Exploring building

Using a variety of materials for building

During the last few months the children have been using many different materials to build. In addition to regular building blocks, we have used large magnetic tiles, recycled materials and combined different types of blocks together. They have discovered that different materials require different strategies for building and that a strategy may work with one type of material and not another. 

Adam and Joe work together to build a castle

The children are using recycled materials
to build homes for  the animals

Throughout this process the children also developed group cooperation and communication skills. They realized they needed to talk with the other children and share their ideas. Otherwise, everyone was doing something different.

The magnetic tiles offered a unique challenge to the children. If they built multiple levels on one side and not the other, the weight of the tiles caused their structure to fall. After a teacher encouraged them to build the second level all they way around, the children realized they could  successfully create a multi level structure.

Changing the building surface

Another challenge we have presented to the children is how to build on different surfaces. We placed blocks in the sand table and discovered the children simply moved the sand to the side to build or used the lip of the sandtable as a stable surface. In order to stretch their thinking, we brought in an incline plane and encouraged them to build with the ramp as their surface.

We began by using small, foam blocks  on the ramp. The children noticed that many of the blocks slid down the ramp. After trying to build in different places on the ramp, Violet and Rory realized the direction of the block was important to it staying in one place. Ahmad worked with Rory to build up once the base block was stable. 

Our next step will be to use small, wooden blocks on the ramp. Some questions we will be looking at with the children are: Will the wooden blocks provide the same challenges as the foam blocks on the ramp? Will the children use the same strategies with the wooden blocks and will their strategies work the same way?