Hole # 1 Knockdown

The mini golf course was conceived in early March as a result of an attempt for redirection from a teacher. On this particular morning many of the children were gathered in the block area building an enclosure. Kate noticed that some of the children, Victor and Bart in particular, were really more interested in knocking down the walls than building them up. In order to minimize the amount of children in the block area and to focus on the children's true interest Kate built a cardboard block structure in the circle area and invited the children to roll balls at the structure in order to knock it down. The children became completely engrossed in this activity. When Laura realized that one of the balls was a golf ball she mentioned that she had played miniature golf at the place with the bumper boats. Many of the children excitedly said that they too had played miniature golf. In lieu of the animated miniature golf discussion, Kate suggested that the children and the teachers at the school make their own miniature golf course. The children loved this idea. Christina, one of the student teachers, picked up on the enthusiasm and invited Victor, Bart, and Leslie into the art room to begin designing a miniature golf course. Recognizing that the children were completely intrigued with building their own mini golf course the teachers began to co-construct a golf course with the preschoolers.

As the construction of the golf course commenced different materials were introduced. In order to challenge the velocity and momentum of a golf ball we offered the children various materials to experiment with. We began with small cube blocks. The children stacked these up into small towers then rolled a ball down a gully to try and knock the tower over. We introduced dominoes to the children and had them experiment with them. The children would line the dominoes up on a table and then touch the end domino and see the whole row of dominoes fall down. These dominoes were also integrated into the mini golf course. A knock down center was created and the children would toss a ball tethered to the ceiling at a pile of cardboard boxes. Cardboard buildings were also constructed by the children and were knocked down by the golf balls.

Nico tries to knock the stack of blocks down by rolling his ball down a gutter.	Brenna tries to knock down the cardboard blocks as she swings the tethered ball at them.

As the golf course grand opening approached Gryff's mother gave us a new golf apparatus to experiment with. This little machine sucks the golf ball into its base and then ejects it. The children were captivated. Bobby described this machine as “ a super golf machine – the ball can go out by itself. We should make one out of metal .” Susana responded by saying, “ You could get two ramps and you swing the golf club into the tree house and then you bring it back down .”

The children designed and created the various cardboard structures for the knockdown hole.