Toddler Science: Exploring Ramps

Toddlers (and all kids really) love ramps. Whether it’s racing cars, pushing trains, or rolling balls, toddlers can’t seem to get enough. Today we’re exploring ramps with toddlers and engaging in a little preschool science lesson. I get commissions for purchases made through the affiliate links in this post.

Toddler Science: Exploring Ramps

A ramp, or inclined plane, is probably the first simple machine a child is introduced to. A ramp on a train set or a slide would be great examples. The goal of today’s toddler science exploration is to observe what things will go down the ramp. We used our Little Tikes slide. (Buy the red and blue slide on Amazon or buy the blue and green slide at Target.

I gathered a variety of objects from around the house. I tried to select different shapes, sizes, and materials. Then, we headed to our slide in the backyard.

I placed a few of the objects on the slide as an invitation to explore. (Invitations to explore are one of my favorite things to present. Did you know I share an invitation to explore in every newsletter. Learn more and subscribe to the newsletter here.)

Elon (age 2) immediately gravitated towards the objects on the slide. He pushed them down the slide and then found the rest of the objects I had gathered. One by one he dropped, pushed, or threw things down the slide.

Lily (age 4) and Aiden (age 8) played along with Elon as well. They tested which objects would roll and which would slide.

They learned that some objects would slide when dropped at the top of the slide. Other objects required being dropped a little lower. The DUPLO LEGO brick is an example of something that easily stayed on the slide until it was given a little push.

The kids explored different sizes of objects. Big dinosaurs slid right down the ramp even thought they were an odd shape.

Round objects and things with wheels easily rolled down the ramp.

All 3 of my kids enjoyed this science exploration. And they could each learn something different from the activity. My oldest is pretty familiar with ramps. We’ve done several ramp experiments and investigations in the past. He was busy making predictions and testing out his ideas. I noticed he turned objects different ways to see how they went down the slide.

We could have turned this exploration into an experiment and timed how long each object took to reach the bottom of the slide or we could have measured the distance they travel from the bottom of the slide. We could also build ramps of different materials or angles and compare how objects move on them. Will the objects still easily slide down a ramp that’s not as steep as the slide?

Through this activity kids are beginning to learn about gravity, ramps (inclined planes), and friction. They are making observations and predictions.

More Exploring Ramps Science for for Toddlers

• Farm Animal Races with Little Blue Truck – Build a simple ramp and race a truck filled with animals down it.
• Things That Go Experiment – Set up an experiment to race different things that go down a ramp.
• Exploring Cause and Effect with Trains – Create a short ramp with a train track and explore what happens when you send the train(s) down. This post has several ideas for explorations to try.
• See all of our toddler ideas here.

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