Main40 min
The four-throw notebook
You need: paper, a tape measure or string, something to write with. Nothing to buy.
Step 1 — Say what you want
What do you want your plane to be able to do? Write one sentence.
Examples of what a sentence like that can look like — yours does not have to match any of these: “I want it to fly the whole length of the hallway.” · “I want it to fly further than my first one by half again.” · “I want it to fly straight instead of curving left.”
Parents: do not improve this sentence. It is the only thing in this week that is entirely theirs.
Step 2 — Throw one
Fold a plane. Throw it three times from the same spot. Write down the longest.
Step 3 — Change exactly one thing
One. Not three. Pick one:
Fold the nose tighter
Make the wings wider
Add a small fold up at the back of each wing
Throw it slower
Pick one and say why. Then you can see what happens.
Step 4 — Change one more thing
Same rule. One change. Say what you think will happen first.
Pick one and say why. Then you can see what happens.
Step 5 — Your best shot
Now build the best plane you can, using everything you learned from the three before it.
Line all four planes up next to each other. That row is the thing you made this week.
Step 6 — Look back
| Distance | What you changed | What you thought would happen | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Plane 1 | your number | — | — |
| Plane 2 | your number | your answer | your answer |
| Plane 3 | your number | your answer | your answer |
| Plane 4 | your number | everything you learned | — |
In Step 1 you said what you wanted it to do. Go back and read it.
Pick one and say why. Then you can see what happens.
For the parent — Why this one
Two things are happening here, and they look smaller than they are.
One change at a time. Your child will want to fold the nose, widen the wings and throw harder all at once — and then they will have a better plane and no idea why. Changing one thing is how anyone finds out what actually did the work. It is slower and it is the whole method, and it transfers to everything from cooking to debugging code.
The sentence in Step 1 is the point of the project. Everywhere else this week, we decided what your child would do. That sentence is the one place they decide what finished means. It is why we ask you not to tidy it up — an improved sentence is your goal wearing their handwriting.
And that is also why Step 6 lets them say “I changed my mind about what I wanted.” A success criterion a child is not allowed to revise is not their criterion at all. Finding out halfway through that you wanted something different is not a failure to hit the target. It is the reason for building the thing.
What to listen for: whether the answer to “how do you know?” points at the notebook. “I think the wings” is a guess. “Plane 3 went further and the wings were the only thing I changed” is evidence — and they built the evidence themselves.
Parent script
Step 1. Read this out:
“Before you fold anything — what do you want this plane to be able to do? One sentence.”
Then write down exactly what they say. Do not tidy it. Do not make it more sensible. If it is “I want it to fly to the moon,” write “I want it to fly to the moon.”
Steps 2–5. Your only job is the tape measure and the rule: one change at a time. They will want to change three things at once. Say:
“Change one. Then we’ll know which one did it.”
Step 6. Read out their Step 1 sentence, word for word, in their words. Then:
“Did it?”
Then stop talking. Whatever they say, the only follow-up is:
“How do you know?”