(Materials for modifiers) -wooden blocks -magnets -hot glue gun
Modifiers/Scaffold
For an easier challenge: -Bring out a box of wooden blocks for the children who don't have the fine motor skills to play with Legos.
-For most children -Ask questions about their creations and join in with their play
For a trickier challenge: - Hot glue magnets to the back of the train cars so that the cars connect together. Place the trains in the center of the city with the cars, and allow the children to discover that the trains connect on their own.
Follow-up Ideas
- Include an ever-change bin of dress-up clothes in your classroom. Implementing different costumes like fairy wings, firefighter hats, aprons, and high-heels will encourage children to explore dramatic play immensely.
-When playing music in the classroom, ask your students how they would play the different instruments they hear. Let them show you what they would do.
Originating Idea
There are always two or three wild-eyed boys that love to play with cars in my class! Every day during free choice they would run straight to the car bin and pull out their favorites (usually Lightning McQueen)! I wanted to find a unique way to expand on their play and make it more involved, and this was an excellent way to do just that!
How to Make It
The teacher takes different colored duct tape and tape them to the carpet, making them look like different roads and train tracks. The teacher then places the large cars in the middle of the track. She then takes out the camera and takes pictures of the different toys (cars, Legos, trains). Then she should use some of the duct tape to tape the pictures to the front of each box.
How to Implement It
During circle time, the teacher tells the students, "We're going to build a city in our classroom! Miss Sheena and I built some roads and train tracks in the car area. We brought out cars, trains, and Legos for us to build our city. Let's go!"
All the teachers and children go to the city and work on their city. Most children will drive their cars and trains on the tracks and roads, and will build buildings and houses with their Legos. Earlier children will explore the different toys, build simple structures, or just stack blocks and cars. Later children will make complex structures, turn the blocks and Legos into people, and act them out.
Near the end of the activity, the teachers should turn off the lights and sing, "Five more minutes and then we're going to clean up!" Then, after five minutes, the teachers should turn off the lights again and sing, "It's clean up time!" Then should pull out the three different bins with the pictures on them. The teacher should still reiterate what the pictures say and tell the children, "Let's clean up our city! The Legos go in the red bin, the trains in the green, and the cars in the blue."