Over the past few weeks, the preschool educators have introduced small spinning tops, allowing children to explore how they move and understand the effort required to make them spin. Nidya brought in toys of various shapes and placed them on the light table, where children began building with them. When Mason and Colin returned from outside, they joined the last group to participate. Colin started experimenting by trying to spin the shapes, using both hands and his index fingers to push them across the table. This inspired Nidya to introduce spinning tops on the light table to see how the children would engage with them.
Some children dropped the tops, some slid them across the table, and others tried diligently to make them spin, discovering their own techniques to turn and twist them. As they became more skilled at maneuvering the tops between their fingers and thumbs, a new form of play emerged: competition. Children began seeing whose top could spin the longest, whose would “win,” and whose would crash.
This sparked an idea for Mary: what would happen if obstacles were introduced in the path of the spinning tops? Would the children’s play change? Would they use the tops differently? Would they still try to spin them?
As each group of three approached the light table, they predicted what would happen if the tops bumped into wooden blocks. Colin said, “The top would stop,” Fox predicted, “It will break,” Maddie thought, “The blocks would fall down,” and Birdie suggested, “It will wobble and wiggle.”
Colin, Fox, and Mason were the first to try. Fox immediately altered his approach, rather than spinning, he jumped the top from one block to another. Mason continued to drop his top from a height, hoping it would spin on landing, while Colin focused on spinning it. Interestingly, Colin’s top navigated between the blocks without hitting any of them.
The second group seemed more concerned with spatial challenges. Sadie lowered herself close to the table, practicing repeatedly until she successfully spun her top between the yellow and red blocks. As it moved slowly, bumping into the other blocks, she exclaimed, “Hey! It did not stop!” with amazement.
Even as the children moved on to other activities, it was fascinating to observe them returning to the light table to try again.
Through this activity, the children discovered that the movement of the top depends on the force and speed of the spin. They learned that a strong spin could overcome block obstacles without stopping the top or causing the blocks to fall, although it might slow the top or make it wobble slightly.
