The Wheels on the Truck Go Rolling Down

Rocks, books, leaves, spare wheels. These are all materials that the children of the Appie group have been loading up into their four-wheeler dump trucks and pushing across the yard to dump and reload in various spots. “In all of my years being an Appie teacher, I have never had a group that was so into loading, transporting, and dumping,” said Lead Teacher Cristina. The children have been enjoying playing with the trucks for some time, but recently, a budding developmental stage and their interest in the dump trucks led to an exciting scientific discovery! 

At approximately 2.5 years old, the children in the Appie group are just at the stage of social and emotional development where they are beginning to move from parallel play into cooperative play. “We see them socially really starting to become aware of each other and looking for each other in their play,” Cristina shared. “They will still be working on their own themes and stories in the play they are carrying out, but now they are looking around and starting to follow what one another are doing, and when a child notices that another is following them in their play, there is recognition, and it will bring a smile and excitement.” 

This past week, the children made a new discovery while engaging in this early-stage cooperative play. The teachers have been opening up the ramp area of the yard for the children to push the trucks up and down. Following their peers, the children started copying each other in filling their truck beds with spare wheels and pushing them up to the top of the ramp. Once at the top, the children decided to dump the wheels and quickly discovered that gravity would bring the wheels rolling down on to the bottom of the ramp. “We didn’t show them or initiate the experiment in any way. They naturally discovered this effect of gravity, and once this happened, all of the children were joining in on the experimentation, and joining each other in this play,” said Cristina. “They're all blossoming social individuals at this stage. They're so aware of each other and what each other are doing. They want to copy and do exactly what they see the other children do. We can’t wait to see how this awareness begins to translate into working together in their play and what new discovery they make next.”