These got the ultimate kid approval – students from other grades complaining that they didn’t get to make them in 2nd grade.

I’ve been interested in carp kites for a while but didn’t know much about them. We learned that they billow in the breeze in Japan for Children’s Day every May. The parents wish for their children to be as strong and persistent as the carp.

We ordered Roylco’s class set of undecorated kites. We studied Japanese carp kites, and then we added color and drawings with Sharpie and paint.

The carp kites are shipped flat and unassembled. The carp kite class set arrives with bendable cardboard rectangles that we glued onto the inside of the carp’s mouth. Then we glued both sides together and tried to open it up to give it volume.

After we put it all together, they chose the yarn they liked the most. The kids laced the yarn through holes I punched so they could be hung.