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Paper & Folding Ages 5-10

Paper Airplane Lab

Fold three different planes, then run a flight test to see which design glides the farthest. A craft and a science experiment in one.

Time
⏱️ 20 min
Difficulty
●○○ Easy

🎬 Watch the video

What you'll need

  • A few sheets of A4 paper
  • A marker to label each plane
  • Tape measure or a long hallway with floor tiles to count

Make it, step by step

Follow the pictures — one fold at a time.

  1. 1 A portrait sheet of paper with a dashed centre crease and arrows showing it folding in half lengthwise.

    Put your A4 paper in portrait shape. Fold it in half the long way, press the crease, then open it again.

  2. 2 The top two corners of a portrait sheet folded down to the centre line.

    Fold the two top corners down so they touch the centre line. You should have a neat triangle at the top.

  3. 3 The slanted edges folded toward the centre line to make a sharper paper airplane nose.

    Fold the new slanted edges into the centre line again. This makes a long, sharp nose.

  4. 4 A paper airplane shape folded in half along the centre crease with a circular flip arrow.

    Fold the whole plane in half along the centre crease. Keep the folded flaps on the outside.

  5. 5 Both sides of the folded airplane being folded down to make wings.

    Fold one side down to make a wing, then turn it over and make the other wing match.

  6. 6 A finished dart paper airplane shown from the side with coloured wings.

    Pinch the bottom, lift the wings, and your dart is ready for a test flight.

Three folds, one flight test. The trick that turns “fold a plane” into a real afternoon is comparing designs — give each plane a name, throw it three times, and keep the best distance. Suddenly it’s a tournament.

Fold three contenders

  1. The Dart — classic, fast, nose-heavy. Folds to a sharp point.
  2. The Glider — wider wings, blunt nose. Slower but floaty.
  3. The Stunt — short and wide with the wings turned up at the tips.

(Any three planes you know will do — the point is that they’re different.)

Run the flight test

  • Mark a throwing line on the floor.
  • Each plane gets three throws; record the longest.
  • Throw the same way each time so it’s a fair test.

Use the prompt below to print a tiny results table and a question to investigate (“Do wider wings always fly farther?”).

What’s really happening

Wider wings make more lift but also more drag, so a glider floats but a dart goes faster and farther in a straight line. Turning the wingtips up helps a plane fly straight instead of rolling. Let your kid form a theory before the test — then see if the planes agree.

✨ Prompts to remix it

Paste into ChatGPT (or any assistant) to generate fresh content in seconds.

Make it a science experiment 
Help me turn folding paper airplanes into a simple science experiment for a 7-year-old.
Give me: (1) one clear question to test, (2) a 3-column results table to fill in
(Plane name, Throw 1, Throw 2, Best distance), and (3) two kid-friendly sentences
explaining why wing shape changes how far a plane flies. Keep it short.