What you need:
- Empty plastic bottles.
- Small toys, pebbles, sand or other objects to weigh down the bottles.
- Ball.
Directions:
- Fill the plastic bottle with a few small toys to weigh them down.
- Set up the plastic bottles in as many rows as you wish. One in the first row, two in the second row, three in the third row, ect.
- Then take about 7-10 steps away from the plastic bottle pins.
- Roll the ball on the ground towards the pins.
- Try to knock over as many pins as possible in one try!
Ways to Expand the Activity:
- Keep score. For every pin you get down, you earn a point. Play against someone else by taking turns rolling the ball from the same starting point. The one with the most points at the end wins.
- Make the pins different weights. Put a different amount of material in each bottle and experiment to see how much force it takes to knock over the pins.
What Kids Learn:
- Experimentation! When kids experiment, they're learning how to learn. Failure is an important part of experimenting, so let kids try things that won’t work. It’s how they figure things out!
- Hand eye coordination. Young children can use activities like this to help improve communication between their minds and bodies.
- Math skills. Children will practice counting, adding, and subtracting when figuring out how many pins were knocked down and left standing.
- Vocabulary:
- Force. Energy caused by a push, pull, or gravity.
- Push. An action when you move something away from your body or away from an object.
- Friction. Resistance an object experiences when it rubs against something else.