In preschool two the children love to build, and they especially love the magnetic tile blocks. The festive spirit of this season’s holidays and their use of bells to celebrate in all kinds of cultures, inspired me to add bells to the magnetic tile blocks for the children to explore. I wondered how the children’s imagination would explore these items together and I wondered what might happen when they discovered the bells were also magnetic.
On four trays I placed equal amounts of magnetic tile blocks and three sizes of bells, including four large sized bells, at each tray.
For some of the children the block exploration was at first prominent. They built cube shaped houses and long more abstract structures and then added the bells to the spaces inside. It was here that they seemed to discover their magnetic quality.
I watched Benjamin when he saw a bell attract to the tile. He smiled, and then picked up another bell and placed it at the corner of a tile in his structure. He continued to do this, finding the magnetic places on the blocks, as if to decorate it.
Each in their own independent play, Nina and Brody, as well as Hannah, filled a cube structure made of the tiles with the bells. They all picked up the cube, in an attempt to try and dump the bells, but found they wouldn’t fall out.
For others, it was the bells that drew their attention first. Charlotte took two of the smallest bells in her pincer grasps of each hand and shook them smiling. “They are bells ringing," she said.
After exploring the materials for a while, she, along with Finley, attached serval different sized bells to one simple magnetic block and began to shake it.
Hugo told me he made his own, “jingle bells,” and began to sing the carol by the same name.
Maddie took a special interest in the biggest bells, and not the blocks at all. She found that the shiny smooth surface of one of the bells had her reflection in it. “Look! It’s Maddie!” She said with a smile. She stuck her tongue out and made faces in the reflection, fully expressing herself. Also noticing the star shapes on the bell, she reflected that this looked like earth. “This ball is like earth… with stars,” she said, “we live on earth.”
When given bells as loose parts and the magnetic blocks, the children were able to learn and explore. They explored the STEM concepts of magnetism, volume, and shapes, as they expressed themselves.
