Ramps All Around (Outdoors) | Ramps: Stand-Alone Activities | Educators

Ramps All Around (Outdoors)

Notice ramps and slanted surfaces in the neighborhood.

Materials

drawing materials
pencil, paper, and clipboard
camera or video camera
small ball

Key Science Concepts

A ramp is a surface with one end higher than the other.

Vocabulary

Encourage children to use the words ramp, flat, slanted, up, down, and steep as well as science process words such as observe, compare, similar, different, change, and predict.

Directions

Tell children they will look for ramps and slanted surfaces outside.

Go for a walk around the neighborhood looking for slanted surfaces. Record these on your clipboard. You may also want to take photos or videos of the items the children find.
Driveways or sidewalks may or may not be slanted. Give the children the ball you brought and ask them how they could use it to test whether or not the surface is slanted.
When you go inside after the walk, provide children with materials so they can draw the ramps they saw.

Reflect and Share

Review the list (and pictures) of slanted surfaces the children spotted. Encourage children to think about the purpose of some of the slanted surfaces, such as roofs, entrance ramps, and sidewalk cuts. What kind of things do you think can roll up or down those ramps?

Ramps All Around

Stand Alone

Indoor

20 - 30 minutes

Accommodations

English Language Learners may not be familiar with the names for the ramps you discover outside. To help them learn these words, ask children to repeat the name of the ramp after you: wheelchair ramp, moving truck ramps, driveway. Then have children point to that ramp or another instance of that ramp and name it for you again. Have children name these ramps again on the “Ramps Around Us” chart.

Educator Close-Up

When we went outside today, I gave each student a clipboard and pencil. As we searched for ramps around our school, the students began to see:

a man in a utility truck being held up by a slanted arm

access ramps

railings

a sidewalk that descends into the street

An event tent was being set up across the street, and some students pointed out that the slanted roof was a “ramp.” We sat in the shade and drew pictures of the ramps that we saw.

—Kira, preschool educator