Bridge Building Challenge

Activity Overview

Bridges are a wonderful way for children to explore structures that they often see and have experience with in the world. This challenge brings together the concepts of balance, size, shape, and problem-solving with the environment. Utilize the Bridge Slideshow to help your child understand how bridges are used, what kinds of landscapes they are placed in and the important function they serve for people in communities.

What You Need

• Building Materials – this is a great wooden block activity, but any building material at home will work fine

• Bridge Slideshow

Steps

1. Talk about how bridges are built. Use the guiding questions below to understand the child's prior knowledge of bridges.

2. Go over how the balance of bridges work, and give them an examples to give inspiration using the Bridge Slideshow.

3. Allow the student to begin building their structure.

4. Guide the children through this process through the use of the questions below.

Guiding Questions

• Why do we need bridges?

• Who builds bridges?

• What are bridges made out of?

• Where can we find bridges?

• What goes under a bridge? What is your bridge going over?

• Are there different kinds of bridges?

• How can we make sure the bridge is balanced? Is the bridge safe?

Extensions

• Build a bridge you can walk over.

• Build a bridge you can crawl under.

• Watch the block story The Three Billy Goats Gruff to link this design challenge to classic storytelling.

• What did our Pre-K friends in Sao Paulo do when they found a large, persistent puddle in their playground? They worked together to come up with an ambitious solution and Built Bridges Through Project-Based Learning! Watch as our empowered students collaborate, solve problems, and learn a range of skills through relevant, meaningful, real world experiences.