As Promised...Pulleys!

Pulleys have been a part of the Frog room for as long as there has been a Frog room! We have always had two pulleys dangling from the ceiling, each rigged with a simple basket and rope. I'll tell you, over the last decade or so, these these humble, hardware store pulleys have been hands down the most popular and engaging toy in the room! The children never get tired of filling the baskets and pulling the rope to hoist them up to the ceiling and down again. They experiment with different ways of pulling the rope- hand over hand, holding it in one place and walking back and forth, rolling it around a block like a winch. They practice moving the basket at different speeds-fast, slow, medium. They pretend that they are giving stuffed animals a balloon ride, or lifting cars up to the ceiling. We often say that they are the product of the best four dollars we ever spent!

A few events over the last couple of weeks have really inspired us to beef up our exploration of pulleys. First, pulleys are classified as simple machines, just like our good friend, Mr. Inclined plane. Second, the city is in the process of converting our building's heating system from oil to gas & we were told that a giant crane would need to come by to lift the new chimney onto the roof. Not only are cranes awesome, they are also a machine that basically consists of a winch, an arm and a pulley.

In addition to our two usual pulley baskets, we installed a third one over by our classroom loft. We call this "the baby elevator", since it seems to be primarily used for hoisting baby dolls up to the loft and back down to the floor safely.

Of course, sometimes two-year-olds prioritize cupcakes over babies...

We also used some plastic pipe to build a frame over the sensory table, which we attached two more pulleys to.

The Frogs used these pulleys to experiment with speed, velocity and force, by filling the buckets up with plastic bears, hoisting them up high, then letting them crash back down into the table, sending the bears flying and making a wonderful racket!

As you can imagine, we are having a grand old time! The only minor let down was that the aforementioned giant crane showed up on a Saturday, when nobody was hear to see it! That's OK, we have another plan up our sleeve to bring a crane to Nonotuck!

...But that's another post entirely!