Building a New Way

We made some changes to the classroom, one of which was removing the large wooden blocks with the hollow centers from the block area and replacing them with long unit blocks, and the play here changed, with some surprising twists.

Ellie builds a house, framing a square and filling it in. Nearby, Wesley builds a fire pit in a similar fashion. When Ellie leaves, Kesler takes over where she left off. He’s making a house, too. At one point, Kesler brings over a wooden figure, which seems to walk and dance around the structure, then he goes back to building.

After Kesler and Wesley have worked side-by-side for awhile, Wesley decides to attach their two islands (as Wesley dubs them). He tries walking across it, and Chris tries it out too. Perhaps Wesley had noticed Kesler with his wooden figure, because he now grabs a couple of them and they walk across his island and across the bridge to Kesler’s. Then Josie, Chris and Wesley try their hand at walking across – it’s not easy!

Wesley returns to the wooden figures, and here things get tricky. Kesler had balanced a tall block on his structure. Now, when he takes it off for a moment, Wesley’s wooden figures arrive. They stop in the exact spot where Kesler’s tall block had been. The boys have a disagreement – both want to use the same space. Mark stops them and puts his hand over the space so that neither child has control over the space. Then Mark suggests that Kesler explain what he was using his tall block for. Kesler says, It’s a chimney. Oh, so this is like a big bad wolf chimney. Wesley likes this idea, and after Kesler puts up the chimney, Wesley says: I can jump up! and his figures “jump” up on top. That’s where the steam comes out, Kesler informs us. I like when it’s on the chimney, says Wesley, smiling. I’m going to make another chimney, Kesler announces. He can jump on that chimney, says Wesley, beginning to move the figures to the new one. Kesler says, Don’t put it on there. So Wesley waits while Kesler finishes (not yet!) He puts on the last block, and Wesley asks, Are you ready? Kesler says, Yup! and Wesley moves the figures on top. Kesler adds another chimney (when he notices that it doesn’t balance well on one end, he turns the block over and sets it down again, this time with success). Kesler adds figures to the rest of the chimneys, and Wesley says two of the figures are a mom and dad, concluding: It’s like a family.

They decide that two others are a grandma and grandpa. (Later on, at meeting, Mark asks who was on the third chimney – Wesley says those are also a grandma and grandpa.)

The next day, Wesley makes another house, and Josie stops by to sit with him on the door, which doubles as a chair. Meanwhile, Kesler and Jamie work together: Jamie had worked on a wall, and when Kesler comes over to add to it, Jamie responds by continuing the wall underneath the cabinet and on across the floor on the other side!