Pushes, Pulls, Ramps and Magnets

Watch your child's hands during a familiar job. Are they pressing something away or tugging it toward them? Those actions help you name push and pull.

Feel the difference

A push presses away from the person pushing. A pull tugs toward the person pulling. Both are forces. Try saying, "You pushed the truck. Your push is a force." Your child can use the short words first.

Offer a drawer that moves easily. Let your child tug it open, then press it closed. Say, "You pulled it open. Now you pushed it shut." Watch the hands, because the same object can be used both ways.

A wagon follows behind your child when they pull its handle. Their hand tugs the handle toward them as they walk. A stroller moves ahead when hands push its handle. You can move along with an object while pushing or pulling it.

Go on a push-and-pull hunt

Visit a door, a drawer, a toy car, a wagon and a swing. At each stop, ask, "What are your hands doing?" Let your child try the action before naming it.

Draw a few of your finds on paper. Make a push pile and a pull pile. A drawer can belong in both. Try its two actions again if your child wants one picture in just one pile.

Look for a force even without movement

Press your palms against a wall together. The wall stays still, but you are still pushing. Movement helps you see what a force does; movement is not needed for a push to happen.

A toy resting on a flat floor needs a push or pull to start moving. If it seems to move by itself, look for a cause together. Wind may push it, or a spring or motor may move it. On a slope, Earth's pull makes it move down.

Let your child feel a gentle and a stronger push on an empty laundry basket. Put some toys inside and try again. Ask, "How do your arms feel now?" The loaded basket needs a bigger push.

A force can do more than get a toy moving. Use a slow ball and some play dough to help your child watch different changes.

Start and stop a ball

Place a ball on a flat floor. Give it a gentle push and watch it start rolling. Next, roll it slowly toward your child. When their hands catch it, the hands push against the ball and stop it.

A wall can push too. Roll the ball toward a wall and watch it stop or bounce back. Ask, "What did the ball touch?" The wall pushes against it. A force does not have to come from a person.

Change speed or direction

Roll the ball again. Let your child tap its side. It heads a new way because the tap pushes it sideways. Say, "Your push made it turn." A stronger forward push makes it start faster.

On a swing, a well-timed push makes the swing go faster and higher. Feet dragging on the ground slow it down. The ground pushes back against the feet.

A ball also slows as it rolls across the floor. Rubbing at the floor and resistance from the air slow it down. You can introduce friction as rubbing that can slow things. A ball is not getting tired. Compare its trip over smooth flooring with its trip over carpet or grass.

Let one moving thing push another

Stand six empty plastic bottles together for bowling. In one game, a slow roll knocks down 2 bottles. A fast roll knocks down 5. The moving ball pushes the bottles it hits, and falling bottles can hit their neighbors. Ask, "What hit this bottle?" Let your child trace what happened.

Feel a change of shape

Put a ball of play dough on the table. Ask your child to press it with a palm. It squashes flatter. Then hold its ends and pull gently. It stretches longer and thinner.

A wet sponge changes shape when squeezed, and water comes out. Ask, "What changed when you squeezed?" Your child may point before they can explain. Name what you see: "Your push squashed the sponge."

A harder push makes the same toy start faster and travel farther on the same floor. Set up a short car game so your child can see the difference.

Keep a clear starting place

Choose one toy car and a straight stretch of floor. Put down a strip of tape for the start. Aim strong pushes away from people.

1. Put the car behind the tape. Give it a gentle push.
2. Mark where it stops with a sticky note.
3. Return the same car to the same line.
4. Push harder in the same direction. Mark its stopping place.

Keep the car and floor the same. If the first run is on tile and the next is on carpet, the surface changes the trip too.

Count how far it went

In one test, a gentle push sends the car 3 floor tiles. A harder push sends it 8 tiles. Count to each mark from the tape. Eight tiles is farther than three.

To find how much farther, count on from 3: "4, 5, 6, 7, 8." There are five extra tiles. Your child can point to them while you count. These are results from one test; mark the distances your own car reaches.

