Curiosity ELC

On a Roll with Orange Team 

This term the Orange Team has been investigating an inquiry of things that roll, starting from observing children explore this concept in play. 

We started our inquiry by looking at a variety of different items to guess whether or not we thought they might roll or not, then tested out our theories. After we sorted these in to a pile of things that did roll and things that didn’t roll we asked the question, “Why does it roll?” 

Riley said “the car wheels are circle and they roll”. 

Ethan said “I saw it roll”. 

Jai said “you push them.” 

Ariana said “the book doesn’t roll because of the corners”. 

Juho said “those ones have a corner and those ones don’t have corners”. 

What great theories to share their understandings. After some discussion we agreed on these observations: if it’s flat it doesn’t roll and if it’s curved it does roll. 

We explored things that roll in lots of different ways. We engaged in marble painting, ball games, used different cars, we built ramps using a different materials and surfaces, testing out how we could make things roll faster and what surfaces might make things slow down. We rolled tyres and even use our bodies to roll along the mats to knock over the bowling pins. 

Some of our conversations included how we can build ramps to make a cardboard cylinder roll the fastest. Harvey said “we need a ramp to make it faster and deeper”. Airlie built a ramp that made the cylinder roll the fastest and she said “it was stable and it was deeper”. Ethan suggested we put a block underneath the ramp to make it higher. This investigation helped children incorporate new language including curves, flat, angle, slope, and steep. 

When we investigated different surfaces, such as a soft blanket, the car rolled a little then stopped and Jessica said “it’s not slippery, it’s stuck”. The thick grass mat made it slow down too. Ayana said “we need a bigger angle”, such great learning and investigating. 

It’s always great to investigate things together, learning from each other and sharing our ideas.

Diary dates to note:

• Please note the 3 week holiday program runs from Monday 29th June until Friday 17th July, with Thursday 2nd and Friday 3rd July being Closure Days for staff training and retreat.