Junior Aviators

This program is a great introduction to museums, learning about airplanes, and refining fine motor skills creating a small puppet for students to take home. It balances learning from a guided discussion with completing a hands-on activity - a great way to learn using multiple senses. This program begins with a story! Together, the class will hear the tale of Freddie the Flyer written by Fred Carmichael, and Danielle Metcalfe-Chenail. This story is an inspiring story of Freddie Carmichael, the first Indigenous commercial pilot in the Arctic! This tale is a great place to begin the program, since after, we discuss with students about their travels on commercial flights. From there, students will learn about the fuselage of aircraft, and begin to build a puppet. With our puppets, we travel to the Hangar's historic Douglas DC-3, and we see a real airplane up close! As we travel back to the classroom, students learn about some other of the Hangar's passenger planes along the way. Once back in the classroom, we learn about a different job airplanes have - fast travel! Discussing the difference between commercial airliners and jets, we compare the two, and create another puppet of a jet plane! Students then travel into the Hangar space once more, to see more of our historic aircraft. Students will love the take-home crafts, and this program is a beautiful blend of storytelling, crafts, and learning!