Cardboard and Blocks Equal Building Possibilities

Most of my groups of kids love to use blocks. Often we will put out blocks with little or nothing else. The kids enjoy creating in different ways with the blocks.

However, I try to add different materials - just to stimulate more thinking and encourage kids to expand their ideas. Of course, recycled materials make great construction materials. This time, we added cardboard pieces (from boxes) and cardboard tubes.

As is my practice, I put out the items with little direction beyond: "You can use these with the blocks if you choose."

We tried various arrangements of cardboard, blocks, and tubes.

We created structures and playgrounds.

And we even incorporated other items into our structures.

These materials are great for the classroom. You can use whatever you have on hand. If you have large pieces of cardboard or long tubes, cut them smaller or shorter. If they get torn or damaged, just toss them. (Or better yet, find a way to use them in sculptures or murals in the art center!)

Add Straws to the Block Center

Block accessories can be expensive. But a trip to the dollar store or grocery store can yield materials to supplement your block center at little cost. One day in the grocery store, I saw packets of neon straws. I tossed a pack into my cart and took them to my classroom. I didn't have a plan for the straws. I thought my great thinkers in the classroom could figure something out.

I put the straws in the blocks center. My group likes to build and I want to give them some different things to work with. We were talking about wells, so I also added a couple of small buckets with yarn attached. (In the past, kids have built wells and pretended to scoop out water.)

A couple of boys decided to use the straws as "water." They stuffed the straws into the buckets and transported them across the center. They dumped the "water" onto the picture of the well, I think to fill it up. The boys worked at this for a while.

Meanwhile, in another part of the center, one of my builders was at work creating a large structure.

After the others left, the builder completed his building and began to scoop and play with the straws.

Then he decided to incorporate the straws in his structure.

I love how each straw is strategically placed. He worked really hard to find just the right spot for each one.

Sometimes I'll put things out and they will be ignored. Sometimes the kids do things that I expect. And sometimes I get a block structure filled with straws. And if I put these same materials out with a different group of kids, I'll get a different result.

Repurposing and recycling materials for the classroom is great for the budget. It's great for creative thinking. And it's just fun!

Build with Rolled Newspaper

I have kids who love the blocks center - who love to build and construct and explore how to make things. Sometimes it's a challenge to find things that are different or that push them to explore in different ways. I'm always on the lookout for another way to bring different or expanded play into our building area.

Another one of my favorite things to do is repurpose materials, especially materials that were destined to be trashed. This activity reuses newspapers and challenges kids to build in new ways. If you are looking for a fun STEM exploration, this may be just what you need.


Take newspapers. Roll a few sheets together. Tape closed. Build.

Encourage kids to experiment with different ways to build. As you can see above, I put a few out in a configuration to invite kids to try this activity. But soon they launched into their own ideas.

When exploring with a new or unusual material, kids will get ideas that do not work. Or they will encounter new and different problems that need solving. I try to ask questions to help them think about the issue and consider new solutions. For example: "What could we do to help the rolls stand up?"

So we moved from the carpet to the tile area (his idea).

Another one: "The ends are rolling out. What could we do to stop that?"

She found some things in the room to help her create a more stable end to her structure.


Some variations:

Add tape and scissors. Kids can make more stable and permanent structures by attaching the rolls together.

Use pages from an old atlas, catalogues, or magazines instead of newspaper pages.

Roll the newspaper on a diagonal to make longer rolls with tapered edges.



(Check out my Dollar Store and Dumpster Pinterest Board for more repurpose/reuse ideas!)SaveSave

Play Is Better With "With"

I sat beside the block center, talking with a friend as she was beginning to build. We were talking about various things, both about what she was doing and about what had been happening in her life.

She placed various blocks, one on another, without a particular plan. She would place one and rearrange slightly and then place another. She put a triangle block on top of another and we watched it slide down the incline.

"That block just slid down the other one," I said. (I often narrate what I see, allowing the child to pick up the conversation if she chooses.) She nodded.

Then she knocked down what she was doing and looked up at me. "Would you build a park with me?" she asked.

"You can build it," I said, "and I will watch you."

STOP. Freeze the frame. Go back and read her question and my response again. What did she ask? What did I say?

Okay, let's start back up. I let those words filter through my brain quickly.

"I'll be glad to build with you," I said. I moved to the floor as she beamed up at me.

Now my first response was okay. I think it's important for children to do their own work and I will often say that they need to do things for themselves. I do not draw pictures for children or make things for them. I want to see their ideas and not my own - and they can work to produce what they want as well.

