This past summer, while I was in London, my friend Val and I visited the Tate Modern. She had been quite recently and knew there was one exhibit that I would love. She was absolutely right!
They had a whole exhibit on puzzles and manipulatives. There was a room filled with large slider puzzles - one of my childhood favorites!
But my favorite part of the exhibit was a room with a square of carpet in the middle and stacks of wooden blocks. They weren't the unit blocks we are used to using at school, they were able to connect to one another; however, it was really cool to see adults manipulating something they normally would shrug off as a children's toy.
The funniest part of the experience was that we had so many people come through while just Val and I were on the carpet building that they thought we were a part of the exhibit!
We are extremely blessed in terms of the resources we have available to us at my school. One such blessing comes in the form of these wonderful Outlast blocks from Community Playthings for building large structures outside.
These are different from our other hollow blocks in that they actually have interlocking pieces, making the learning curve a little steeper, but the possibilities greater also.
We make these available nearly every day in our Redwood Grove or Back-40 area, often with a provocation like this set up at the beginning of the session.
