WonderWorks Outreach: playdough + blocks

Wait.... didn't we just do this project?

Today's Topic: Blocks + Playdough, outreach edition!
Supplies:
wooden blocks
playdough

Book:
  The three little wolves and the big bad pig / Trivizas, Eugenios
Flannel board:
Los Tres Cerditos by Ana Lomba (scroll down to find a recording) using this piggie pattern


What the kids actually did: 
built houses, tried to blow them down:

 did some fancy color-matching with their blocks:

 made very tall, narrow houses:

 built very elaborate, multi-part houses:

After I introduced the playdough to each table....

 I liked how this young engineer figured out that you could stick two blocks together with clay and even turn them upside down and they wouldn't fall apart (upside down aspect not captured on film...)!

 This young engineer spent the first half of the time doing things like completely covering blocks in playdough (see lower right corner in photo below), but by the end of the exploration time, she was building very elaborate creations!

Other interesting discoveries:  You can stamp great shapes into playdough using the blocks as stamps!

 Playdough is fun to cut with toy utensils:

counting chunks of playdough is also fun!

 And check out this use of tongs, remembering our project from the last time I visited their classroom!

 
Hindsight Tip:  Bring along your own wet-wipes to clean off the blocks and maybe recruit a few kids to help with it.



The teachers loved this assignment!  They talked about doing it again on their own with the class and kept exclaiming about how they'd never though of combining playdough and blocks, but what rich play the kids did with those materials! The kids enjoyed it too.  I think some of them engaged with this project for more than 45 minutes.