But in this case, my friend didn't want me to do something for her. She wanted me to do something WITH her. We had not interacted much lately and this building together was a way for us to has a social experience. I randomly stacked a few blocks as she built a slide and a swing. Then the swing morphed into the front gate. It wasn't long until she moved to play with a friend in our home center.

But I remembered that playing WITH someone is better - especially when you are 5 or 6 - than playing alone. Playing is as much a social learning time as any other learning time.

Besides, who doesn't enjoy cooperative block building. I need more of that in my life.

Some Shiny Blocks

I love blocks. If you've spent any time here on the blog (or even with me in person talking about preschoolers), you'll probably already know this. Since I love blocks and I've had groups of kids who love blocks, I'm always looking for ways to supplement or create different experiences with blocks and building.

This summer in Vacation Bible School, we had shiny blocks. Well, we wrapped some of our blocks with aluminum foil so we would have shiny blocks.

Just a little change...a small revamping of a familiar item...can create some new exploration and play experiences. Some girls in our VBS group really were interested in these blocks. They built castles (princess castles, I think) with these "new" blocks.

Since this was an unfamiliar group of children, I didn't know their block building habits. I don't know if the shiny blocks made building more interesting or attractive to these girls. But they did enjoy building with them and reused them on more than one day.

We were using the blocks (and the room) where my church kindergarten class regularly meets. We didn't unwrap the blocks after VBS so we still had some silver shiny blocks for my regular class. I told the kids that we could unwrap them, but they wanted to keep them for a while.

I noticed that sometimes the shiny blocks were just part of a building, with no particular function or special place. But more often, the shiny blocks became a feature or special part of a building. They were using them as part of an overall design. This really interested me.

Just wrapping a few blocks in foil caused the building and creating to change.

We kept the shiny blocks for a few weeks. Then we unwrapped them and had our "regular" blocks back. But because of my experiences with two groups of kids, I will be wrapping foil around them again some time. And maybe searching for other things to wrap around my blocks and spark some new creativity.

5 Ways to Use Straws

Straws are a great resource to have on hand in your preschool or kindergarten classroom. Here are five ways we've used them in our classroom.

1. Build with them.

Or at least use them in your blocks center. We've explored all kinds of things in the blocks center and straws make interesting additions to block creations or other construction play.

2. Paint with them.

We painted on a canvas with straws and balls. The idea was to blow the practice golf balls around on the canvas. The paint was too thick or the balls too solid so blowing was a chore. Instead we batted the balls around on the canvas using the straws as bats or paddles.

You can also put paint on the paper and blow the paint to create designs. Check out the "wind art" on this post on Pre-K Pages.


3. Play games with them.

Recently we tried some challenge games. We used straws to blow cups across (and off) a table. We used straws to pick up and move tissue paper squares; suck in to attract the paper to the straw, move it, and release onto the target.

Another game to play is blowing a pom-pom along a trail. Use tape to make a trail line. Place a pom-pom on the tape and blow the pom-pom down the trail.


4. String them.

Cut the straws into short lengths. String them on a chenille craft stem to make a bracelet or on a length of yarn to make a necklace.

Add some number practice with this activity. Roll a numbered cube. Add straw pieces or other things to the bracelet or necklace.

Note: Straws could also be a part of cutting practice. Place them (and paper and other items) on a table with scissors for kids to cut and cut and cut.


5. Fly them.

The kids created a tossing/flying game with the straws and cups. They arranged the cups in a group and tossed the straws like darts or spears, trying to land them in a designated cup.

Or make a straw airplane with paper strips, tape, and straws.

Straws are a part of our regular resource collection. What have you done with straws in your classroom?

Cube Blocks and Free Play

What can kids learn or explore own their own? What do they do when they can play freely and independently?

In my classroom one day we had the cube blocks. We've had them before. And we'll have them again. Not a particularly unusual or unique item. 

I wandered over to see what one of my friends was doing in the block center this particular day. He is one of my builders. He always spends some time stacking and building. 

I noticed immediately that he wasn't making stacks or creating tall buildings. Something else was happening. 

I saw that he had created a word. And then, before I could really absorb what he constructed, his hands moved along the bottom of his creation (with a few blocks in hand). His hands moved around the top, bounced on the middle, and pushed some blocks out of his construction. 

The new blocks formed a line and his play was complete.

I wondered at what I'd seen, clicking my phone's camera while I watched. I didn't interrupt - mainly because I was busy processing what he'd done. Then it hit me. (And I really saw what he had created.)

He had re-enacted the opening of every Pixar movie. The word appears. The lamp hops along the bottom of the word and then jumps, bounces on the i, and replaces the letter.

