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Up, Up, Up... Can Documentation Be Building Blocks for New Learning?

School: Brookline Early Education Program

7. Ellen's Observations

Most of the children engaged in problem solving either around making stairs and/or the placement of the building once the stairs were complete. Many children started making the building in front of the lowest step while others made it at the end of the tallest step but made it down on the carpet so people would have to jump down from the tallest step into the building. Some children built the building around the stairs and then some discussion ensued about whether the stairs were inside or outside the building. Some children's stairs ended up inside the building and other's were outside. The trickiest part seemed to be how to build the floor where the stairs led whether inside or out.

In order to get the floor level with the top stair, some children built a solid foundation piling blocks on top of one another to make a big solid rectangle that was the right height. Other children built the outer walls of a foundation and made them tall enough to reach the top stair and then laid a floor board over this, thus creating a basement space. One child built his building in front of the lowest step. When he realized his mistake, he was going to move the building around to the tallest step but decided on a different plan. He made another staircase that led up to his tallest step, thus creating an up, then down staircase that led into his building. While building, one child realized that the blocks are not as sturdy when placed on their narrow side and thus changed them to lay on their wide side.

While the children were building and problem solving, they were pretty absorbed in their own efforts. There was some interaction among the children to help each other problem solve. When Ben's building kept falling over, Isabel who discovered that the blocks are sturdier when placed on their wide side, shared this information. Ben took Isabel's advice and it worked. Ruby, who was having difficulty building stairs, observed her peers to get new ideas. When Grace couldn't figure out how to make the first floor level with the top step, Caleb offered to help her solve the problem.