4/26/22
I love providing my students with opportunities to engage in hands on learning, but somehow during my first few years of teaching, it seemed like every hands on activity we did took hours of prep. Cutting, counting, bagging, grouping, and more, seemed to be required if I wanted to facilitate these types of activities for my students, and there just wasn't enough time to do all of that on a regular basis. It wasn't until my third year of teaching, sitting on my classroom floor for the twentieth time that year, sorting toothpicks, clay and pipe cleaners into baggies that I resolved to find an better way.
I bought plastic pencil boxes and put together sets of manipulatives that were versatile and easy to store. Lego, Play Doh, Pipe Cleaners, and pattern blocks were a few of the materials I gathered and housed in these boxes in a cupboard under my counter. Students worked with the manipulatives in groups, and when we were done with the activity, they deconstructed their creations and put the manipulatives back in the box so they were ready to use the next time we wanted to do an activity.
We used Lego to model equations in math and create dioramas of events in history for social studies. We used Play Doh to represent the meaning of vocabulary words, and to create models that represented characters in a story in ELA. We used pipe cleaners to create graphic organizers like venn-diagrams, T-charts, and plot maps in content areas across the curriculum.
Engagement skyrocketed and these hands on activities became frequent in my classroom. Occasionally we would leave the creations students had constructed intact so they could be displayed on the counter top or in the hallway. Students created plaques to title their work and explain its purpose. Then after a week or so of being on display, we would deconstruct the sculpture and put the materials back in their box. On a normal day when student creations were deconstructed, I would wonder around the classroom with my phone taking pictures of student sculptures and share them with students via email or post them on our classroom website. This way of documenting the work not only saved classroom space, but allowed for student work to be showcased and revisited. Often I have students reflect on their building process using the 'Build It Reflection' page below. This asks students to describe what they built, why they built it and sketch a diagram of their creation.
How To:
Provide student groups with a set of versatile manipulatives or building materials such as Lego, Pipe Cleaners, or Play Doh. Instruct students to use the supplies to build something that represents a specific idea, event, or concept from the lesson or unit.
Ideas for Implementation:
Construct something that represents an aspect of Inca culture.
Construct a diagram that depicts energy transfer.
Construct a life cycle model.
Construct something that might be a treasured possession of the main character in the story.
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