Wednesday, February 13, 2013

Toddler Talk: Ramps and Balls

Our preschool teaching staff and kids have had the privilege of being participants in a program called 'Numbers Work'. We learn all about ways to incorporate concepts of math into our curriculum such as patterning and counting (and much more). It is sometimes hard to adapt activities created for 3 to 5 year olds into something that a toddler can understand and participate in, but one of our last trainings supplied us with a great one!

We were given a stack of moldings (like for your house....baseboards I think, they were about 2 inches wide and curved) and a bag of balls (varying sizes, shapes and weights). I set a few of them up out in the hallway of our school...some taller then others...with a basket of balls for each child! Then I invited the kids out to explore what they could do with the activity. Which ramp makes the ball go faster? Can you roll 2 balls at the same time? What happens? Does the heavy ball go slow?

They had great fun while learning concepts of math and science! Pretty cheap to have some ramps and balls at your home too.....head to the local home repair store and get some curved molding for yourself! Cut it in varying sizes (maybe sand it down a bit too just to make sure they are sliver free) and let your kids explore with what they can roll!

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