Get the most out of Your Ramps, Channels and Tunnels

Number lines

Adding number lines to the end of your ramps, channels and tunnels will encourage children to explore number and length. You can start off very simple by creating your own number line from 1-3 and then gradually extend this until the children are ready to start measuring in cms or inches using meter rulers or measuring tapes. The beauty of this activity is that children are engaged through their schematic play, making it perfect for scaffolding mathematical thinking.

Marble runs

You can extend children’s play through creating large scale marble runs, it’s a great way to incorporate science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) which help develop skills needed for future learning including creativity.

What I love about creating marbles runs is that it’s open-ended and suitable across many ages and stages of development, a two-year-old might attach two tubes together whilst an older child will enjoy creating a run that spans the whole room.

Different levels

A really simple yet effective experience for children is placing ramps, channels and tunnels at different heights and finding out how different materials travel differently. You can scaffold creative and critical thinking by asking questions such as, ‘Will the sand travel faster with the tube is upright?’, ‘Will the ball travel faster on the low ramp or the high ramp?’ – this also provides lots of opportunities to expand children’s communication and language.

To further develop vocabulary, use this experience to introduce lots of mathematical language; fast, slow, high, low, short, tall, long, further, far, etc.

Art

Another really engaging experience is adding paint to ramps and rolling balls down them onto a large piece of paper. Children can experiment with making different marks by using different types of balls and different coloured paints.

Chutes

Create chutes to add to your sand play, we often attach tubes to legs of the tray with a bucket underneath. If you don’t have a sand tray you could suspend tubes from the ceiling and provide steps and stools, this adds an element of risk which is great for developing physical skills.