The Preps enjoyed using some new sports equipment in PMP this week. The Velcro Target was a big hit! Students had to throw a ‘velcro sticky ball’ onto the target from three different hoops. Many claimed to have hit the center target with each shot. Maybe we will have a new generation of Archery Professionals ready for the 2028 Olympics. The ‘fast feet ladders’ were lots of fun. Students enjoyed seeing how quickly they could jump, step and hop through the ladders. The rebound net proved to be a lot of fun, too. Students had to practice a ‘chest pass’ throw into the net and catch the return ball, then take one step back and repeat three times. The highlight was clearly when we lost the ball under the chairs and the students were very excited as they ‘had to go caving’ to find the ball.

They used a variety of everyday objects, some heavy and some light, to make the scales balance.

Will it Sink or Float?

Students were asked to choose an object and discuss with their partner if they thought it would sink or float. They experimented with a series of objects, such as blocks, pencils and rubber ducks, and discussed why they thought the objects were sinking or floating.

How long?

The students discussed with each other what they thought the difference was between ‘length’ and ‘height’. Some suggested that people were tall and objects were long, someone then said ‘but buildings and mountains are tall’. After this, the next suggestion was great ‘if you go up, up, up, it is tall. If you go along the ground, it is long’. Students were then asked to use anything they could find to measure how long the tables were. We found the tables to be 14 toy animals long, 9 blocks long and 37 Unifix long, amongst many other measurements.

How Tall am I?

Students used small wooden blocks to measure how tall they were. They worked with partners and measured each other. They wrote the results on the board so we could all look and see who was the tallest. We found everyone was either 9, 10 or 11 blocks tall. However one prep was 33 blocks tall and everyone wanted to know why, so we all watched them do it again and it turned out they were actually measuring the perimeter. So of course everyone wanted to measure and learn about ‘perimeter’, too!