"A wall on its side is a bridge."

~ From the wall in Nogales, Sonora, Mexico

A Wall for Giants

A while back, after we share the book, Greta and the Giants, some of the children begin to build with blocks in the doorway. As other children enter the room and step over the structure, blocks are jostled, sometimes a few falling to the ground and other times it comes crashing down entirely. Each time the group patiently rebuilds. Eventually one of the children entering suggests the group build in a different area away from the traffic, and one of the builders answers, “No, we can't. We are building a wall to keep the Giants out.”

This leads to a discussion where one child says, “Walls keep people out. They are not the best.”

Another agrees, “A door is better. You need a big door for the humans and a little door for the doggies. A door can let people come in and go out.”

This reminds us of a story by Jon Agee called, The Wall in the Middle of the Book, about a small knight who celebrates the existence of the wall that stands in the center of each page of the book, convinced that it is protecting him from the other side of the book because what he fears are "dangerous" creatures on the other side. Little does he realize that the rising water, and the dangerous creature it brings on his own side, pose more of a threat. Fortunately, those on the other side of the wall, the giant ogre and animals who live alongside him, are not as misguided as the knight and he comes to understand that the other side of the wall might offer something safe and good and beautiful - and even save his life.

After we share the book, a child says, “Instead of them building a wall, we can build a door. That lets people in. Or a bridge. A bridge makes people come together. You can build a bridge over a fence or over a lake. You could build a bridge over an ocean.”

“I've been on a bridge over the ocean. You could build a bridge to an island. If there is a river you can swim across. If you couldn’t swim you could use a floaty. Or... you can use a bridge for getting across.”

One of the children thinks for a moment and shares, “If you flip it over you can make a bridge."

"If you flip what over?" his friend asks.

He answers, "If you flip over the wall, you can make a bridge. When you flip it over and make a bridge it helps people stick together, like a family.”

“A wall keeps people away - like not together - and a bridge KEEPS everyone together.”

We ask the children if they would like to create some bridges in the Light Studio and they eagerly get to work.

“I am building a bridge for trucks.”

“My bridge is a home and a bridge. I’m going to get a toy bug to live inside.”

“Now I’m building a rainbow bridge.”

“I made a vehicle to test out the bridges.”

“I am putting a cover on my bridge. It’s a covered bridge.”

One child gathers blue magna tiles and says, “I made a really tall bridge and now I'm making the ocean underneath.”

Another shouts from across the table, “We are working together. Hey, let’s work together! Go get some more pieces. We are making doors on our bridge so there can be rooms and furniture and double bedrooms so people can live under the bridge if they don't have any place to live.”

"I'm making mine in sections and connecting the sections together so it can be long and strong. Each section has a door so someone can live inside."

Building Bridges

The following day we head to the Architecture Studio to experiment with different materials. One of the children lays out long blocks on the floor end to end and says, “I made a long bridge but it’s flat.”

His friend says, “That’s a road. Bridges are up in the air.”

He thinks about this, flips each block up on end and says proudly, “I stand it up and now it’s a bridge. A really long bridge! I did it!”

“I’m making a road to the bridge and a road after the bridge.”

“I am making a ramp onto my bridge.”

“Legs make bridges strong. I’m going to make mine extra long and extra strong. Let’s get to work!”

“Misha you made an awesome bridge! It looks like an Egyptian bridge!”

“This is a magic bridge because we worked together.”

“It’s like a tunnel bridge.”

“Look how long we made it! Bridgeworker team!”

One child lays arch blocks end to end and shouts, “I built the dragon bridge!”

Another stacks a series of blocks on each end of his bridge and says proudly, “I made the Tower Bridge.”

Using Science, Engineering, the Arts, and Mathematics

This week, we bring the focus back to bridges by studying, sketching, designing, and building. We spend some time experimenting with blocks and paper, learning that a variety of designs are used for different applications, that the strength of a bridge must increase with the distance spanned, that bending and folding increases the strength of paper, that bridges with the most folds hold the most weight, and that shapes such as arches or triangles work to strengthen their designs. We begin by using two large blocks and a piece of paper. First, the children work together to create bridges, experimenting with how far apart they can push their blocks before the bridge collapses under the weight of the people (corks).

We bend our papers into arches to see how many people it will hold. We ask the children to predict what they think will happen if we change the shape of the paper. Some think it will make it stronger. Others think weaker, and some friends think it will remain the same. "It's strong but it's so tippy. When I put one person up the other people fall down."

"I counted four last time, but this bridge has seven. I can count to 49 but my last bridge collapsed at 4 and this bridge I can only get 7 people to stand. I'm going to try again."

Next we fold the papers back and forth to pleat them like fans and they discover they can fit many more people.

On another day we use the fans as supports underneath table or flat bridges. They discover that when they use the two together they create an even stronger design.

Bridges Bring You Home

We study some bridges from around the world. When we look at the Golden Gate a child says, “That’s a beautiful bridge. Wood is strong so I think it’s made out of wood.”

His friend disagrees, “I think it's metal and they painted the metal red.”

When viewing the Tower Bridge in London a child shouts excitedly, “This one is a Castle Bridge. It’s a bridge castle! I think it’s made out of bricks.”

Her friend asks, “Is that we’re Queen Elizabeth is? She lives in a castle and she's really old. I watched a show about her and she was really, really old.”

“It’s in England. I know England,” she responds.

One of the children spies the drawbridge under the tower portion of the bridge and shares, “Boats go under bridges and cars go over bridges. I've been on a drawbridge before.”

We pull up the Brooklyn bridge and one of the children recognizes it immediately. “That’s in New York! I have been to New York and I think I have crossed that bridge.”

“Guess where I was born? I was born in New York!” his friend answers with enthusiasm.

“I’ve heard of the Sydney Harbour bridge!”

When we study the Akashi Kaikyo Bridge in Japan a child makes a connection to the bridge she made in the Light Studio. “That bridge has a rainbow on it. I made a rainbow bridge with the light tiles, remember? It's a connection!”

The same happens when we look at Ponte Veccio & the Rialto Bridge. “That’s a house bridge!” “That one, too!” "I made a house bridge and so did you, and so did you!"

One of the children asks, “What do you speak when you go to visit that bridge?”

When we take in the Millau Viaduct one of the children observes, “That one is not over water! It's over land.”

Bridges Bring You Home

We share the story, Iggy Peck, Architect, by Andrea Beaty, about Iggy who has a passion for building and must enlist his classmates to build a suspension bridge made with unusual materials to save his teacher and themselves when the collapse of a footbridge leaves his picnicking class stranded on an island.

One of the children says, “If we built a bridge, first we would make a design of how we wanted the bridge to be. We would get a blue piece of paper and a marker and draw what we wanted to do. That’s what constructions do.”

"Yeah, it's like instructions."

“Then we would build it. We would build the bridge and then put it over the water.”

“If we wanted to make a bridge out of rocks or stone or wood or blocks, we could!”

One child says, “Bridges bring you home. I have a lot of bridges on the way to my house and they bring me home. That's why I love bridges.”

Here's to all of the bridges that bring us home, and the bridge builders that dream and create them.