Activity Introduction
Ever wondered how to get your race car to go a bit faster? Different surfaces create different kinds of friction and can really slow your car down or let it speed up. This is an easy and fun activity that you won’t need many tools to do.
Safety advice: If you are using a measuring tape such as the one shown, the edges of the tape can be very sharp!
Young kids will need guidance on completing this activity but it will be super fun and interesting for the whole family.
Ideal for: Early Learning Ages 3 – 4
Themes:
- investigate
- playtime
- brain teasers
Time required: 20 minutes
Curriculum connections: Science, Mathematics, The Arts, Numeracy
Before the exercise help your kid/s to think about which surface they think will make cars go the fastest. You can use many different surfaces for the ramps other than the ones suggested. Use whatever you have in the house and encourage them to play around with the elevation of the ramp for extra fun. If you have more than one kid it could be fun to have them all choose one car or object that they want to race at the same time.
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EYLF – Outcome 4: Children are confident and involved learners
- Box or container to rest your ramp on
- Cardboard sheet or ramp style base
- Foil
- Piece of paper and pen if you want to record the scores
- Ruler or measuring tape
- Sandpaper
- Stopwatch – could use phone or watch
- Toy car or other object that will roll down the hill
- Observation Worksheet (taking it further)
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[email protected] from Cool Australia
[email protected] resources are designed for parents and teachers to use with children in the home environment. They can be used as stand-alone activities or built into existing curriculum-aligned learning programs. Our [email protected] series includes two types of resources. The first are fun and challenging real-world activities for all ages, the second are self-directed lessons for upper primary and secondary students. These lessons support independent learning in remote or school settings.
Cool Australia’s curriculum team continually reviews and refines our resources to be in line with changes to the Australian Curriculum.
