Solo – Bridges with color coding

Suggestion for introduction

We create a motivating framework for the child. 

For example, we can say: “Today, we are building bridges. We decide for ourselves how they are going to look and where they are going to be. We each build our own bridge. There is only one rule. We are only going to build with the bricks of the color, we have been given. How are our bridges going to look and what might happen on and around them?“

Time

The activity can be adapted to the framework of one lesson and varied according to the time available and the child’s prerequisites.

Materials

We need to use materials that are suitable for building bridges. We can choose one type of material the child likes eg. Lego, Kapla, Bakoba and so on. If we want to, we can also mix the materials. We gather a pile of material that is in the same color for the child and another pile and color for the adult. We also mark some islands (e.g. with Lego plates).

During the play session, the child encounters challenges and successes, where we can stop and help spot what is difficult or what is going well. We can do this in several ways:

Reflection routines 

When we get the opportunity to reflect together with the child on what challenges or discoveries arise along the way, we can use one or more reflection routines. It could be, for example, a learning metaphor with a social strategy that we practice, an emoji that describes the feeling we have right now, or a rating of how well we think the building is going. In this way, a reflection routine can help to show and put into words the experiences that the child has during the play session.

Facilitating questions

We can ask facilitating questions to the child along the way, as they naturally arise in the building process. In this way, we facilitate the play session so that we continue the play and at the same time learn something from it. For example: 

• I see that you have stopped building. I wonder how we can continue from here? 
• I see that you have encountered a challenge. Should we try to solve it together? 
• Try to notice what you are doing right now. Do you think this is a collaborative strategy? 

Finally, in the play session, we give a Show and Tell of our construction, so that we have the opportunity to share our experiences, reflections, and feelings about the construction process.

First, we talk about our model and the process of building it. During the Show and Tell, we can use reflection routines and reflective questions to support the discoveries that have been made. For example:

• What went well? 
• What was difficult?
• Is there anything that you want to do differently the next time we are building bridges?