- cardboard and plastic tubes (cut in half lengthwise)
- faster
- ramp
- slide
- slower
MA Standards:
English Language Arts/Speaking and Listening/SL.PK.MA.1: Participate in collaborative conversations with diverse partners during daily routines and play.
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.
Head Start Outcomes:
Approaches to Learning/Initiative and Curiosity: Demonstrates flexibility, imagination, and inventiveness in approaching tasks and activities.
Approaches to Learning/Cooperation: Plans, initiates, and completes learning activities with peers.
Logic and Reasoning/Reasoning and Problem Solving: Classifies, compares, and contrasts objects, events, and experiences.
Science Knowledge/Scientific Skills and Method: Uses senses and tools, including technology, to gather information, investigate materials, and observe processes and relationships.
PreK Learning Guidelines:
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.
Science and Technology/Technology and Engineering 23: Explore and describe a wide variety of natural and man-made materials through sensory experiences.
Sand Chutes
© Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Department of Early Education and Care. All rights reserved.
Skill Focus: Compare and Contrast, Vocabulary
Set up hollowed-out tubes to create “chute” ramps down which children can pour sand. Use chutes made of different materials such as cardboard and plastic. Ask children to discuss if the sand flows faster down one type of chute and why. Encourage children to use vocabulary they are learning this week such as faster, slower, slide, and ramp to describe their experiences working with the sand. Guide children to think of ways to make the sand flow faster down the ramp. (make the incline higher)
Adaptation: If sand is not available, use rice or beans.