Children build ramps and then send small toys or objects down the ramps.
Build several ramps that small toys can roll or slide down.
How are these two ramps different?
Materials
- Blocks or other objects to prop up ramps
- Cardboard flats, foam core sheets, or wooden boards
- Classroom objects and toys to send down ramps (children’s choice)
Directions: Lessons 2, 3, 4, 10
Learning Center
- Invite children to build ramps with the materials in the block corner and to send small toys rolling, sliding, and tumbling down the ramps.
- Engage children in conversations as you circulate through the Learning Center. Review how gravity is a force that makes objects fall down. Encourage a focused ramp conversation and support children in observing, describing, and comparing different ramps and the ways in which different toys move down them. Possible discussion ideas:
- Tell me about your ramp. How did you build it? Which end of the ramp is high?
- Show me what happens when you put a (block) at the top of the ramp. Which way did the block move? Did you have to give the block a push to make it slide down? What force made the block slide down?
- Put another object or toy on your ramp. How do you think that (truck) will move down the ramp? Will it slide like the block? Tell me more about that.
