- "All About Ramps" chart
- balls small enough to roll through the tubes
- boxes and other objects to prop up the tubes
- tubes of different lengths (cardboard mailing tubes are sturdy and work well; foam pool noodles, etc.) to serve as ramps—cut some of the tubes horizontally to form open troughs
- markers
- objects that roll, slide, or stay put on a slide (chalkboard eraser, piece of cardboard, square or rectangular building blocks, rolls of duct tape, balls of various sizes and weights, toy cars)
- down
- fast
- move
- ramp
- roll
- slide
- slow
- stay put
- steeper
- wheel
MA Standards:
Language: L.PK.MA.6 Use words and phrases acquired through conversations, listening to books read aloud, activities, 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.
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:
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:
English Language Arts/Language 2 Participate actively in discussions, listen to the ideas of others, and ask and answer relevant questions.
Science and Technology/Inquiry Skills 4 Record observations and share ideas through simple forms of representation such as drawings.
Explore Together (indoors): Move Along
© Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Department of Early Education and Care (Jennifer Waddell photographer). All rights reserved.
STEM Key Concepts: A ramp, or inclined plane, is a surface with one end higher than the other; The motion and speed of a rolling or sliding object is affected by the texture of the object and the texture of the surface on which it is rolling or sliding
ELA Focus Skills: Compare and Contrast, Speaking and Listening, Vocabulary
Help children recall and share something they observed in their outdoor ramp explorations. Talk about what they discovered about how things move down the slide. Tell children that today they are going to build their own indoor ramps and explore how things with wheels and things without wheels move down the ramp. Have children share what they know about wheeled vehicles. Ask children if they used something with wheels to travel to school today. Encourage children to describe the ride using vocabulary such as fast, slow, roll, etc. (if children walk to school, ask them what things they saw with wheels on their way to school).
Draw attention to the materials you have for building ramps and for supporting the ramps. Explain that children will work in small groups and use the materials to build ramps. Then let children experiment with their own ramps, noticing whether each object rolls, slides, or stays put. Watch and listen. You may want to record their exploration with a video camera.
Prompt when you notice children are interested in something specific, for example, ask,
- What are you noticing about how the car moves on the ramp you made?
- How might you make the bus go more slowly down your ramp? How might you make the car move really fast down your ramp?
- Help children notice how some objects (i.e., those with wheels) roll down the ramp better than others.
Children may discover that a car rolls quickly down the ramp but will slide slowly if placed upside down on the ramp. If a child does not spontaneously make this discovery, you may want to pose questions. Say, Wow, look at that car roll down the ramp! Can you figure out a way to make it slide slowly down the ramp? I wonder if you can think of a way to make it stop.
Reflect and Share
Gather children together to share their observations. Share the videos you took to stimulate conversation as they describe whether the objects with wheels were more likely to roll or slide. Then ask questions such as,
- Why do you think the bus went faster on the wooden ramp than it did on the foam ramp?
- What did you notice happened to the flat sled when you made the ramp steeper?
- Why do you think objects with wheels move better down the ramps than those without wheels?
Record children’s responses on your “All About Ramps” chart. Read the title and the new information with children. Track the words as you do, sweeping down to the next line to show how we read text from left to right. Allow children to continue to explore ramps in the Science and Math Center.