Building

This semester the children have been working on many different building projects.  It has been our hope to introduce new materials and to encourage the children to think about their structures in different ways.  The children have been stuck on using mostly the magnatiles (I mean I can't blame them they are pretty neat) so we wanted to help break them out of that rut.  We have been working with large and small blocks, blocks of different shapes (including cylindrical PVC pipes) and recycled materials.  Building provides the children with opportunities to work alone, invite their peers into play or begin work on a structure together.  The children have been looking at images of different structures as well for inspiration.  It is neat for us to see some of the children come out of their shells and develop elaborate creations.  Building with different types of materials has also caused the children to be aware of ideas like balance and sturdiness.  The children are exploring balance in various ways using their bodies (see our other blog post for more about that), so thinking about balancing the structure relies on some of the same ideas.  We will continue to introduce different building materials; we just used small brick blocks today (hopefully some pictures to come soon). Check out some of the structures we have been creating below.