“The Slide” Fingerplay

Circle Time: Introduction

1. Ask children to discuss their experiences with slides, big and small. What do you do first when you play on a slide? What do you do next?
2. Teach children the fingerplay “The Slide.”
   • Climb up the ladder
     (Walk the fingers of your right hand up your left arm.)
   • Up, up high.
   • Sit at the top . . .
     (Fingers on your shoulder; wave a finger. Raise your left arm at an angle to be a slide.)
   • Down you slide!
     (Slide your right hand down your left arm with a flourish.)
3. Have children repeat the fingerplay, then encourage them to discuss how gravity makes things move down a slide. Possible discussion ideas:
   • What makes us slide down a slide?
   • Encourage multiple responses. (For example: It’s slippery. The slide slants down. Gravity pulls you down. Someone can push you.)
   • Rephrase children’s answers, reinforcing key vocabulary. Yes, gravity is a force that can pull you down a slide. What happens if someone pushes you with a big force?
   • Prompt children to build on each other’s ideas. Do you agree with what (child’s name) says? Who can think of another reason why we slide down a slide?
4. Repeat the fingerplay together.

Circle Time: Wrap-Up

1. Revisit the slide discussions you had at Circle Time. Discuss what causes things to go down a slide.
2. Then have children turn to a partner and act out the fingerplay “The Slide” together.
   • Climb up the ladder
     (Walk the fingers of your right hand up your left arm.)
   • Up, up high.
   • Sit at the top . . .
     (Fingers on your shoulder; wave a finger. Raise your left arm at an angle to be a slide.)
   • Down you slide!
     (Slide your right hand down your left arm with a flourish.)
3. Encourage children to come up with questions about slides. What do you wonder about slides? What questions do you have? Model asking some questions yourself. I wonder . . . if a ball would roll or slide down a slide, if all slides are the same shape, etc.
4. Tell children that in the coming days, you will all work together to try and find answers to some of these questions.

Circle Time: Introduction

1. Ask children to discuss their experiences with slides, big and small. What do you do first when you play on a slide? What do you do next?
2. Together, chant the fingerplay “The Slide.”
   • Climb up the ladder
     (Walk the fingers of your right hand up your left arm.)
   • Up, up high.
   • Sit at the top . . .
     (Fingers on your shoulder; wave a finger. Raise your left arm at an angle to be a slide.)
   • Down you slide!
     (Slide your right hand down your left arm with a flourish.)
3. Have children repeat the fingerplay, then encourage them to discuss how gravity makes things move down a slide. Possible discussion ideas:
   • What makes us slide down a slide?
   • Encourage multiple responses. (For example: It’s slippery. The slide slants down. Gravity pulls you down. Someone can push you.)
   • Rephrase children’s answers, reinforcing key vocabulary. Yes, gravity is a force that can pull you down a slide. What happens if someone pushes you with a big force?
   • Prompt children to build on each other’s ideas. Do you agree with what (child’s name) says? Who can think of another reason why we slide down a slide?
4. Repeat the fingerplay together.