Games
Obstacle Course
Children create slides with turns and bumps using paper for marbles to glide through, exploring motion, speed, and cause-and-effect through hands-on play and experimentation.
Materials
- Cardboard
- Scissors
- Masking Tape
- Marbles
Click on the image to learn more
Checklist
- was the object sliding in the paper sliders?
- were the kids trying to add obstracles and trying to overcome it ?
how to play
Divide the children into groups of 2–3. Begin with a story, such as young designers building a roller coaster track for marbles to race through with twists, turns, and bumps. Provide each group with paper sheets, tape, and marbles, and explain that their challenge is to create an obstacle course where the marble glides smoothly from start to finish. Encourage them to fold, roll, and bend the paper to form slides, tunnels, or barriers that make the course exciting. If they face difficulties, give hints like: How does folding paper make it stronger? What happens if the slope is too steep or too flat? Where can you add twists to slow the marble down? Once finished, allow the children to test their marble tracks, make improvements, and race marbles through the courses. This way, they explore motion, speed, and cause-and-effect through playful hands-on design.
Challanges
- In this, children are basically trying to make a roller coaster.
- We can have a competition between teams to create a slide where the pebble has to reach the bottom slower than the other team's slide.
- We can also let the kids create a fun slide they'd love to see in an amusement or fun park. It'll be exciting to see what creative ideas they come up with.
- (You can show pictures of roller coasters in case the kids don't get the idea.)
Questions to be asked
- What's the difference between a straight slide and one that curves or rotates?
- Can a pebble go upward on these slides?
- How is it possible in real-life slides or roller coasters?
- How will you make sure that your roller coaster doesn't fall off when a pebble is run through it?