Name of teaching material
Transparent cylinders to teach the difference between heavy and light (understanding the concept of weight) self-made product
*The description appears by hovering the cursor over the image.
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Teaching material
| Target | Intellectually disabled infants and younger and older children in the kindergarten, elementary, lower secondary, and upper secondary divisions (developmental age: about 2 years) |
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| Disability category | mentally challenged |
| Teaching units / Applicable scenes | activities for independent living |
| Specific purposes |
To enable the children to understand: (1) the difference between heavy and light and its concept (2) the fact that the concept of heavy and light is not absolute but relative by using balls of different sizes |
| Considerations for disability characteristics | The heavy balls are made of stainless steel and the light balls are made of urethane; the greater the difference in weight, the easier the difference between heavy and light is to understand. |
| Expected effects and results | To learn the concept of heavy and light, children collected balls that were the same (as part of their language learning) and put them into transparent cylinders; this also led them to learn to count numbers such as 1, 2, and 3. |
| How to use |
(1) Prepare between 1 and 5 types of balls. The photos show 3 types of balls: golf balls (42.5 mm in diameter), medium rubber balls (30 mm in diameter), and small rubber balls (21 mm in diameter). (2) The following balls can be used: large stainless-steel balls (41.5 mm in diameter), sponge golf-practice balls (42 mm in diameter), medium stainless-steel balls (30 mm in diameter), medium rubber balls (30 mm in diameter), wooden balls (30 mm in diameter), small stainless-steel balls (21 mm in diameter), and small rubber balls (21 mm in diameter). (3) Start the task according to the size of the children’s hands; a cylinder that can hold 5 balls is preferable. (4) First, the teacher puts the balls into a cylinder, saying, for example, “A heavy ball” or “A light ball” as an example. Next, the teacher gets the child to put balls into a cylinder, saying “A heavy ball. It’s heavy,” with the child. It is effective to also present a card displaying words such as “heavy” and “light.” |
| Related teaching materials and information |
• Before putting the balls into cylinders, it is preferable for the children to practice by using cans or containers with a larger diameter. • Transparent cylinders and balls can be used, not only for learning heavy and light, but also for learning colors and numbers. • Transparent cylinders are made mostly of polycarbonate, acrylic, and vinyl chloride; polycarbonate is an inexpensive and a durable material that is hard to break, even if it is bent. |
| Useful for other students |
- Informant Special Needs Education School for the Mentally Challenged, University of Tsukuba
- Keywords Collect the same items, comparison, sense of touch, weight
- Created 2017-03-02 14:29:05
- Updated 2024-01-09 15:58:11