Cars

[Guest]

In my class at the mo there is a large group of children who sit at opposite ends of the floor and push cars to one another often crashing them. I dont mind this at all but it is very noicy on the floor and sometimes find it could become a health and safety issue as it is in th middle of the room where people are walking. The boys will move onto the carpet when asked but tell me its not as much fun cos the cars dont go as fast! bless them.

 

The question im asking is....this is thier intrest and I dont actually know how to develop it. I sat with them for a while once ,extending it into making a brige and a ramp for the cars but they soon went back to the floor pushing them fast to one another.

 

Any ideas on this topic, as im worried they are not really learning anything wihtout me interviening?? do I need to do like a cars topic or focus activiy. but stuck here

 

 

Thanks in advance

[Steve]

Is the carpet fitted or could it be moved?

[Guest]

Fitted and not much of it so use at as my construction area. I do have a rug though!

[Fredbear]

Hi do you have an outside area that could accomodate more space and freedom for them to play a more expansive game/activity.

We have the same thing with our trainset, it ends up going through tables. chairs etc. Through evaluation we have actually moved things for them to give more space to play.

[garrison]

could you buy a piece of lino and then the activity could be placed somewhere it doesnt cause as much of an obstruction - and the cars will go really fast!!!

[finleysmaid]

could you try to adapt the play to create races rather than crashes? we have 2 really large carpet tubes which are great for whizzing cars down. If they are angled differently then you have the opportunity to teach about speed/tilt/angles/velocity etc. if you change the surface that they come out onto then there can be experiments to see which is faster...carpet/lino/grass/etc etc lots of mark making opportunities to record who is winning and maybe make medals for those in the competition. could you get some hotrod tracks and see if they can build complex models to achieve a goal like getting the car over a table or under the cupboard..

we've done lots of this play outside, the cars were then changed for marbles and paper was added at the bottom to make them go further. then they tried to put the tubes together and had to work out how to do this without the items getting stuck..i thought i might try to splice two together and have a competition to find which hole they come out of too!

you could even create a graph of which cars in the car box are the fastest and have ideas as to why that is the case.

i think if you present these things as an 'experiment' or a 'competition' boys ears suddenly start working...we had a group of 6 of my most active chaps creating a box car together for about an hour on thursday

[Guest]

Thankyou for your ideas very helpful, we do have an outside area however we have not had a nice day weather wise for ages!! and have no shelter so thye cannot kneel on the wet floor, althoight they probably would if I let then lol. I like the lino idea and may get some for outside.

 

Thanks- any more ideas welcomed

[Susan]

I am going to move this into the reception area as you are a reception teacher.

 

However, can you extend this play by providing materials for them to record the journeys their car makes and enable them to compare the difference on slopes and different floor surfaces etc? They have already made the observation that the lino is better than carpet for distance travelled but can they deduce why? Could lead to work on forces and if you can access the Collins "Science Directions" materials there were some nice experiments that would relate to this. Probably elsewhere too but those are what I am aware of!

[Guest]

Thanks Susan, newish to the site how do I know where to put each message?I just post every thing on here!? Ooops

[Steve]

Hi Stax -

It's no problem, sometimes it can be less obvious which forum area to post in. But If you go to the main forum index page here you'll see a long list of categories (eg Reception and Key Stage 1), each with a list of forum areas underneath (eg School Curriculum and General Issues). As a reception teacher you will probably be more likely to post and read in this area, although by no means are you restricted to these discussions.

 

Sometimes people new to the forum are just reading posts from the front page, and post their own questions wherever they happen to end up (as may have happened to you in this case). But it's more useful to post in the right general area, not least because you're more likely to get a response from a member working in the same area.

[Guest LornaW]

Thankyou for your ideas very helpful, we do have an outside area however we have not had a nice day weather wise for ages!! and have no shelter so thye cannot kneel on the wet floor, althoight they probably would if I let then lol. I like the lino idea and may get some for outside.

 

Thanks- any more ideas welcomed

 

Why not be daring and let them do this outside regardless of the weather? They will observe all sorts of differences in the movement of the cars in different weather and you could discuss this with them as well as get them to record their own observations of where the cars go fstest. You could set them a challenge where in the school is the best placve to play this game etc.

 

Lorna

[finleysmaid]

we got a whole load of carpet tiles free which we use for kneeling on outside and when B+Q had a sale i bought some seat cushions for £2 each

[Guest]

My children are outside every day and they constantly play with the cars. They do kneel on the wet ground and they get very messy! I dont see a problem as long as they have suitable warm clothes on. They are very adventurous with the cars-they make complicated structures useing pipes, guttering, tyres and milk crates for their cars to travel along and through. sometimes they rig up things so that the cars leap straight into the water tray or into the sand. At the moment, in this cold weather, they have arranged things so that the cars land in the water tray which is filled with ice and they can watch them skid around!! Lots of different skills are being practised-communication, problem solving, working cooperatively and Kand U. They spend lots of time dashing into the writing corner to make maps, labels and cardboard shapes to add to their structures with masking tape.