Guest Posted February 28, 2004 Posted February 28, 2004 Hello, I am very aware that I don't use construction in the best way possible to maximise learning. The boys in my class love it and I am a bit lost as how to best intevene and develop it's use in all the curriculum areas. I feel I get a bit stuck in the old shape and space work! Does anybody have any good ideas or know of courses/books where i can find out more, Thank you! Nicola
Guest mandi Posted February 28, 2004 Posted February 28, 2004 Hi A few ideas off the top of my head about construction kits, maybe incorperate into a roleplay area such as a garage/mechanics/building site (loads of opportunities there for maths and english) link bricks to three little pigs and houses, number bricks for ordering, label bricks with sounds to put in order or make up cvc words or put whole words on that make a sentence or rhyme. I'm going set up a pet shop in a few weeks and i'll use kits to make boxes for the toys, children will have to think about the size etc. hope this gives you a few ideas, if I think of any more i'll get in touch. Let us know how it goes and good luck Mandi
AnonyMouse_73 Posted February 28, 2004 Posted February 28, 2004 Hi there Nicola B and welcome to the site. i often ru out of ideas too for construction but that is partly because of resourcing-we quickly 'lose' the nice bits of the equipment, leaving us with the bits that are difficult to inspire.
AnonyMouse_79 Posted February 28, 2004 Posted February 28, 2004 Hi Nicola & welcome to the forum. Like Mundia my construction is limited by resources. Another area to spend on! so I'm afraid I tend to think of it as physical-manipulative skills. My children have just surprised me by making some lovely things with stickle bricks and I tried to inspire their imaginative play there but not vey successfully! Susan
Guest Posted February 29, 2004 Posted February 29, 2004 Hi! Just thought I would add my 10p about construction. Last year my boys loved the bricks and so to try and get them to do something else with them I added in a set of dressing up clothes and changed them every so often. The favourite ones were the 3 little pigs costumes (just 3 sets of pig ears on a loop of elastic and 1 set of furry wolf ears and a tail!) They absolutely loved them and would really get into the role play situation of it all, which is brilliant. They also got clipboards in there to draw their work that they had made and design other things. Hope that helps Nichola
AnonyMouse_1490 Posted February 29, 2004 Posted February 29, 2004 We have lots of construction equipment. We try and vary it each day.The childrens favourites are mobilo and waffletown. To vary the duplo or stickle bricks we sometimes put it in the water trough to increase their imagination.
Guest Posted February 29, 2004 Posted February 29, 2004 Thank you everybody for your replies! They've been very helpful. This is a great websit! Nicola
Helen Posted March 1, 2004 Posted March 1, 2004 You might like to try and use the construction kits with other resources; recycled materials work well.......cardboard tubes, plastic lids and yoghurt pots....we've recently got a Mum who donates her daily disposable contact lens cases!! They're great for eyes, wheels, creating textures, etc. If you also include the means to fix the stuff together, masking tape, wooden clothes pegs, split pins, elastic bands and so on, the children can have more freedom to make what they have in mind. Of course, they can't take the models home because you'd lose all the construction pieces, but if you tell them that at the start, they accept it. Take photos of the models with the children, and use in their record books, before you take them apart. (Some children are happy to take their own models apart, others prefer you to do it out of sight!)
Guest Posted March 2, 2004 Posted March 2, 2004 What fantastic ideas - I would never have thought of putting other resources with the construction materials - beats the boys (and some girls) making guns out of the duplo!
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