- pictures of trackways
- toy cars or trains
- toy racecar or train tracks (or similar toys with tracks)
- down
- faster
- inclined plane
- ramp
- slower
- surface
- texture
- track
- up
MA Standards:
Language/L.PK.MA.1: Demonstrate use of oral language in informal everyday activities.
Language/L.PK.MA.1.e: Use the most frequently occurring prepositions (e.g., to, from, in, out, on, off, for, of, by, with).
MA Draft STE Standards:
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: Recognizes cause and effect relationships.
Science Knowledge/Scientific Skills and Method: Collects, describes, and records information through discussions, drawings, maps, and charts.
Science Knowledge/Scientific Skills and Method: Observes and discusses common properties, differences, and comparisons among objects.
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: Talk about Tracks
© 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
ELA Focus Skills: Speaking and Listening, Vocabulary
Gather children in a circle. Place the toy tracks in the middle of the circle. Trace the track with your fingers and invite a child to do the same. Say, This is called a trackway. Have you ever seen a trackway before? What do you think they are used for?
- Encourage children to talk about the shape of the track and identify and describe any inclined planes, or ramps.
- Encourage children to use the words up and down as they describe how they are moving the cars on the ramps, and whether the car travels faster or slower while going up or down the ramp.
Show children the pictures of real trackways. Ask children to share a time they have seen real trackways or seen them in books or on video. Talk about how tracks, such as train tracks, keep the train on a straight path, and how the surface texture of the tracks helps objects move on them.
Social Emotional Tip: Emphasize that we are all alike but that each person is special, with his or her own ideas. So each person may visualize the same thing differently.
English Language Learners: Whenever possible, demonstrate word meanings with gestures. Have children repeat the key words and the gestures after you.