Resources

Use water bottles and a variety of house-hold items to make a bowling game to learn about force and motion.

Encourage STEM learning while playing with blocks

Encourage STEM learning while playing with balls

Encourage STEM learning while at the playground

Explore exertion of force with various activities

Take a round and a flat object (like a ball and a wood chip) when you and your child go to the playground. Encourage your child to place the objects down the slide and ask them how the objects move

Bring a ball when you go to the park (or any object that can easily move). Show your child how to roll or kick the ball. As the ball is moving, ask your child if the ball is moving. When the ball stops moving, ask your child again if the ball is moving. If your child needs more support to understand what is moving or not, tell your child when objects are moving and not moving.

Take a ball when you go to the playground. Help your child explore putting the ball down a slide and talk about how the ball is moving down the slide. Next, help your child push the ball up the slide and help them notice what happens (the ball falls back down).

During playtime (with several objects), help bring your child’s attention to how the different objects move and why. For example, if your child is playing with a ball, talk about how the ball rolls and that round things roll. Try testing out how other objects move!

Model pushing a ball with a big push and a little push to show the child the difference in what happens. Let the child try giving the ball a big push and a little push and narrate as the child does this.

Use a variety of objects on a car track to see how different types of objects move.

Children will explore placing and pushing a variety of objects down ramps of different angles to determine how the slope of a ramp impacts how objects move.

Children will develop an understanding of what a ramp is and how different objects travel down a ramp.

Children will explore forces and motion through outdoor play with balls, riding toys, and wagons.

Children explore forces and motion through indoor play involving balls, cars, and other objects.

Children will explore how pushes and pulls, along with the environment itself, affect the motion of objects.

Children will explore force and motion through playing with balls on the playground.

Children will notice the effects of pushes and pulls during their buggy walk.