Tony, today we saw you place wooden ramps slantly down to the floor. You looked closely to the ball once you put it on the ramps. You released it and let it roll down, it slid and got inside the cylinder tube then you waited until it went out of tube, and waited until it spread out to the floor. You waited until the ball stopped at the distance it could reach. After rolling one ball in one ramp, you tried doing the same thing on the other two ramps. Afterward, you curiously placed the three balls at the same height before releasing them to slide into the tubing and cylinder tubes and patiently waited to see how far the balls could reach by rolling on the floor. Tony, we saw you enjoyed watching the balls slide, all at the same time wondering where the ball would go as they spread on the floor on their own. You added one more long ramp and asked the educators to hold the third and fourth balls on the ramps. This time, you tried rolling two balls in one ramp, both at the outer left ramp and at the outer right ramp. You arranged the balls at the upper part of the ramps, all at the same level, and then released them all at the same time. Afterward, we saw how you went to look for nine more ramps with different lengths, placing them parallel to the long ramps and arranging them all at almost the same height. Finally, you glided a blue toy car with a ball on its back and slid them together on the ramp and watched them until they went out of the cylinder tube.

 

Tony's advancement in spatial exploration is something we wish to continue to promote. To improve Tony's play is to place an obstacle in front of the ramp that must be hit after the ball lands. This could develop Tony's cognitive root skill 4.5 Spatial Problem Solving. In this play, we can challenge Tony's classmates or the teachers to see who can roll the ball correctly and hit the obstacle first, knocking it down. This could motivate them to work diligently and obediently to develop their abilities and accomplish their objective—to bring down the obstacle. Additionally, this might enhance Tony's capacity for problem-solving. He can improve his speech and social skills while expressing himself. We can improve Tony's root skill 4.3 Cause and Effect by providing more opportunities to meet cognitive root skill 4.9 Exploring Transformations and Hypothesizing. Will a flat smooth ramp, a high and lower heights, a big and small balls can affect the balls rolling movement? The flat smooth surface of ramps could make it challenging for Tony to maintain the ball on the ramp lane or cause him to veer off to the side and trip. The distance, movement, and speed of the balls can be impacted by the height and texture of the ramps, and shapes of the item that he will put to roll on, and how far the distance can it go with a presence of an obstacle.

Have you noticed Tony engages in activities related to this kind of play at home?

Does Tony usually play in a ramp, rolling his toy or run himself, when you are going to a mall or grocery stores?

Can you describe Tony’s reaction whenever he sees balls/ toy cars rolling in an inclined plane?

Claudia Maya