More Plastic Egg Play

Today I brought out the plastic eggs again

because the twins parents had these flat cardboard boxes that are perfect as ramps.

Love watching their excitement and

 figuring out what happens when she let's go of the egg.

 Doesn't matter how high up they let go of the egg it will still roll down.

Our crawler found another way to play with the eggs.

Oh how they love to dump!

Ramp Play

 One day last week when the sensory tub was full of their loose toys, I decided to build a ramp.

 A simple ramp using a box of diapers and a booster seat.

 We started with using cars since they have wheels they go down easily.

Opa suggested there be something for the cars to land on so we tried a pillow first then changed it for the basket.

 For the older little one this was also an opportunity to share and be the role model.

One of the twins was very curious and tried to participate.

 This was a great moment of the older one offering her younger cousin a car.

 After having lots of success with the cars I encouraged her to try other items from the loose toys.

 Here is a great example of perservance.

"If at first you don't succeed, try try again."

This would be an easy and fun rainy day activity for you to try with your little ones.

Ramps in the Sensory Table

Last week as the children’s interest in ramps continued to grow I wanted to offer
                        experiences in different parts of the room.
    
           In the water table I placed one of the half pvc pipe ramps.

               
          This week it was replaced with lots of pom poms and pipes.
   
                         
                    

A New Ramp

Yesterday I posted on our StrongStart Facilitators Facebook page about the children’s interest in ramps and asked for suggestions on how to extend their interest.
                     
One facilitator suggested using a slide in a kiddie’s pool at the art table.  I may try that one day but for now I set it up by our other ramp.
                    
We started with the balls that we used last week on our other ramps.  Then I had the children look around the room for other things to test to see if they would roll.
       
These two girls were the first to try it out and were very excited about sending anything and everything down the slide.  They really enjoyed sending the animals down, we learned that they don’t roll.
                        
          
Using the toddler size slide makes it very accessible to our smaller children.  In the background, of this picture, you can see our cardboard slide, it is a lot higher and the cardboard moves about.  This slide stays in one place and is easy for them to reach the top.
                   
                       Also fun to climb into the pool to clean up.
                        
New language was introduced with this ramp, predicting.  Will it roll or will it slide?
                            We'll look for other things to predict.

Dino Antics Day 8

             
           The Dinos discovered our ramp in the block corner this morning. 
              
It looks like Brachiosaurus was having a difficult time getting up the steeper part.
  
The smaller Dinos tied one of our measuring tapes around the long neck and were
                                         trying to pull him up.
           
The children weren’t too impressed but figured the dinosaurs could be helpful
                                                anyways.

An Interest in Ramps

During September and October I noticed the children building ramps using different materials that we have available in the classroom. 
 

Looking for a way to add on the children’s interest I borrowed a kit, from our Learning Resource centre, specifically for exploring ramps.
          
The kit included birch stands that can be stacked in a different ways, heavy PVC half tubes and balls.

The children loved it and promptly started sending the balls down.  The balls were rolling all around the room so we grab some of the big tin cans and baskets to use as collectors.
    
Each day it was built up in a different way with assorted amounts of ramps.
        
The balls varied in what they were made of, their size and their shape.  Some would roll easier and farther then others.  They would roll faster if the ramp was steeper versus flat.
                 
I spotted some children using the birch stands with our hot wheel tracks to build their own ramps for cars.  I wish we could have kept the kit longer but we will continue building using what we have.  I wonder where else in the room we could use ramps?