Straws and Connectors City

Straws Connectors City

On a nice sunny day, we went outside to build structures as part of our city development and planning lesson! We dropped a TON of Straws and Connectors on the ground and asked the campers to build around the city roads we made from special rolls of tarmac-like paper.

Straws Connectors City

What a mess! Soon to be made into an amazing sculpture with the help of a few creative minds!

Straws Connectors City

Lots of collaborating took place as some campers built off each other’s sculptures.

Straws Connectors City

Some structures required a little reworking!

Straws Connectors City

Others knew exactly what they wanted.

Straws Connectors City

These campers worked together to build a structure of cubes. They added more cubes and then at some point, realized that they needed a bit of variety to their structure…

Straws Connectors City

As soon as one of the camp helpers showed them how to make variations with the straws, the boys were hooked!

Straws Connectors City

These campers also took on the challenge and added more interest to their building design.

Straws Connectors City

More and more designs popped up in other areas surrounding the “streets.” These designs looked like magnificent building achievements!

Straws Connectors City

We all worked together to make the best out of our designs, and in the end we built a whole city of color! Later, our campers took a walk throughout the “city” to view all the great architectural designs. This is a fun outdoors activity that will last all day and make the most of your students’ problem-solving, critical thinking and design skills.

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Constructa Clips Neighborhood

constructa clips house neighborhood

Constructa Clips are our versatile building toys–combine recyclable materials using the handy clips, and create anything from vehicles to robots, buildings and more! In this project, we got our campers to contribute to the development of a model neighborhood using simple materials. 

Age: 4+

Duration: 10-15 minutes

Learning Objectives: Open discussion with students about communities, neighborhoods and city planning. Discover all the various aspects of running and maintaining a community, including building up city centers and living spaces. Talk about the different types of living structures (condominums, bungalows, two-storey houses, semi-attached or townhomes, etc). Move your discussion towards an “All About Me” lesson. Ask students to picture their own homes and build them using the card materials and Constructa Clips. Alternatively, get students to brainstorm what their “dream homes” would look like/include.

constructa clips house neighborhood

You’ll Need:

R60160 Constructa Clips

• Card paper

• Scissors

• Pencil crayons/crayons/markers

• Stickers or collage embellishments

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constructa clips house neighborhood

Cut out angular shapes such as rectangles, squares and triangles from the card paper. Students can design their own buildings or mix and match the shapes to create new and interesting sculptures.

constructa clips house neighborhood

Use crayons, markers or pencil crayons to decorate your card houses! Create a garden, or focus on showing the exterior brickwork of the house. Make cutouts for doors and windows. You may even illustrate the occupants of the house as if they are proudly standing right beside their living area. Don’t forget: you will need to make 2 large size card house shapes and two smaller ones on either side, depending on the type of structure you are designing. Since you are making a 3D model, you will need all 4 sides of your building structure to complete it.

constructa clips house neighborhood

To attach the card sides together, slide an edge into a slot on either end of a Constructa Clip. The plastic “teeth” on the inside will grip the material as it slides in. Make sure you complete all four sides of the structure.

constructa clips house neighborhood

Ready, set… build! This activity can be expanded to children building an entire city using simple materials such as card paper and our Constructa Clips!

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Double Color Card City

paper card city

Let your little engineers create and build a city all their own using simple materials!

Age: 4+

Duration: 10 minutes

Learning Objectives: Fold unique sculptures to look like buildings using only card paper. Create colorful arrangements with the Double Color Card. Explore structural supports and designs through folded card shapes.

paper card city

You’ll Need:

R22052 Double Color Sheets

• Optional: R60160 Constructa Clips Creative Building Kit

• Flat surface, such as a table or a play center area

• Postal wrap paper (brown recycled paper)

• Tape

• Markers or crayons

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paper card city

Lay all your materials out onto the flat surface. Cut the various sheets of Double Color Card into several large or smaller rectangle shapes. Crease the shapes at various points. You have to make at least 2 creases in the card. Older students can help crease the cards for the final activity.

paper card city

Creasing the cards at different points allows your students to make interesting shapes, from tall rectangles to cubes, triangular prisms and more!

engineering art

This exercise will allow students to explore ways to align the shapes together and make building sculptures. The objective is to create a little city using all of the shapes provided.

engineering art

Some students stacked multiple shapes together to give their structure more strength.

engineering art

Others figured out how to stack on top of one another to create unique building shapes.

engineering art

As the children aligned all their buildings into a coherent “neighborhood,” we encouraged them to draw streets and small markers onto the paper roll beneath. Make sure the secure the paper roll onto the table with tape!

engineering art

The exercise encouraged ongoing collaboration as students often would turn away from one section of the cityscape to work on another. Meanwhile, another student would modify the look of the previous building arrangements.

double color card sheet

It was an “organized chaos” as the sculptures were shifted around the table surface.

double color card sheet

There was some compromise that needed to be made when arranging the card buildings into different configurations. Some campers felt that the buildings each represented important municipal landmarks such as city hall, the library, museum, art gallery, fire station, subway, bank or hospital, and needed to be placed in certain areas rather than others.

double color card sheet

Here is a look at the finished city, although we still saw “development” in some parts!

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