As children begin building with unit blocks, there are stages of development that they move through as they become more familiar with the material. The stages are: Discovering Blocks, Stacking Blocks, Complex Stacking, Making Enclosures, Creating Bridges or Arches, and Combining Enclosures and Bridges. Through observing the children’s building thus far, we realized that many of them were hovering around Complex Stacking and Enclosures. So, to support them in moving on to the next stage we introduced Block Challenges. These challenges have given the children opportunity to think critically and creatively as they work in the block area. It also gives direction for those that benefit from a prompt to get started. Our first challenge was, “Can you make a bridge?” and our second challenge was, “Can you make a tunnel?”
As inspiration, the children were presented with a tunnel video projecting in the block area. As they began to talk through their plan, they referenced the video and said, “but it has to have a top!”
As their tunnel began to take shape, one student commented, “we have to put lights on it. Cause tunnels have lights. These can be the lights”. She added small rectangle blocks on the top. The teacher suggested, “maybe you can make lights with paper?” Another student responded, “Yes! We need yellow and orange to make lights.”
So, they got to work drawing and cutting lights to add to the tunnel. Once the tunnel was complete, they needed to test it out! They got some cars to go through – but as they began pushing the cars through, they realized something. “How do we see the cars going through? Maybe we can undo the top to see them go through.”
