Breathe New Life Into Wooden Blocks

We've all played with wooden blocks as small children.

But the motivation and excitement about playing with wooden blocks fades once students enter first grade and beyond.  But simple wooden blocks can be fantastic engineering tools!  

STEM, STEM, STEM.  STEM this, STEM that, STEM is the buzz.  I have embraced STEM and love it but it's the E that excites me the most.  E is for Engineering....building.  Building means play and creativity and perseverance and imagination and reflection.  So combine wooden blocks and Engineering and you get

click to take a peek

I just added this to my small math groups and my students love it!  

The motto of the activity is: Build it tall, build it wide, but don't go outside

(the perimeter).  Students fill the gray space up and then build upwards to see what kind of structure they create.

I admit, I sat and played with this one evening last weekend while watching a show on Hulu and it was fun and relaxing!

An awesome find at Goodwill!

First I willingly and excitedly spent my money at Lakeshore Learning for my classroom.

Then I started willingly and excitedly spending my money at Target and Dollar Stores for my classroom.

Now I'm willingly and excitedly searching for treasures and spend little money at local Goodwill and thrift stores!

The other day I found a new building treasure that I've never seen before and my kids have been happily testing out.

The box is old and the copyright is 2006 but upon Googling it, I'm happy to say they are still for sale and look like this:

You can order them online from Amazon, Walmart and Fat Brain Toys (my new favorite online spot for classroom building things, toys, etc.) for anywhere from $12 to $30.

This video is great and shows some more (math) ideas for how to incorporate it into your classroom.

Build It

Over the past few years, as both a teacher and person, I've developed a love of building things!  It's such a great creative outlet for all the ideas swirling around in my head.


When I dove into doing small math groups 2 years ago, I started looking for and collecting  building-type manipulatives that my students could use for an independent building group.  Now I love to stumble upon new ones when I'm out and about and on vacation. I found an awesome toystore recently in Hopkins, Minnesota and ended up buying 2 new building manipulatives.  And I've finished up a building activity card set that comes with a list (pictures and links) of all 18 different manipulatives that I've found!

Most of my student's favorite thing about our classroom is our small math groups and the B for Building group.  I also leave an old iPod out so kids can take pictures of their creations.  They can have a friend take it, do a selfie, or put their name tag next to it so I can tell who made it.  And then on my website,  I post the pictures so parents and relatives can see (plus it's great motivation for kiddos).

If you know of a building material that is NOT on my list (that is suitable for this activity) please let me know and I'll add it and reward you for sharing :-)

Zoobs!

 Have you seen that 80's movie about a night custodian and a female thief who get locked in Target overnight and have TONS of fun?  Well if I could get locked in a store overnight I would choose either Target or Over the Rainbow Toys! 

 I went into OTRT this afternoon to get a birthday present for my daughter's friend.  This toy store is THE best and has many, many toys and games that would be great for a primary classroom.  I've spent lots of money already this year getting things for my small math groups, especially the building group.  This time I discovered Zoobs and am in LOVE...not with the name though.  These are connectable AND moveable building pieces...take that LEGOs.

                     

There are 5 different pieces that differ slightly from one another.

                                            

                                        

This kit comes with 6 guidebooks that show how to create certain things.

                                              

My daughter and I had so much fun playing with them.  I made a little video to show you more.

I can't wait to introduce students to Zoobs after spring break...although I might end up playing with them more than my students!

Much thanks to the 2 apps I used to make this video and add music to it...one of my FAVE songs of all time (BINGO BANGO by Basement Jaxx)!

Perfect Video

Instavideo (adds music, which can be edited)