Add new materials to the Learning Center that enable children to build pathways for marbles, such as cardboard tubes, foam pipe insulation tubes, and/or wooden cove molding.
Use different materials to build pathways for marbles in the Learning Center.
Bring out the marbles!
Materials
- Blocks to prop up the ramps
- Cardboard tubes from rolls of toilet paper, paper towels, or gift wrap
- Cove molding cut into lengths of 12″, 18″, and 24″
- Foam pipe insulation tubes
- Large marbles
- Masking tape
Preparation
- Think about any guidelines you may want to set for building ramps. For example, in order to keep marbles contained in the Learning Center, you may want to ask children to build ramps so that they are facing a wall.
- Cut some of the cardboard and foam pipe insulation tubes in half lengthwise so they become open troughs. Tear lengths of masking tape for children to use in taping tubes to surfaces or other tubes.
Directions: Lesson 11
Learning Center
- Add cove molding, cardboard tubes, and foam pipe insulation tubes of various lengths to the existing ramp-building materials. Invite children to use these new materials to build ramps and pathways for large marbles.
- Engage children in conversation as you circulate through the Learning Center. Encourage children to describe the ramps and how marbles move down each ramp. Possible discussion ideas:
- Tell me about your ramp. How did you build it? Is it a steep ramp or a gentle ramp?
- Show me what happens when you put a marble on your ramp. Which way does it roll: up the ramp or down the ramp? Review how gravity pulls things down.
- Ask children to notice how the marbles moved along pathways made of different materials. Did the marbles always roll down the ramps? Encourage children to recognize that gravity is the force that pulls things down.
