building blocks

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.

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

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

Some structures required a little reworking!

Others knew exactly what they wanted.

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…

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

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

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

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.

Like us on Facebook, Share this post with your friends, or Subscribe to this blog today to receive original craft project updates every Monday, Wednesday and Thursday!

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.

You’ll Need:

• R60160 Constructa Clips

• Card paper

• Scissors

• Pencil crayons/crayons/markers

• Stickers or collage embellishments

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.

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.

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.

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!

Like us on Facebook, Share this post with your friends, or Subscribe to this blog today to receive original craft project updates every Monday, Wednesday and Thursday!

Tag: building blocks

Straws and Connectors City

Constructa Clips Neighborhood