On the third day we talked about how we could create or build the different animals homes and together construct our own farm. The children then chose the animal home they wanted to build. As they found a friend who was interested in the same home they partnered up and got to work. 

The collaboration, sharing of ideas and compromise as they worked to build the homes together was fantastic. They all found ways to share their ideas, combine their partner's ideas and create a viable home for their specific animal. At some point in the building process the children put at least 2 of the actual animal in the home to see if they fit. This "test" required some adjustment of height and width of the homes (which the children figured out on their own).

Key characteristics that they decided as a group needed to be taken into account when building the homes:

All animals needed a "roof" somewhere to protect them from the rain.

The roofs need to be high enough for the animal to stand up.

The animals needed outside space to roam and run.

This part of the experience allowed the children to use their imagination and problem-solving skills to turn their ideas into a reality. We watched as they all explored their materials and moved them around to figure out how to construct their idea. This engineering work and problem solving combined with the creative and imaginative play ideas was so exciting! Using a variety of blocks invited so much creativity as they maneuvered them to create the perfect home for their animal.