to one word. Use a noun. The second line is two describing words for the noun. Line three includes three action words. Line four uses two words that describe the action words. Line five is one word that has the same meaning as the subject/synonym. This is called a cinquain poem. Now, create a cinquain poem yourself on anything you like.

The poet uses the word 'fly' and 'drift' to tell us about the kite's movement. (a) Circle the words that match with the 'drift' movement. You can choose more than one word. slow fast quick upward downward round and round float (b) Study some other words about the kite's movement and share what type of movement they show. glide dive soar swoop circle

The poet has used expressions like—up in the air; look right down; stay up there; stand and stare (a) Read how these expressions are used in the poem. (b) In pairs, make sentences using these expressions. Discuss with your teacher and then write in your notebooks.

Share a kite-flying experience with your classmates. If you have not flown a kite yet, share an experience of watching kites fly. Give details—Where? When? Why? How? Speak in complete sentences.

Imagine yourself as a kite. In pairs, first discuss all the following hints. What shape of kite are you? What colours do you have? What other parts of yourself are you happy about? Where are you? Who do you belong to? What activities do you do? Who are your friends? Do you have any message for humans?

Now, write a paragraph of about 100 words, with the title—I am a Kite.

(a) Find out the steps to make a kite. (b) Follow the steps and create your own kite. Get it to school to show your teacher and classmates. (c) Write a message on the kite. For example: Happy Independence Day!