Kite History Worksheet (printable, with answers)
A short reading passage about the history of kites, from ancient China to Lawrence Hargrave's box kite at Stanwell Park, with eight questions and an answer key.
How to use this page
- Print the worksheet. It runs to two pages with the design box.
- Children read the passage, then answer the questions on the lines.
- Tick Show answers and print again for a marking copy.
- Untick the design-a-kite box if you want a shorter activity.
About this kite printable
The passage is written for children of about 8 to 12. It covers where kites are said to have begun, what early kites were made from, how kites were used for signals, science and weather, and how the Australian inventor Lawrence Hargrave's box kites helped the path to powered flight. The questions mix finding information, true or false, a little maths and an opinion question. The facts were checked against published histories in October 2026. The date of the first kites is a traditional claim rather than a proven date, and the passage says so.
Tips
- Read the passage aloud together first with younger children, and talk about any new words, such as patent and spar.
- Find Stanwell Park on a map of New South Wales. It is on the coast south of Sydney.
- Question 7 uses this year's date, so the answer changes each year.
- Follow up by making the paper kite template and labelling its parts.
Common questions
What age is this worksheet for?
It suits children of about 8 to 12, in Years 3 to 6 or the same grades elsewhere.
Did Benjamin Franklin's kite really get struck by lightning?
No. That is a common belief, but the accounts of his experiment say it was not struck. The worksheet makes the point that flying a kite near a storm is extremely dangerous.
Everything on this page is made in your browser and nothing you type is sent anywhere. Printed pages carry a small makekite.com footer and a faint kite in the background. For more, see the worksheets and printable paper.