One of the most popular activities in my classroom this year was spinning tops. I originally introduced tops as a way to help a few of my students hone their fine motor skills and hand-eye coordination, but, as things often do in an early childhood classroom, the tops ended up offering so much more. We explored physics ( what types of surfaces do the tops spin on the longest?), art (what designs look cool when spinning), math (what top spins the longest?), more physics (on how steep of an incline will tops continue to spin before they simply slide down?). And so much more. And while I labeled the explorations with the core subjects being addressed, the students explored all these things on their own, with no guidance from me. (Let kids play!!)
And I made these tops with stuff I had laying around in my classroom....
1 CD
1 marble
1 bottle cap
Some glue (I used hot glue, and was frequently repairing broken tops, a stronger glue might increase durability)
- On one side of the CD, glue the marble in the hole (the marble should sit about a third of the way into the hole, just blob the glue around the marble, making sure the bottom of the marble remains free of glue.
- Glue the bottle cap on the other side of the CD, over the marble.
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