The Educators in Group 1 have observed children demonstarting an interest in building and sturctures. Our school age children always run towards the Lego’s and magnet tiles during free play and spend majority of their time building towers, houses and different types of structures. When a child builds it’s called constructive play which helps develop skills such as problem solving, language and literacy abilities, creativity, fine motor skills and mathematic skills.
During the assembly process the children are observed demonstrating problem solving throughout their building play. Using a basket of magnets the children are encouraged to share parts with their peers. Paisley C, Finley, and Patrick all wanted to build a big house but they discovered that there were not enough magnets for all three of them to each build their own big house. Patrick had a great idea and suggested that they all work together to make a big house. They agreed to this suggested and got straight into working as a team. Once completed they and were proud of their big house!
Emma was trying to build a heart shape using all the magnets. She put different types of shapes together, if a piece didn’t fit the way she wanted It too she would try a different piece and see if it would work. Through trial and error as well as visual and spacial skills she was able to problem solve and successfully created a heart with magnets.
As educators observed a variety of constrution going on we also noticed the social interactions and relationships being created while engaged in this cooperative play. Grayson and Caden were observed building a "mega" marble run together. As they were building they were socializing and talking about how they can make their build bigger and more elaborate. Grayson and Devyn while building together with Legos, were talking about what they both want to add their building and worked as a team to ensure that their ideas were included in the completed structure. We will continue to add materials to our program to support their interest and imagination. 
