Earlier this week, the toddler group unintentionally left a provocation behind for us to explore and investigate. PVC tubing, wooden ramps, various plastic balls and a mountain of possibilities and questions to answer.
As soon as we came outside, we were drawn to the new materials and gravitated towards using the balls in various ways with both the tubing and ramps.
A few of us lined up the ramps and tubing to make a course for the balls and noticed some of the balls were too large to fit through the tubes. What else could we use the tubes and balls for? A couple of us used the balls as a stopper in the tubes and brought them over to the sandbox and filled the tubes up. Would the sand fall through the tube if we lifted it out of the sandbox? What sound would the sand make if we turned the tube upside down with balls as stoppers on both ends? While investigating these questions together, we learned that if we filled the tubes up too much, it would be too heavy for us to lift but if we filled it just enough and tilted it, it sounded almost like a rain stick. Nonetheless, the sand was tightly packed and did not fall out!
While some of us explored in the sandbox, many of us were investigating with the wooden ramps on the playground hill. One by one, we took the balls and rolled them down the ramp and off the hill. During this time we explored speed and size as we learned that the smaller lighter balls moved way faster down the hill than some of the heavier ones.
A couple of us, just explored independently with the balls on the playground. Using our hand-eye coordination we threw the balls in buckets, tires and down the ball run!
Through this experience, we practiced sharing and turn-taking, cause and effect, spatial awareness as well as gravity and motion and how it impacts the course. So many learning opportunities were explored through a fun and engaging hands-on experience that we all loved!
