Question and Investigate

During free centre time, a student tried using a magnetic wand to move materials to the top of a plastic bottle.

During Free Centre time, this boy was at the light table with the plastic bottles filled with pipe cleaners and pompoms and a magnetic wand. He concentrated on his task, using the magnetic wand to bring the pipe cleaners up the bottle.  He said, “It’s going up!” -- he was able to bring 3 pipe cleaners up the walls of the bottle. He was also trying to get the pompoms to go up the wall.

Students worked with various materials to respond to the challenge, “How high can you stack it?”

A table was set up with four work surfaces; a wooden, square plate and 5 bowls of materials:  Flat rocks, corks, spools, wooden rings and cubes.  A prompt card with the question, “How high can you stack it?” was also at the table, to promote child/adult participation.  The work surface was kept small in hopes the children would stack up.