Bouncing Balls (3–5 years)
Text on screen: Bouncing Balls (3–5 years).
Logo: Count, play, explore—for early education.
On screen: As Maritza Ceballos, PreK Educator, speaks, video clips show her interacting with children playing outside, bouncing different-sized balls. There are strips of tape at different heights on the wall that children can compare to how high their ball bounces.
Maritza Ceballos, PreK Educator: At first, they're all excited to play with different kinds of balls, bounce different kinds of balls. And so, I let them explore on their own to see what they were able to do, or understand the concept of how high, how low, how hard, how soft they could bounce the ball.
On screen: While Maritza continues to speak, video clips show Maritza gathering the children together into a small group.
Maritza: So then when I was able to bring all the children back together as a group, then I was able to select those three balls that I noticed that they were using more while playing freely. And really ask them more questions about why they thought those balls bounced high? Why they thought it bounced low?
On screen: While Maritza continues to speak, a photo of the variety of balls is displayed.
Maritza: Or notice the characteristics of the balls. Were they the same? Were they different? Did they feel the same? Did they weigh the same? And just really focus on three, instead of the whole selection of balls that we had.
On screen: Maritza sits down in a circle with the children and 3 balls. She points at each of the three balls.
Maritza: Out of these three—one, two, three—which one bounced the highest?
On screen: Children point at different balls.
Elian: This one!
On screen: Maritza holds up the small blue ball.
Maritza: Elian says this one.
On screen: Two children point at the third ball.
Charlie: This one.
On screen: Maritza holds up the orange and white basketball.
Maritza: Charlie says the basketball.
On screen: Two children point at the third ball.
Espey and Audrey: This one.
Describer: Maritza holds up the brown basketball. Maritza: Espey and Audrey say the brown basketball. On screen: A child raises her hand.
Ariel: How about me?
Maritza: How about we test it out?
On screen: As Maritza speaks, video clips show her interacting with children who are bouncing the ball next to the wall to see which piece of tape it reaches.
Maritza: So, I added tape to the wall so that the children had a visual marker of where they predicted that the ball was going to bounce to. They were able to see, I think it's going to bounce this high. Or they would point with their finger to the higher tape, and say, "I think it's going to bounce to the top one."
On screen: Maritza points to the orange and white basketball that a child is holding.
Maritza: How high do you think this one's going to bounce?
On screen: The child points to a tape strip on the wall.
Charlie: Right there.
Maritza: Which one?
On screen: Maritza points to the highest tape strip.
Charlie: That small one.
Maritza: That small one? You think it's going to bounce up here? Okay, go.
On screen: The child bounces that ball and it bounces to the third tape strip down. Maritza points at that tape strip.
Maritza: It bounced to this one.
On screen: Maritza then points at the highest tape strip then the third tape strip down.
Maritza: Charlie thought it was going to go up here, it went here. On screen: Maritza points to the blue ball that a child is holding. Maritza: How high do you think the blue one's going to bounce? Elian: It's going to bounce lower.
On screen: Maritza and the child point to the highest tape strip.
Maritza: You think it's going to bounce here?
Elian: Yeah.
Maritza: All right. Go. Whoa. Did it go to the blue?
Elian: Yeah.
On screen: Maritza points to the highest tape strip. The child jumps up and down in excitement.
Maritza: Did it go to the tape?
Elian: Yeah!
On screen: Maritza points again to the highest tape strip.
Maritza: That one, did it bounce to the top tape? Why do you think that happened?
Charlie: Because it has air inside. Maritza: Because it has air inside? Elian: Yeah.
On screen: Maritza points to the orange and white basketball.
Maritza: Okay. But this one has air too.
Describer: The child rubs the blue ball. Another child bounces the orange and white basketball.
Elian: Yeah. And this one’s so slippery.
On screen: Maritza picks up the orange and white basketball and lifts it up and down.
Maritza: Do they weigh the same?
Describer: The child rubs the blue ball. Another child bounces the orange and white basketball.
Maritza: So, the children had different ideas of why they thought that the balls were bouncing high or low. A couple of the children started realizing, there's air inside of the balls. And they had that concept, there's air inside of the balls, but how does it bounce?
On screen: Maritza speaks to the children, and points at the brown basketball a child is holding.
Maritza: So now, let's test the brown one. Ariel, how high do you think the brown one's going to bounce?
On screen: Maritza points at the second piece of tape down on the wall.
Maritza: This tape?
Ariel: Yeah.
Maritza: Try it.
On screen: A child bounces the brown ball. Maritza points to the height on the wall where the brown basketball bounced.
Maritza: Okay, It reached right about here.
On screen: Maritza points to the second piece of tape strip down on the wall.
Maritza: Did it reach the tape that you thought?
Ariel: No.
Maritza: No? Why do you think?
On screen: Maritza picks up the brown basketball.
Audrey: Because it has texture.
Maritza: Because it has texture? You think the texture made it slow down? I don't know. What do you think?
Charlie: Because there's air inside.
On screen: The children gather around Maritza as she discusses the different balls. Maritza points at the brown basketball she is holding, then points to the orange and white basketball and then the blue ball.
Maritza: There's air inside of this one, too. So there's air inside of this one, inside of this basketball, and inside of the bouncy ball. All three of them have air. But why do you think some of them bounce higher?
Text on screen: A special thanks to the children, families, and staff of the Office of the Fresno County Superintendent of Schools’ Lighthouse for Children Child Development Center, without whose help these videos would not have been possible
Logo: Count, play, explore—for early education.