Use equal-size floor tiles or matching blocks laid end to end. Keep using that same unit. A grown-up's step and a child's step cover different lengths, so mixing them makes the counts hard to compare.

Aim as well as push

Set a box as a pretend garage. Ask, "Which way should we push?" First line up the car with the opening, then choose how hard to push. A hard push at a slant still misses the garage.

A harder push can lose to a gentle one if you also change the surface. Thick carpet slows a car more than a smooth floor. Keep that difference separate from the push you are comparing.

Feel a heavier load

Try pushing an empty laundry basket, then the same basket holding toys. The full basket needs a bigger push to get moving. A wagon carrying books also takes more pulling than the same wagon carrying one teddy bear. Ask your child to describe what their arms feel.

Make a ramp by raising one end of a board or stiff cardboard on books. A ramp is a sloping surface. Your child can try a few objects and watch how each moves.

Let Earth's pull do the moving

Put a ball on the ramp and let go. It rolls down without a hand pushing it. Gravity is Earth's pull toward the ground. The ramp gives the ball a sloping path; gravity pulls it down that path.

Rolling means turning over and over while moving along. A ball rolls, and a toy car moves on rolling wheels. Sliding means moving across a surface without turning over. A block may slide, or stay still on a gentle ramp.

Turn the same object

Lay a cardboard tube on its side and let it go. It rolls down. Stand it on its flat end and try again. Now it can slide or stay put. Its shape has not changed, but the part touching the ramp has.

Try a paper cup on its side. One end is wider than the other, so it rolls along a curve. Give it room to turn and watch which way it goes.

Feel the surface

On a slightly tilted smooth board, a plastic lid may slide while a rubber eraser stays put. Rubber grips the board more. Raise the board slowly to see when the eraser begins to slide. The material matters as well as the shape.

Wheels help heavy loads roll. A loaded wagon can roll even though it is heavy. Compare pulling it with dragging the same load in a box.

Sort what happened

Offer a ball, car, wooden block, board book, tube and eraser. Ask your child to guess "roll," "slide" or "stay." Test them one at a time, then make three groups. Raise the ramp and retest the stay group.

If your child expects the bigger ball to win, try two balls of the same kind in different sizes. They often reach the bottom almost together. Watch the race before deciding what size did.

Raising the top of the same ramp makes it steeper. A car released from the top reaches the bottom faster on the steeper ramp. It usually rolls farther across the floor too.

Release without a push

Use one car, one ramp and the same patch of floor. Mark a starting line near the top of the ramp. Hold the car there and lift your hand away. Let gravity pull it down.

If you push as you release, you add another cause of its speed. Your child can practice simply opening their fingers before you start comparing heights.

Work through two heights

Rest the ramp on 1 book. In one test, the car rolls 4 tiles past the ramp's end. Mark that place. Next, raise the same ramp onto 3 books and release from the same line. The car rolls 9 tiles past the end.

Count the extra tiles from the first mark to the second. There are 5 more. Ask, "What do you think will happen with 2 books?" A guess between 4 and 9 tiles fits these two results. Try it and mark what happens.

Measure each trip from the ramp's end when comparing the distance across the floor. Keep the bottom of the ramp in the same place as you change its height.

Ask one race question

For two cars racing side by side, use a wide ramp or two ramps. Put them behind one starting line and release them together. Decide before the race: "Which gets to the bottom first?" or "Which rolls farthest across the floor?" These can have different winners.

Changing cars also changes wheels and weight. Stiff or wobbly wheels can slow a car. Keep the same car when the question is about height.

Change the surface in a separate test

Keep the height fixed and lay a towel over the ramp. Cloth rubs against the wheels and slows the car. Across the floor, carpet also slows it more than smooth tile or wood.

Try rolling a ball up a ramp with a gentle push. It slows, stops, then rolls back down as gravity pulls it toward the ground. On a walk, point out slides, sloping driveways and ramps beside steps. Ask, "Which way would a ball roll here?"

Choose a goal with your child: "Can we make the ball land in this cup?" A marble run joins small ramps into a path. Building one gives your child a reason to test and change a design.

