While watching the kids play with their toy garbage truck, I noticed that the wheels had different diameters, and since the kids love to do experiments, I thought this would be a fun and easy way to explore circumference!
What you need:
- Paper (we tapes a few sheets together so we could make a few marking for each wheel)
- Circles of various sizes (wheels of toy cars, coasters, coins, etc.)
- Crayons/markers/pencils
- Something to mark the wheel at one point along the circumference (we used small stickers)
Line up the marking on the wheel so that it is touching the paper and mark it with a crayon. Drive your car or truck and then mark the same spot every time it hits the bottom. Do this with each wheel and you will measure the circumference.
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| Marking the wheel rotations. |
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| Closeup view. |
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| After you mark them all, measure between two of the same colored lines. |
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| Ours worked out to 5, 5.5, and 6 inches. |
For older kids, you can ask them several follow up questions: How many rotations of one wheel does it take to go a certain distance? How about other wheels? In the real world, which tire would wear out first?
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