Wreaking Ball Fun

The children have been asking to knock over their block structures in different ways.  They have pushed, kicked, and rolled balls into the structures to knock them down, but they wanted to know how do builder people (construction workers) knock over building.  This lead to a discussion on wreaking balls. 

I then went home and raided my husband garage for scrap PVC pipe and fittings to create a frame for the children to experiment with wreaking balls. 

For the first attempt the children decided on a wiffle ball that they could tie to the end of the string.  They did their count down !0, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 away it goes.  Nothing happened.

Child "It didn't work."

Child "It was not heavy enough"

Child "We could tie a block to end."

Teacher, "How are you going to make sure the block will not come off?"

Child "Tape it."

 Second attempt 10....1 away it goes. 
 

 Success

Child "It fell over."

Child "What if we make a bigger castle?"

Child "Can we try other things?"

Teacher "Yes, what do you need?"

Child "A rock."

Teacher "How can you attach it to the string?"

Child "Wrap it around."

Child "We can tape it."

Child "It is going to take a lot of tape."

 I chalk today up to a very successful day!!