Choose safe parts first

Marbles can choke a child and are not for children under 3. Stay close, count them out and back in, and keep them away from younger children. If your child mouths objects, use a ball too big to fit in their mouth, such as a tennis ball, on wide tracks with you close by.

Use cardboard tubes, boxes, blocks and tape. An adult can cut a pool noodle lengthwise to make a channel. Choose wide box tracks for a large ball.

Join and support the path

Start high enough for a downward slope. Overlap the joins so the higher piece rests inside or on top of the lower piece. A gap can let the ball fall out. Give supports a wide base, or tape the track to a sturdy box.

A downward slope keeps the ball moving. A moving ball can coast across a flat piece or up a short rise, but it slows. If it stops there, tilt that part downward.

At a bend, a side wall pushes the ball into a new direction. Without that wall, a fast ball can fly straight off. Add a wall or lower the slope before the bend.

Test, watch and change

Engineers plan, build, test and improve things. Here is how that can sound at home:

1. Plan: "Where should the marble go?"
2. Build: Join a short track aimed at a paper cup.
3. Test: Let go and watch the whole trip.
4. Improve: "Where did it miss? What could we change?"

In one build, the first marble shoots past the cup. Lower the top to slow it. On the second test, it stops at a flat join. Tilt that piece downward. On the third test, it drops into the cup. That took 3 tests and 2 changes.

Change one thing between tests. If you move the cup, raise the start and replace a tube together, you cannot tell which change helped.

A run that misses gives you a place to look. Ask your child to point to the trouble spot. Later, try a slow zigzag path, a corner that comes back toward you, or a track that knocks over a block at the end.

Before releasing a car or testing an object, ask, "What do you think will happen?" A prediction is a guess made before a test. Your child may point, draw or tell you.

Invite a reason without judging the guess

If your child says, "The high ramp will win," ask, "Why do you think so?" They might say, "It's steeper." Say, "Let's find out!" A different result is something to talk about, not a reason to scold a wrong guess.

Afterward, look back: "You thought the block would roll. What did it do?" Keep both the guess and what actually happened clear.

Change one thing

A fair test changes one thing and keeps the other things the same. For a ramp-height test, change the height. Keep the car, ramp, floor and starting line fixed. Release without pushing.

Imagine a small car on a high ramp and a big truck on a low ramp. The car travels farther. Was that because of the height or the vehicle? Both changed, so you cannot separate their effects.

To find out about height, use the same car at both heights. To compare vehicles, use one ramp at one height. Give each question its own test.

Repeat and look for a pattern

A single run can be a little different from the next. Reset the car and try each height several times. In one investigation, the record is:

Every high-ramp run went farther than every low-ramp run. You can say, "When we raised the ramp, our car went farther." The small changes within each group do not hide that clear result.

Match the pace to your child

A younger child may want to roll the same ball repeatedly. Join in and name what you both see. An older child may help reset the start, wait for the release and say what changed.

Offer a sentence beginning: "It went farther because ..." Wait a few seconds. If your child points to the taller support, you might say, "You noticed we made the ramp higher."

A floor mark or a row of stickers helps your child compare trips after the toys have stopped. You can do the writing while your child points, counts or draws.

Count equal-size units

Choose matching blocks, equal floor tiles or repeated lengths of the same shoe. Start every measurement at the same line and end at the stopping place. Point to each unit once as you count aloud.

Lay blocks end to end with no gaps. Mixing a long block with short ones changes what one count means. Keep the unit the same for both trips.

Mark the stopping places with tape or sticky notes. Add a little drawing to show which run each mark belongs to. A mark farther from the shared start shows a longer trip.

Make a record together

Draw a low ramp above one column and a high ramp above another. Add one dot or sticker for each tile traveled. Write the number beside the dots if your child is interested. A photo of the floor marks can also save the results.

For a record of 5 tiles and 10 tiles, point first to the starting line, then to each stopping mark. Ask, "Which trip was farther?" Count on from 5 to 10: "6, 7, 8, 9, 10." That is five more tiles.

