Children had the opportunity to compare pictures of their unit block structures with their original and redesigned sketches. Children were able to observe and note any similarities and differences in their work. They were also able to recognize and recall their work by explaining their building process and talking about any difficulties that they had encountered and how they problem solved.

Some of these difficulties included not having enough square blocks to build the walls of a house, so rectangles were used instead. Another problem was not being able to balance specific blocks to build a pitched roof, so less blocks were used and the placement was modified to make it work. This was an intentional cognitively-focused reflection to set up children for the next step which was very open-ended in how a building is constructed.

For this next step, children had the opportunity to create their re-designed building using mixed media (sticks, clay, and wire). Children had never worked with these materials before so we knew that some problems were going to occur, though they were excited to work with these materials.

Since clay is very dense and heavy children started noticing that their structures were not staying in place. They would lean over, fall or simply not stick to the other materials as children had hoped. Another problem would be trying to bend the wire into something specific. The wire wasn’t able to give them sharp lines or edges and so windows were a little rounded.

There was a lot of teacher guidance, questioning, reasoning and problem solving during this process. Even though children would get frustrated, they really wanted to keep building and put their structure together. If they needed help, they simply asked and I would help. If they didn’t, I just sat back and watched them build.

The last step in our project was to present to the class. This was relatively new because children were not used to “presenting” to the class. They would sometimes talk about their work or show and tell their journals, but it wasn’t a regular thing yet. Children were shy presenting their work, but with a little help from the teacher, they were able to explain to the class how they put their projects together. They were able to talk about the problems they encountered and how they fixed them. They were able to use descriptive math language to talk about their buildings relating to spatial awareness, shapes, quantity and size.

These children started off with little math language and by the end of the project they were including some kind of math vocabulary in each sentence they used to talk about their project. For example: “I put my block here” or “it goes there” to “This small triangle is going on top of the square and next to the bigger rectangle”.

I was very proud and impressed with the children and their growth. They did not give up and were motivated to participate in as many of the steps as possible. Of course, there were moments and parts of the project where some things were too complex for some students. For example, in step nine where children were building with mixed media, one child had difficulty building “up” in a three dimensional way. His project was flat and it almost looked like a blue print of a building instead of an actual structure.

After giving clues, asking leading questions and watching the child start his project over a couple of times and still build in a “blue print” manner, I let him be and he presented his structure as it was. In his mind that’s what a building looked like and that was ok because it was his project and I did not want to interfere with his motivation to finish his project.

This project took a lot of time and work to put together and I was grateful for the support that I received to make it happen. I liked the way that it was organized because each step flowed into the next. The one thing that I would change for the next project is to make sure children have had the opportunity to work with all the materials before using them in a project so they are aware of their characteristics and know how to work with them. I’d also take pictures of their prior step with me to help with recalling information or to use to present to the class so children can get use to “presenting” aspect of the project.

One thing that definitely shined was the mutual respect for the project that helped create a bigger sense of community. Children felt comfortable being themselves and sharing their thoughts and ideas. Children interested in what they were doing and saw math concepts in the world around them. Math became part of a project, part of children’s interest and became the beginning of my own math appreciation. Because of this project, I look forward to incorporating math into all activities and projects. I also learned to trust children and give them credit to be able to participate and finish a long term project.

After having experienced the buildings in these forms, we believed children were ready to design their own building. Before this step there were many conversations and read alouds that examined what a building needed in order to function such as walls, floors, windows, doors, roof, stairs, plumbing, etc.

Children had the opportunity to design/draw their own building using graphite pencils and discuss with the teacher the details of their building. We chose graphite pencils because we wanted the children to be able to show as much detail in their sketch using the pencils with different graphite leads.These different graphite leads meant different shades and thickness of lines were produced and children were able to use different pencils for different purposes.  Children met one on one with the teacher before to discuss what they wanted their building to look like, during to describe what they were drawing and to answer any questions that the children may have, and after to review the design and give children another opportunity to talk about their building before actually building.

Once children were done with their design, they went to the block area to create their building with unit blocks. Children took their sketch with them and used it as a guide to construct their building. I was able to quickly see their vision come to life and it was great to see how motivated the children were to build and also talk about their building. This step gave the children the opportunity to design something using their previous knowledge of what a building is and applying it to their sketch and structure. Children’s structures varied in sizes and shapes.

Math language started flowing naturally and in part of conversations. Children were talking about the quantity of blocks they used to represent specific features in their buildings and specific sizes such as how long, short, tall and wide some blocks needed to be in order to fit in their building or to support specific parts of the building like the roof or placement of windows. They addressed how they were to get in the building and showed an understanding of symmetry and spatial awareness when they wanted a specific block to work, but couldn’t so they had to place it in a different spot to make sure their structure was balanced. They were solving problems involving math!

Once children were done building with the unit blocks, they were asked to draw what they had represented with the unit blocks and we called this step a building re-design. This new sketch was drawn with new ideas based on what they had learned in the previous steps. This new sketch was very similar to their original design, but it was also different in the sense that it was a lot clearer. Lines were crisper, sharper and their ideas were much more obvious in this second sketch.

Children were working very hard and were very eager to continue in the building project, especially now that they were creating something new and the design was theirs and belonged to nobody else. In the last blog, I will talk about the final steps and the reflection process that happened both within the students and teachers. I will include what worked well and what could’ve been changed and how this project changed the way I looked at math in my classroom for the better!

The picture above is a typical marble tower composed of a couple of kits.  There are several other styles….

the wooden marble run, or…

the mega super marble run, or…

the musical, wooden, marble tree.  Each has its pros and its cons but all will be classroom favorites.  This three-year old child built his marble run all by himself.  He was so proud of how it worked.

So, do they make this for infants and toddlers, too?

You bet.  Although not exactly the same, there are several toys that support the same skills as the marble run.  There are all sorts of toys that allow the younger child to place a ball or a rolling car onto a ramp and then watch it go down.

This toy is beautifully built and is easily used by toddlers.  The cars roll easily down the top ramp and then flip over to the next level.  Very young children will enjoy watching the cars move.

This was the first ball run that we had as a family.  The balls each look a bit different and move a bit different.  My boys liked to watch it when they were very little, but once they were old enough to manipulate it themselves, they played with it for quite some time.

Naturally, they eventually graduated to some pretty sophisticated marble runs that provided hours and hours of design, building, and play.