Snow Day! Ping Pong Plop!

The quest to keep the minions entertained on this *now raining* snow day continues. Our next project, ping pong balls.


Ping Pong Plop

Materials: 
*small box
*ping pong balls
*containers of varying sizes
*straws

Ping pong balls can be so fun because they are small, lightweight, and extremely bouncy! I adapted this activity from one I found in the book Unplugged Play by Bobbi Conner. First, cut the box to make a passageway for the ping pong balls to travel through. Place it on a table to serve as a "chute" for the balls. 

Fill the containers with water and place them on the floor. Talk about which containers they think will be easy to land a ball in and which will be difficult. Slide the first container below the chute and line it up to catch the balls.






We started by rolling the balls to get a feel for how to move them through the chute and plop them into the water below. Try rolling them fast and slow. Try standing to the side and at the back. Try letting the balls bounce before plopping. Have the children experiment with the different sizes of containers to see if they can still get the balls to "plop" in the water.

Once they get the hang of rolling the balls, give them straws and have them blow the balls through the chute and into the water below. Is it harder to do it this way? Have them try making different obstacles or changing the shape of the chute. 

With my boys I found that the activity evolved into trying to bounce the balls into the containers and then trying to "golf" the balls into a container they created. There are so many possible variations to this activity. The only limit is their creativity!