Roll that Ball!

Activity 46 – Ball Roll

 Age Range – Pre-school & K

Area Being Developed – Pre-Science – Energy, Force, & Motion

As much fun as all those commercial windy ball toys are and as creative as all those museum swirly exhibits are, what you can create for fun and learning in the classroom is even better.

With simple materials like books and a ball you can make your own “play-and-learn” ramp game. As you increase the incline of your ramp, the faster the ball will go.

Take a few books down from a shelf. Make sure one of them is long and wide, about 81/2″ x 11″ in size. Start with a small stack of two books with the big one set up as a ramp.  Then have your students take turns rolling the ball down the ramp. Add one book at a time for steepness and have fun watching the ball go down faster and faster.

Enrichment: Continue with the ball in any way you want. Research tells us that a ball is a child’s favorite toy. For rolling, throwing, and even in any sport; it never does the same thing twice… and that is fun!