Pendulum Funnels

I first saw this idea at Irresistible Ideas for Play Based Learning and loved the it.
We used the same frames that we had used for the pendulum painting but switched the cups for funnels.
They are attached with paper clips and made it easy for the children to remove them and use the funnels in different ways.

I love the look of concentration of this child's face.

He went from experimenting with pouring, watching it go through and dumping the sand to...

plugging the hole with his hand to stop the flow.

Once the funnels were off the clips, I added more and varied sized funnels.

This boy was busy making chocolate cookies.  First you fill it, then you pat it, then put it in the oven for...
you and me.  Ah he was reciting Patty Cake Patty Cake.  Wonderful when literacy becomes obvious in their play.

Then the 'what ifs?' started.

What if we piled all the funnels together would the sand still go through?

Which funnel is plugged?

After mastering plugging the hole with his hand this child started to estimate how many scoops it would take to fill the funnel.

We recorded his guesses and the results.

We found other items to use as plugs.

And realized the plug either stopped the flow or slowed it down to a trickle

The pendulum funnels have been a lot of fun.

That even little brothers want to give it a try.