Day One 9/9/19:

Introduction:

Students were shown materials and asked questions about them.

 “What are these?” “How would you describe these?”
Response: “a stick”, “wood” , they are curved wood, they are flat on the ends, they are cut out in the center, some are medium and some are long.







“What do you think you can do with these?” (Allowed students to handle the ramps)
Well.. they don’t wobble. You can flip the, over and they are flat or you put them this way and they are curved on the inside. I’m going to make a bridge. Let’s see if we can use these blocks... come on guys.







The children explored building with the ramps and blocks. At first they made letters, used them to measure, compared sizes, out them end to end, and held them at angles with their hands.








Then they started exploring the blocks. I’m going to make another bridge!








I did not realize that there was a Lincoln log in my blocks. One student (non English speaking) took the Lincoln log and places it on the “slide”... another student  said “Hey that’s cool! That’s like the slide on the playground.” Another said it’s like that ride... you know at Disney world???? With the water???? Oh, what’s it called... Splash Mountain??? YEAH, that’s it! I love that right... it’s so much fun. Let’s do it again! Whooooosh! There it goes... just like Disney World! Let’s “upgrade” it! Come on guys... help me.

So, I asked what “upgrade” meant... her reply was “You know like you upgrade your phone... you get a new one or make it better. My momma upgrades all the time! It’s ALL about upgrading!

Another student... Maybe we could put it like this? Whoops... well that didn’t work. Let’s try it again... Are you kidding me? Guys? We have to make this work? Are you kidding me?

I introduced the marble and asked if they could make it move. Of course they immediately rolled it just as they had used the Lincoln log. Ahhhh!!! It goes faster... get it! Get it! Look at it go? But we keep losing our marble? Can we have more? My response? You only get one. Challenge: Can you stop it from going off the bridge? No! Guys... yes we can! Are you kidding me? That didn’t work... this IS a challenge! Hmmm... let’s try this. As you can see from the pictures they built “blockers” with the blocks to stop the marble. They tried several approaches and used arches and various designs for building. “Splash Mountain”. They even wanted “scenery” and used a plastic tree they found on the floor.

Next:

• Look at introducing new challenges 
• Can you make it turn?
• What problems do you notice? How can you solve those?