Infant/Toddler

On the swing: Motion is a basic concept in physics—and young children safely tucked into a swing are experiencing motion firsthand. This makes for a perfect opportunity to describe what is going on, so that your child builds language around motion. Using simple words that are quite normally part of your every day vocabulary as your child swings—words like back, forth, high, low, up, down, push, pull, pump, and others—will build important descriptive language that is significant in physics. So, engage in lots of talk (don’t hesitate to do most of the talking if necessary) as a way to build this language.

On other playground equipment: Your child will experience other kinds of motion and change in position when on different pieces of playground equipment. You can build the language of physics when you describe this kind of motion and position, such as when you and your child slide down the slide, climb a ladder together and look down at the world from a platform.

In the sandbox: Very young children are apt to feel most at home in the sandbox. Here they will move sand by digging, pouring, using trucks, etc. As your child investigates the sand, describe what she is doing and likely to be feeling with comments such as “You’re using your shovel to dig a deep hole! You’re pouring the sand to fill up the big bucket,” and “This wet sand is a different color from the dry sand.” These kinds of descriptions help your child build language about physical properties of materials—in this case, sand.

Preschooler/Kindergartner

Balancing: Many children enjoy the challenge of walking along a balance beam, seeing how long they can continue to stay on. They also appreciate being able to show you their success in doing so. Encourage your child to talk about what she is feeling as she tries to keep her balance – what is she doing with her arms in order to keep her balance? What about her feet? The rest of her body? Asking her to think about what she is doing will help her begin to focus on how certain kinds of movements seem to help balance while others do not.

Floating in the air: The playground offers high perches where you and your child can investigate how different things fall to the ground. Find a safe space that is high off the ground. Bring various materials to drop such as balls, feathers, pieces of paper, etc. Do they all fall to the ground the same way? Does a 4” x 8” piece of paper fall the same when it is dropped as an open sheet as it does when crumpled into a ball? How about when folded as a paper airplane?

First Grader/Reader-Writer

Heat on various surfaces: Especially on a sunny day, different places on the playground feel warmer or cooler. Children learn quickly which surfaces to avoid on a very hot day—they seem to know to avoid metal slides on sunny days—but by checking the surfaces in a more systematic way you and your child can map out the playground and learn something about which materials conduct heat better than others. You can use your hands to determine which surfaces retain heat, and if you have a thermometer—the type of thermometer we use for determining outdoor temperature and available at hardware stores—you can make your findings more precise. To push for more complete findings, return to the playground on a cold but sunny day, or an overcast day; are there differences?

Different materials on slides: As your child ages, she will have accumulated many physical experiences with playground equipment. Now she is capable of more focused investigation, both to test out various materials and to talk about what she thinks. Try using different materials on the slides and ask questions such as “What do you think will happen when you put a tennis ball on the slide? Will it go fast? Travel a long distance? Why do you think so?” or “Will a ping pong ball do the same? Why or why not? How about something in the shape of a rectangle?” All of these investigations provide your child with important experiences with forces.

Balance challenges: Once your child masters a balance beam, challenge him to take on more difficult balancing acts, which you can try as well! Both of you might try walking on the balance beam with a book on your head. How does this feel different from or similar to walking on the beam without a book? Or what if you try to balance something on the palm of your hand or your index finger, such as a pencil, ruler or a broom? What do you have to keep in mind about weight and movement as you try to keep the object from falling over?