- photos or video of children’s ramp-building explorations
- farther
- ramp
- steeper
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: Building Trackways
© Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Department of Early Education and Care (Jennifer Waddell photographer). All rights reserved.
STEM Key Concepts: An object placed on an inclined plane will roll, slide or stay put; Objects that slide are more likely to move on steeper inclines, and both rolling and sliding objects move faster down steeper inclines
ELA Focus Skills: Speaking and Listening, Vocabulary
Talk with children about their experiences building ramps and trackways. Use any video or photos you have taken of children’s trackways to initiate and guide the discussion.
Review with children what they did to make the ball travel the entire distance of the track: Did they make the track steeper? Did they use a different ball? Did they use a different material? Why did they make those decisions?
Encourage children to talk about their challenges, share their discoveries, and describe how they solved their problems. Watch the videos and hold up the photographs you have as you ask questions such as,
- What did you do to make the ball travel farther? Why do you think that made it go farther?
- How do you think you can make the ball travel even farther? What materials will you use?
Record children’s answers on chart paper for reference during the week.