- “All About Ramps” chart
- boxes and other objects to prop up cardboard ramps
- flat pieces of cardboard to serve as ramps
- markers
- objects to roll down the ramps
- pictures of indoor and outdoor ramps
- down
- ramp
- roll
- slide (n.)
MA Standards:
English Language Arts/Speaking and Listening/SL.PK.MA.1: Participate in collaborative conversations with diverse partners during daily routines and play.
English Language Arts/Language/L.PK.MA.1: Demonstrate use of oral language in informal everyday activities.
English Language Arts/Language/L.PK.MA.6: Use words and phrases acquired through conversations, listening to books read aloud, activities, and play.
Head Start Outcomes:
Language Development/Receptive Language: Attends to language during conversations, songs, stories, or other learning experiences.
Language Development/Expressive Language: Uses language to express ideas and needs.
PreK Learning Guidelines:
English Language Arts/Language 2: Participate actively in discussions, listen to the ideas of others, and ask and answer relevant questions.
Talk Together: Move Down the Ramp
© Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Department of Early Education and Care (Jennifer Waddell photographer). All rights reserved.
STEM Key Concepts: A ramp or an inclined plane, is a surface with one end higher than the other; An object placed on an inclined plane will roll, slide, or stay put
ELA Focus Skills: Speaking and Listening, Vocabulary
Educator Prep: Set up a ramp in the Science and Math Center. Hang various photographs and illustrations of ramps found indoors and outdoors around the Center area.
Ask children to share the ramps they discovered on the way home or at home.
- Have children describe the ramps they saw.
- Then ask them to find a similar ramp in the collection of photographs or illustrations.
- Display the “All About Ramps” chart and have children add their ramp picture to the chart.
Direct children's attention to the ramp materials. Review with children their experiences with sending objects down the slide. Tell children they will explore making different objects roll down the ramps.
English Language Learners: Name each action (roll, slide) and have children demonstrate it with an object.
Social Emotional Tip: Children may disagree about how an object will roll. Encourage both sides to communicate why they think it will move a certain way. Suggest that they observe carefully and talk about how the object moves down the ramp after they explore.