Children close their eyes and imagine they are sliding down a long slide, first gentle and slow, then steep and fast!
Pretend you’re at the top of a very tall slide. Then give yourself a push!
Feel the wind blowing in your face. Whoosh! We’re going FAST!
Materials
- 2 cardboard flats (about 18″ long)
- Blocks to use as a base for a gentle and a steep ramp
- Toilet paper tube
Directions: Lesson 4
Circle Time: Wrap-Up
- Hold one cardboard ramp at a gentle angle and one at a steep angle as you engage children in a discussion about their experiences with gentle and steep slides. Tell children that on playgrounds, there are often gentle slides with short ladders—not too high. Sometimes there are also steep slides with tall ladders. Use prompts to help children describe and compare, such as:
- Have you ever come down a steep slide? What is it like?
- What is it like to come down a gentle slide? How is it different from coming down a steep slide?
- Have children close or cover their eyes and imagine they are climbing up, up, up a tall ladder to the top of a tall, steep slide. Now have them imagine they are sitting at the top of the slide. Ready? Let’s go! Narrate a story something like this:
- Down we go! At first the slide is gentle, and the ride is slow and calm. Ahhh, it feels lovely!
- Now the slide is getting a little steeper and you start sliding faster. Wheee! It’s exciting! You can feel the wind blowing in your face as you whoosh down.
- Whoa! It’s almost a little too fast, so you start to brake by pushing your feet down and pushing your hands against the sides. . . .
- And then the slide flattens out, and the ride becomes gentle again. You are moving slower and slower until you come to a stop at the bottom of the slide. . . .
- Do you want to go back up again?
- Use blocks to set up a steep ramp and a gentle ramp in the middle of the circle. Ask children to point to the steep ramp and then to the gentle ramp. Use discussion ideas, such as:
- If you wanted an object to roll down a ramp really fast, which ramp would you place it on: a gentle ramp or a steep ramp?
- What if you wanted an object to roll down a ramp slowly? Which ramp would you place it on?
- Hold up the toilet paper tube. Do you want this tube to roll down a ramp fast or slow? Which ramp should we place it on?
- Place the tube on the ramp children select. Does it roll down the ramp at the speed they predicted?
