✈️ Up in the Air, Out on the Road

Week 31 • Tuesday • The Wright Brothers and Henry Ford

📖 Reading Time

For thousands of years, people dreamed of flying like birds. In 1903, two brothers from Ohio made the dream come true. Wilbur and Orville Wright built a flying machine and flew it at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. The first flight lasted only 12 seconds — shorter than a TV commercial — but it changed the world!

Around the same time, Henry Ford found a way to build cars quickly on an assembly line, where each worker added one part as the car rolled by. Cars became cheap enough for ordinary families.

Soon Americans were driving to work and flying across the sky. The world felt smaller — and faster — than ever before.

✏️ Reading Questions

1. Who flew the first airplane, and in what year?

2. How long did the first flight last?

3. What was Henry Ford's assembly line?

4. How did cars and planes make the world feel?

📝 Vocabulary Grid

Write what each word means in your own words.

airplane
flight
assembly line
factory
engine
travel

✏️ True or False

Write T for true or F for false in each circle.

The Wright brothers flew the first airplane in 1903.
The first flight lasted three hours.
The first flight happened at Kitty Hawk.
Henry Ford invented the assembly line for cars.
The assembly line made cars cost more.
Cars and planes made travel much faster.

📊 Wright Brothers or Henry Ford?

Write W for the Wright brothers or F for Henry Ford.

ClueW or F?
We built the first flying machine.
I built cars on an assembly line.
Our first flight lasted 12 seconds.
I made cars cheap enough for families.
We flew at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina.
We were brothers from Ohio.

🧠 Think About It

1. The first flight was only 12 seconds. Why was it still one of the biggest moments in history?

✏️ Fill in the Blanks

1903Wright12Fordassemblyfamilies

1. The first airplane flew in .

2. It was built by the brothers.

3. The first flight lasted seconds.

4. Henry built cars quickly.

5. He used an line.

6. Cars became cheap enough for ordinary .

🎨 Draw It!

Draw the Wright brothers' first flight at Kitty Hawk — the flyer in the air and the sandy beach below!

📊 Review

I learned...Circle one
Who flew the first airplaneYES   /   NOT YET
How Henry Ford changed car-makingYES   /   NOT YET
How travel changed AmericaYES   /   NOT YET