Recreating Real Structures with Blocks

preschool, kindergarten, building, America, White House, Congress, Capital, DC

We’re finishing up our mini-unit about America this week. For our building center, Mary Poppins and I had the children use blocks to build their own versions of real structures. Mary Poppins used Google Images to print out real photos of the White House, the Capital Building, the Washington Monument, the Lincoln Memorial, and the Jefferson Memorial. We talked to the children about looking at the different shapes within each structure, then remaking those shapes using the blocks we have in the classroom.

I was interested to see what the children would do with this prompt. Most of them enjoy the building center, and we have a few who would gladly spend the entire school day just building various structures! As I observed them, I noticed that the kids spent a lot of time on the base of each building they tried to make. This may be because I’ve stressed having a solid foundation when building — usually in response to, “Ms. Mary Catherine, why does my building keep falling down?”

The kiddos did really well with this task, and most of them seemed to enjoy the process. However, I noticed that a few were frustrated because of our lack of cylinder blocks. Next time I try this, I am going to make sure we have an ample supply of materials that would work as rounded columns. I’m thinking of using paper towel tubes and items along those lines.

Shared at Kids Activities Blog’s It’s Playtime, Sun Scholars’ For the Kids Friday, Live Life Intentionally’s TGIF Linky Party, Sugar Aunts’ Share It Saturday, Cheerios & Lattes’ Show & Tell Saturday, Train Up a Child’s Sunday Showcase, Discover and Explore

Done-for-You Preschool Resources

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If you loved helping your students build real structures out of blocks, you’ll love Preschool Teacher 101’s STEM challenge packs! Click on the images below to learn more about these fun resources!