- various manipulatives that children have not yet used to build towers, such as grid blocks, bristle blocks, and other stackable blocks
- build
- materials
MA Standards:
English Language Arts/Speaking and Listening/SL.PK.MA.1 Participate in collaborative conversations with diverse partners during daily routines and play.
MA Draft Standards:
Physical Sciences/Matter and Its Interactions: Structure and Properties of Matter/PS1.A Describe, compare, sort and classify objects based on observable physical characteristics, uses, and whether it is manufactured as part of their classroom play and investigations of the natural and human-made world.
Head Start Outcomes:
Logic and Reasoning/Reasoning and Problem Solving Classifies, compares, and contrasts objects, events, and experiences.
Science Knowledge/Scientific Skills and Method Observes and discusses common properties, differences, and comparisons among objects.
Logic and Reasoning/ Reasoning and Problem Solving Uses past knowledge to build new knowledge.
PreK Learning Guidelines:
English Language Arts/Language 2 Participate actively in discussions, listen to the ideas of others, and ask and answer relevant questions. Science and Technology/Technology and Engineering 23 Explore and describe a wide variety of natural and man-made materials through sensory experiences.
Talk Together: More Building Materials
© Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Department of Early Education and Care (Jennifer Waddell photographer). All rights reserved.
STEM Key Concepts: Different materials are useful for making different structures and different parts of structures
ELA Focus Skills: Listening and Speaking, Vocabulary
Gather children in a circle around the materials. Open a discussion about the materials and ask children to recall anything that they have built using the materials. Have children talk about what they built and how they used the materials to build it. Invite children to explore the materials by touching, feeling, and comparing their properties. Ask children questions such as, What do you notice about these materials? What do you notice about their shape? Their texture? How are they the same or different from the other materials you have been using to build towers? Encourage children to describe the materials using any terms they’ve learned so far, such as bumpy, smooth, etc.
Then ask children to consider how the materials could be used to build towers. Remind children of the towers they have built and what makes a tower different from a house or another structure they have built before. Encourage children to think about how they might use the materials to build high and build strong, and to predict which material might work better than another and why.
English Language Learners: Reinforce the meanings of descriptive words to describe the materials using body language. Hold up each material as you say a word to describe the material (light, heavy, smooth, etc.). Have children repeat the terms after you as you use body language to demonstrate the meanings of the terms.