Do not compare only where the toys ended. A toy given a head start can finish farther along while traveling a shorter distance. Bring both toys back to the shared line before another test.

Give words to what your child noticed

Use words alongside the action: "The car rolled faster." "The rough cloth slowed it." Useful pairs include high and low, near and far, smooth and bumpy, fast and slow.

Ask one open question and wait: "What happened?" "Why do you think so?" "What could we change?" If your child says, "It went zoom!" you can add, "It rolled fast and far."

Invite your child to show the record to someone else. They can point to the taller sticker column or trace the longer trip with a finger.

Choose a large magnet made for young children, such as a chunky magnet wand in a secure case. A small group of objects is enough for a first magnet hunt.

Set up safe magnet play

Keep small magnets and high-powered magnet balls or cubes away from children. Swallowed magnets, or a magnet and metal, can pull together through the intestine and cause severe injury. Check toy cases for cracks or loose magnets and discard broken toys. Keep small test objects under your close control.

If you suspect your child swallowed a magnet or button battery, get medical help immediately, even if they seem well. Go to an emergency room or call your local emergency service; do not wait for symptoms.

Predict, test and sort

A magnet attracts, or pulls toward itself, iron and steel. We call materials it attracts magnetic. Some other metals, including nickel, are magnetic too.

Put out a steel paper clip, a steel jar lid, a steel binder clip, aluminum foil, a wooden block, a plastic cup, a sock and a crayon. Ask for a yes-or-no prediction before each test. Move the wand close and watch.

In this hunt, the three steel objects are attracted. The other five are not. Make a yes pile and a no pile. Your child can count each pile after testing.

Shiny does not mean magnetic

Aluminum foil is shiny metal, but the magnet does not attract it. Copper and brass are not attracted either. Compare a steel food can with an aluminum drink can. Both are metal, but the magnet pulls only the steel one.

Wood, plastic, paper, cloth, glass, rubber and stone are not attracted. A colored plastic coating can hide steel underneath, though. A plastic-coated steel clip still moves toward the magnet because of the steel inside.

Some stainless-steel spoons and fridge doors are attracted; others are not. Their kinds of steel differ. Test the object you have and describe its result: "This spoon is not magnetic."

Compare strength by testing

A bigger magnet is not always stronger. With the same kind of paper clips, compare the hanging chains two magnets can lift. In one test, a wand lifts 5 clips and a large fridge magnet lifts 1. Count your own results; size alone does not tell you which will hold more.

Hold a magnet wand near a steel paper clip on the table. Move it slowly closer. The clip jumps across the last small gap. A magnet can pull without touching.

Go paper fishing

Make paper fish and attach a steel paper clip to each. Secure a large toy magnet to the end of a fishing line on a short stick. Lower it toward a fish in a box or drawn pond.

The magnet pulls the steel clip, lifting the fish with it. A paper fish with no clip stays behind. Paper itself is not magnetic. Add colors or numbers to the fish for a sorting or counting game.

Move a toy with a hidden magnet

Draw a road on a paper plate. Put a paper car with a steel clip on top. Hold the wand underneath and guide it along the road. The pull reaches through the plate and moves the clip.

A magnet can also pull through thin cardboard, cloth, plastic and water. For a water test, an adult puts a steel clip inside a clear plastic bottle of water and closes the lid. Move the wand outside the bottle and steer the clip along inside.

The layer does not have to be magnetic. The magnet attracts the clip on its far side.

Add distance a little at a time

Put one sheet of paper between a magnet and a hanging clip. Add sheets one at a time. Eventually the clip falls because the gap has grown and the pull is too weak to hold that clip.

The magnetic pull gets weaker with distance. The falling clip shows when it can no longer be held; it does not mark an exact place where all magnetic pull ends.

Try two magnets together

Bring two toy magnets close. If they pull together, turn one around and try again. Now they can push apart. Magnetic train cars can click together one way and push each other away the other way.

A magnet is not sticky like glue. You can see a clip move across a gap or a train car move away before the magnets touch. A fridge magnet holds a drawing by pulling on the steel door and pinching the paper between them.