Catapult Math

Today during math we made a catapult using a spoon and blocks. There were several items available to catapult. The children chose pompoms and sugar cubes. They discussed and made predictions about which would go further.   Some children thought the pompom would go further because it was light and others thought it was too light weight. Then we tested the predictions by launching the items. 

Each child had an opportunity to launch the item of their choice. They then marked with tape where their item landed. The children discussed the distances and used terms like farther, close, closer, closest, near, next to and many more terms. Then the children used the cubes to measure how far their item landed from the catapult. Together we counted how many cubes away each item landed. 

D-M's was the closest to the catapult. It was 16 cubes away. 

Y.A. was one cube further. 

M.F.'s went 25 cubes away. 

T.W.'s was 42 cubes away and M.C.'s was 52 cubes away. 

S.R.'s was 54 cubes away from the catapult. 

N.C.'s was 105 cubes away and L.E.'s 121 cubes away. 

The rest of the class had even longer launches from the catapult. 

L.B.'s launch went the very farthest away. He launched it all the way across the classroom.