Activity 3:

Activity 3:

Making tracks from nails

Category:

Construction

/ Mechanics

Target group

3 to 6-year old girls and boys in kindergarten

Goals

- realize how a marble runs on a track and build a track

- draw conclusions concerning a smooth run

- develop creative ideas and put them into practice

Where?

Workshop apart from the group area.

How long?

Guided play approx. 30 minutes, free play phase afterwards.

What?

Children use nails and hammers to make a track for marbles.

Preparation

Materials such as hammers, nails, pens, one wooden board per child.

Steps

- The children regard and describe the sketch of the marble-slide machine, especially the nail level.

- They draw a track on their boards.

- They hammer in their nails.

- They try their slide out and change the position of some nails, until the marble stays on the track and rolls down smoothly.

- They present their marble-slides.

Scientific explanation

The marble rolls down on the track.

At the edges of one track the marble must be intercepted by another track.

The marble gets stuck in gaps.

Possible variation

Note!

Marbles get stuck if there are gaps in the line of nails. The lower track must run over the upper one in a bow, in order to catch the marble and pass it on.

Source

Reflection

The children were mostly able to complete their tracks made from nails without help. Some younger children needed assistance in making the marbles run smoothly and in connecting the different tracks. The children were very helpful among themselves, they helped each other with fixing the nails or they exchanged nails and hammers. The older children had less problems to hammer in the nails, and some boys were more experienced and therefore better than some girls. But the girls also had a lot of fun and completed their slides. Some boys were very motivated and kept on hammering during the free play phase and tried out various possibilities of making a track for the marbles.

To activity 4