Block Area Creations

Two of my students have been especially interested in the block area over the last few weeks. One of them has access to blocks at home and reports using them frequently with a parent. His structures are often intricate and intriguing. The other is very interested in 2D and 3D shapes. He has also recently begun to explore symmetry in design. He tends to build the same 2 structures repeatedly, but labels them differently each time. So when these two wanted to play together in the block area the other day, I was excited to see what ideas would develop.



After several discussion with each other, a few questions posed to me, the assistance of another student, and the majority of wooden unit blocks in the block area, the students had constructed a rather elaborate track that included tunnels and bridges. They took out the toy cars to test it out. After several minutes and laps around the track, one of the students declared that he needed "a tire change." The other student said "Oh, it is almost winter. You need snow tires." The second student went on to explain how snow tires would help him drive in the snow by keeping his car from slipping. Is this knowledge from a conversation he had with his parent, an observation he made when someone was talking to his parent or a commercial? I do not know, but their conversation continued and I was too intrigued to ask.

The first student said that he did not want snow tires but wanted fire tires. Now I was intrigued enough to interrupt. "What are fire tires?" I asked. By the tone of his voice, it was obvious that I should have known that "fire tires get real hot, like fire. When you drive in snow ice, they melt it." With a wintry mess upon us this weekend and into the school week tomorrow, "fire tires" don't sound like such a bad idea.