The children’s interest in the flow of water was still high when the weather became too cool for water play. Wondering if they might make a connection between the flow of water and the way a ramp works, we offered balls to go with the lengths of gutters they had been using. An advantage to taking water out of the equation was that the gutters could come out of the sand. The children used the hill as a sort of head start for the inclined planes they knew they needed.
Here is a gallery of some of the children’s exploration with ramps and balls from late Autumn, through Winter and Spring. Click on the upper left corner of a picture to see the captions.
-
- Exploring multiple paths down
-
- Solving the problem of runaway balls
-
- The children experiment with levels of incline.
-
- Exploring angles
-
- The 25 foot rubber ramp offered a new dimension to ramp work: flexibility.
-
- The children placed the PVC arches at the points where the ball kept leaving the ramp on its trip downhill.
-
- But then they turned the arches over and found it solved the problems better, because it changed the ramp’s orientation.
-
- Making the path for the ball more interesting
-
- The children combined the gutters and rubber ramps with objects found in the shed.
-
- Eventually they took the ramps off of the hill and found other ways to secure an incline. They also experimented with other missiles; here they send Duplo cars down the ramps.
You must be logged in to post a comment.