Construction...

I love watching children construct - watching their patterns and rhythm of creating... how most start constructing outwards - like a construction drawing while others build up - and then there is up and out as the constructions get more complex...

Age has nothing to do with this - I see those children with a big construction interest will develop their building styles faster than others - its only natural that those who practice will!

These thought were stimulated by watching a four year old building yesterday a playground - she was the last child and I set the challenge "can you build a playground?" which she gladly accepted.

I have to admit I was surprised when I saw how 2D it was - everything was flat - including the slide - but she could explain exactly what everything was and it all made perfect sense when you looked at it with her eyes...

So I am interested in how I can offer challenges to develop this building - to challenge her more to create a more 3D sloping slide... by spending more time in the construction area, by putting up images of slides on the wall - or maybe making a model myself and just leaving it there to see what happens - or taking a photo of a a slide/playground construction... Maybe other materials...?

after explaining the playground to me she continued to build and the trees/forest for climbing were positioned around the park.

Today I spent time with two three year olds busy using the soft blocks - building up and out, I was involved in the early stages and connected my tower to theirs and exclaimed "a bridge". They continued to make many bridges - making lots of connections. We also tested the stability of the blocks - as part of the larger construction fell down a few times...

So I built a narrow tower which they blew down - and then I built a wider tower which could not be blown down. After that they concentrated on making their towers wide and more stable - that JUST up was not always the best idea to attain height!