Building Strategies Learning Group Summary Weeks 1-7 Continued (4)

We decided to reintroduce mirror blocks in in the sandbox on a tabletop.  Again, by removing them from the other blocks in the block area, they would be easier for the children to focus on building with.  We set up a few provocations in the sandbox for the children to see examples of other ways they could build with the blocks besides just stacking the blocks up.  We asked the children, “How can you build?” It was during this time we also heard the children begin to count as they would stack the blocks, “One, two, three…”

The children began to bring other items over to the sandbox.  Many children began to bring the small cars and trucks over. They experimented with maneuvering the cars around the blocks.  This is where are discussion of tunnels began.  We worked with the children to construct simple tunnels in which we could experiment together to see if our cars would or would not fit through.  

Building Strategies Learning Group Summary Weeks 1-7 Continued (3)

During building exploration, we noticed at often times the children would bring different materials over to the table to build with. Many of the children were bringing over the smaller silver mirror blocks.  We thought we would like to explore building with these blocks since they fit into their small hands better. We also noticed that the children were able to stack higher with these blocks because they were all the same size and shape.

Building Strategies Learning Group Summary Weeks 1-7 Continued (2)

We continued with the projection provocations and provided the children a small table to build at in the block area. 

Building Strategies Learning Group Summary Weeks 1-7 Continued

We heard words and statements from the children as they built like “building” and “real high.”  The children were beginning to become very excited and intrigued about what they were looking at in the pictures.

In the following weeks we thought we would continue the exploration by projecting the photographs of the structures on the wall in the block area.  The children were so excited to see the projections on the wall.  They would walk right up to the wall and try to touch them.  A few of the children even tried to walk up the stairs of the Great Wall of China.

Building Strategies Learning Group Summary Weeks 1-7

In the first semester, the children demonstrated interest in building.  They built with materials of all sizes and shapes, including wooden blocks, mirror blocks, cubes, Legos, Magnatiles and natural materials.   We were glad to see the children had discovered the many building materials in our classroom. We could tell they were intrigued by the materials, so we thought that we would like to focus on the process of building with the children for the second semester.

We began by just offering a simple exploration of wood blocks.  We placed a selection of different size wood blocks at a table in the art area.  We decided to move the blocks from the floor in the block area to a table because the space is so large and there are so many other materials around that could distract the children from the blocks.

We noticed the children began their explorations with stacking the blocks.  The blocks were of various sizes and shapes.  We heard words like “tower,” “tall,” “fell down” and “triangle.”  The children became enthusiastic when they could knock down the structures they had built. We heard a lot of children exclaim, “Uh Oh!”

Next, we thought we would give the children inspiration for their stacking by providing them with pictures of famous structures from around the world.  They looked at black and white photographs of the Eiffel Tower, Empire State Building, Renaissance Center, Sears Tower and the Great Wall of China.  The children were intrigued by the photographs and we encouraged them to build what they saw in the photographs.