Balls and Ramps

Tinkering is about exploring and problem solving using materials and tools. Tinkering often starts with simple questions, like “What can I do with this?” or “How does this work?”

 The Balls and Ramps activity is especially good for children to practice using materials in creative ways and experiment with different ways of solving problems. 

Getting Ready

Gather your materials and set up a place to work on the floor. Bring over some furniture that you might build ramps off of, like chairs, step stools, or low tables.

Things to try

1. Invite your child to experiment by making ramps out of the different materials and testing which objects roll or slide down each ramp.
2. Encourage your child to explore whether changing the material or design of the ramp might make the object roll faster or slower. What does leaning one end of the ramp on stacks of books or blocks of different heights do?
3. Use furniture and a towel to create a long, wide ramp. Place one end of the towel on the seat of a chair and the other end on the floor. Put something heavy (like a book) on both ends to hold the towel in place. How does the towel work as a ramp?
4. Challenge your child to try building a jump for a ball that gets the ball off the ramp and up into the air. Or try building a ramp that makes an object go as slowly as possible, while still reaching the end. Or try adding an obstacle to their ramp, like attaching a toilet paper tube tunnel for objects to go through or around. Or try connecting multiple ramps to make a mini roller coaster!

Things to say