We Explore Building

Lesson Plan Overview:
Flexible 10 lesson sequence: Activities can be integrated with regular building play.

Activity 1: Introduction to Building Structures

Children are introduced to We Explore Building. They build different types of structures using blocks made from a variety of materials (i.e., wood, foam, cardboard, plastic) and of different sizes, shapes, and weights. They are introduced to the idea of representing their structures through drawing. 

Home Connection: The Home Activity introduces families to the building exploration and invites them to build a structure with their children using cushions, pillows, sheets or blankets, and pieces of furniture. Families are also asked to begin collecting recyclables for building at home.

Activity 2: Investigating Building Materials

As they build with blocks, children investigate the properties of the materials that blocks are made from (e.g., hardness, flexibility, and roughness) as well as their sizes, shapes, and weights. They make inferences about how these properties influence the ways in which they are able to use the blocks in their structures. 

Home Connection: The Home Activity invites families to provide blocks or familiar everyday materials (e.g., paper cups, small boxes, cardboard rolls, empty cans) and engage children in a building activity at home. Children then draw their structures and talk with their family members about the materials they used to build them. 

Activity 3: We Are Engineers!

Children are introduced to the idea that building a structure means thinking about the properties of the building materials and placing and arranging the blocks to create balance. Children investigate balance using their own bodies and are introduced to a new building material—planks—to explore balance. They generate and share ideas for placing and arranging the planks to create balanced structures.

Home Connection: The Home Activity invites children to have a conversation with their family members about something they want to build. Then they draw a picture of it to take back to school.

Activity 4: Taking a Structures Walk

Children are introduced to the concepts of strength and stability using the familiar folktale of The Three Little Pigs. They take a “structures walk” to look for strong stable buildings in their community and figure out what makes them strong and stable. Back in the classroom, they revisit The Three Little Pigs and then draw plans for the houses they would build if a wolf was after them.

Home Connection: The Home Activity encourages families to have a conversation with their children about the buildings they saw on the structures walk. They are asked to go on a structures walk with their children around their own homes and to look at and talk about the buildings they live in.

Activity 5: Building Tall Towers

Children are engaged in an engineering challenge. Working in pairs or small groups, children choose one type of material (e.g., wood, foam, cardboard) and use it to build the tallest tower they can. Children draw and measure their towers and record the measurements. They identify which tower is tallest and make inferences about how well the building materials, the sizes and shapes of the blocks, and the building strategies they used work for “building tall.”  

Home Connection: The Home Activity invites families to help their children build towers using cans, cups, empty boxes, or other collected materials. Children then draw a picture of the family building a tower together.

Activity 6: Engineering Challenge: Making Our Towers Stronger

Based on the previous tower-building activity, children explore ways to make their tall towers stronger, taller, and more stable. Children reflect on the strategies they generated for building tall in Activity 5. Working in pairs or small groups, they build towers using and expanding on those strategies with a wider selection of materials. They test their towers with a fan and reflect on what designs worked best for building strong tall towers. 

Home Connection: The Home Activity invites children and their families to look for tall buildings while they are out and about in the neighborhood. They have a conversation about the tallest buildings they find. Children draw pictures of their families in front of the tallest buildings.

Activity 7: Creating Models of Favorite Structures 

Children are introduced to the idea of making models of structures during an online book-reading of Dreaming Up by Christy Hale. They make models of their favorite structures based on images and compare their models to the original structures. They think and talk about what was easy and more difficult about making the models.  

Home Connection: The Home Activity invites children to draw pictures of their favorite buildings. They have a conversation with family members about why these buildings are their favorites, and family members write down what they say. 

Activity 8: Engineering Challenge: Building Houses for Animals

Children address a second engineering challenge as they design and build houses that will meet the needs of a variety of toy animals. Children think and talk about features of houses and the animals’ different sizes, shapes, and space requirements. In pairs or small groups, they draw a plan for a house for an animal and build it. They reflect on the building problems they faced and how they solved them. They listen to and discuss the story Bats at Home by Stephen Krensky.

Home Connection: The Home Activity invites children to talk with their families about their own homes, including the materials they are made of and how they are made. They notice and talk about all the ways that their homes meet their needs. 

Activity 9: Engineering Challenge: Designing and Building Bridges

Children view images of different types of bridges and describe and compare the different designs. Using paper, cardboard, and other building materials, children design and build bridges. They then test the strength of their bridges using small cars, pennies, or other weights, and generate ideas about the materials and designs that contribute to making strong, stable bridges.

Home Connection: The Home Activity invites families to help their children create plans for making a structure at home and then make it together.