International Buildings for Bastille Day

Grandma left this week, so we have been spending extra time playing with her.  We started the week just building with blocks, and handing grandma blocks to add to a tower.  We started looking through some children's books of architecture.  There are a lot of them out there.  Some of our favorites were What's Inside and Earth-Friendly Buildings, Bridges and More.  What's Inside explores different styles of buildings, some of them historical.  Earth-Friendly Buildings, Bridges and More had many interesting lessons.  It explored skyscrapers, dams, bridges, domes and many other shapes of buildings.  It introduced some of the many different people involved in building a structure.  It included information about building safety and methods used to help the environment in these structures.  All of this was in a very kid friendly presentation and included some great activities.  We tried some ourselves, and I look forward to Genevieve and Tobias being older so we can try some more of these activities.

We read Tar Beach, which is a great fiction book that looks at buildings from a different angle.  It was one of Faith Ringgold's first books, and was based on her amazing story quilts.  The girl in the story flies over the George Washington Bridge and other buildings.  We also read a take on the Three Little Pigs, called The Pig Who Went Home on Sunday.  Like the Three Little Pigs, this explored different materials that could be used to make houses.

We explored some of the shapes in buildings and other structures.  We took a walk to look at shapes at purposes for local buildings and then looked at pictures of some famous ones.  We experimented with strength, comparing the sturdiness of rectangles, triangles and squares.  We cut some straws and used pipe cleaners to create these shapes, and then pushed in on the sides to see which held their shape best.  We used paper to create columns and demonstrated how thin pieces of paper can hold up heavy books.

We've been building with different kinds of blocks.  She has some simple cubes, some shape blocks, stacking cups, duplo and mega blocks.  She also tried building with some balls, which she learned do not make good towers.  We've tried seeing how high we can build towers and what different shapes we can create.  We've experimented with creating bridges to cover a gap and had fun making a fort with a blanket and the table.  We used toothpicks and mini marshmallows (or you could use gummy bears) to create structures as well.  We used them to create a bridge and tested what our bridge could hold.  It will be fun seeing how she improves with this experiment over time.  We can introduce building challenges like earthquakes and wind soon too.

We looked through a book about France for Bastille Day and mentioned a few of the more famous buildings.  Genevieve appreciated some of the pictures of French soccer players.  Genevieve looked at the flag and noted the colors.  To hear some French, we listened to Deedle Deedle Dees Marie Curie.  Although I didn't mention the recent attacks to her, our thoughts are with those in Nice who had their celebration interrupted.

Genevieve also learned that there are other things that can be built.  She really enjoys the story Help We Need a Title!  She loves the illustrations both in this book and in other Henre Tullet books.  Although they aren't flip books or texture books, they tend to have an interactive element.  This book introduces the idea that books are written by others.  She enjoyed building with her beads as well.

Meanwhile, Tobias had his second session of sign, bedtime signs.  Of course, he doesn't have the fine motor skills to do the signs, but he is fascinated watching the signs.