- blocks of different sizes
- cardboard toilet paper tubes
- flat pieces of cardboard or wood
- large marbles
- small balls such as ping pong or golf balls
- tennis balls
- down
- ramp
- slant
MA Standards:
Speaking and Listening/SL.PK.MA.5: Create representations of experiences or stories (e.g., drawings, constructions with blocks or other materials, clay models) and explain them to others.
MA Draft STE Standards:
Physical Sciences/Motion and Stability; Forces and Interaction/PS2.A: Plan and carry out investigations of the behaviors of moving things.
Physical Sciences/Motion and Stability; Forces and Interaction /PS2.B: Using evidence, discuss ideas about what is making something move the way it does and how some movements can be controlled. [Cause and Effect, Stability and Change]
Head Start Outcomes:
Approaches to Learning/Initiative and Curiosity: Demonstrates flexibility, imagination, and inventiveness in approaching tasks and activities.
Social Emotional Development/Social Relationships: Cooperates with others.
PreK Learning Guidelines:
English Language Arts/Language 4: Engage in play experiences that involve naming and sorting common words into various classifications using general and specific language.
Science and Technology/Physical Sciences 20: Create representations of experiences or stories (e.g., drawings, constructions with blocks or other materials, clay models) and explain them to others.
Science and Technology/Physical Sciences 21: Explore and describe various actions that can change an object’s motion such as pulling, pushing, twisting, rolling, and throwing.
Ramp Races!
© Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Department of Early Education and Care (Jennifer Waddell photographer). All rights reserved.
Skill Focus: Predicting, Small Motor Skills, Vocabulary
Have children work with partners to build a ramp and then “race” objects down it. Develop children’s social relationship skills by encouraging them to cooperate with their partners as they build their ramps.
Help children expand their explorations by prompting them with ideas to spark further exploration from them. Ask questions such as,
- What if you used a larger pinecone to race the smaller one, what do you think would happen?
- What do you think would happen if you raced the small stuffed rabbit with the plastic banana from the kitchen area?
- Did you notice what happened to the pebble when you made the slant lower?