Amazing. 

I didn't comment. (A rare occurrence.) I just let it play out. He moved onto something else and so did I.

But I pondered (and have since pondered more) about this. I could never have suggested such a play exploration to him. It wouldn't have occurred to me. But what if I had insisted that he make a building or a cube or some other specific play plan that I already had in mind? He would have complied (probably) or just moved away. And never explored his own idea.

This is the same boy that had repeatedly written "20th Century Fox Entertainment" on white boards and paper. He recently did the same with magnet letters on our magnet board. He has drawn (rather successfully) the Warner Bros logo several times.

Why is he fascinated with these logos? I don't know. I haven't asked. Just as I don't ask why a child likes cats or cars or the color pink. They just are interested in these things. And want to explore them in different ways.

If I insist that the blocks are used for certain things or that they write the words and sentences I have provided or that they draw certain themes or characters, I circumvent what they want to explore and learn more about. There may be times that their energies should be focused in certain directions. But, as I ponder more about Peter Gray's Free to Learn, maybe that's not true. Maybe they need to explore logos or cars or the color pink as much as they choose. When they have mastered whatever they need to know about that (as determined by them) then they are ready to explore something else and master it. 

What will my friend do with his knowledge of Pixar and Warner Bros and 20th Century Fox Entertainment? I don't know. And probably he doesn't either at this point. But we both can enjoy the journey of discovery together.

The Yard Sale

I honestly don't know why people want to spend time with adults and not young kids. I always have a fun and interesting time, with intriguing conversations. And I am continually surprised by them. (Well, adults surprise me, too, but in completely different and often less positive ways.)

We put out the doll furniture with the wooden blocks. Since we were talking about families, I thought the kids may build rooms or houses and use the furniture. At the very least, the furniture could trigger conversations about homes and families.

One boy came to the center. We talked about the fact that there was furniture there. He pulled all the pieces out and placed them on the floor. He moved them around a little - then he declared, "Oh, it's a yard sale." 

He arranged the pieces in various configurations until he was pleased with the display. We continued to talk about different things--the furniture and yard sale, other things that he was thinking, maybe a few things I was thinking. He picked up one piece. "The stove is sold," he told me as he set it aside, "for $150." 

"$150? That's good," I said.

Then he picked up the couch. "The couch is sold," he said. "$60,050."

"Wow," I said, "that is a lot of money for a couch."

"Somebody paid it," he said. (I had no comment to that.)

Even after...all...these years of teaching kids and working with them, they surprise me. That's why I try to stay out of their way. I have idea when I plan the classroom activities and put out resources. I know what I think may happen. But I always try to communicate that the kids can use their own ideas. I learn about them and their thinking as they build or draw or play.

If I'm not open to new ideas and directions from the kids, then I'll miss the surprises and insights that I can learn.

The yard sale play went on for a while. Then the boys were off to paint or something else. Others came and moved some of the furniture around. Some pushed it aside to build with blocks. (Not rooms or houses but towers.) That's the nature of the classroom.

But I'll always think of the yard sale when I put out this furniture. And I'll handle that couch with a little more respect. After all, someone paid thousands of dollars for it.

Heavy Duty Problem Solving

I saw some heavy duty problem solving happening in our blocks center last week.

The boys began building the "traditional" arch structure that I've seen over and over in my classrooms. Two tall blocks standing on end and another block across the span at the top.

Then one said, "I wonder if I can fit through here." He slowly inserted his head into the opening...until the structure fell on him. (Sorry - no photo.)

Well, the exploration was on. They tried spacing blocks out as far as possible. They tried moving their heads through the space in different ways. They speculated that if we had longer blocks, they could move the sides apart as far as they needed.

Then one boy decided to try it feet first.

He could get more of his body through the opening. But, alas, it fell on him at some point.

Then we began explorations in balancing.

Could we hold and balance a stack of blocks?

Could we balance a round, rolling block on top of another one?

Could we build a balancing structure?

Could we balance the columns on one another and get them to stay?

I watched this column work for a while. The builder tried several different configurations until he decided that "the square ones on the bottom" was the best foundation.

He would build the fragile structures again and again. A slight bump or move the wrong way and they would tumble. But he built them again.

Through trial and error - and a great deal of persistence - he was able to get this result.

I heard lots of self-talk and encouragement among the boys. I heard interesting speculation on what could be done at all the different stages of play. And I said hardly anything. (Other than "Wow!")

I think I enjoyed the exploration more than the boys did.

Our mishmash of blocks can yield some pretty great learning, I'd say.