Build a tower as high as the ceiling

Date: February 16, 2022; Wednesday

Facilitators: Ankur, Sohini, Anupriya

Participants: Daksh, Isa, Sherry, Samaira, Nathan

Materials Used: Play Structure, Trampoline, Soft Lego Blocks, Dot Flash Cards

Tags: Collaborative; Maths; Motor; Cognitive.

Setup and Objective

The objective of the game is to collaboratively build a tower as high as the ceiling using soft lego blocks. But there is a challenge. The lego blocks are trapped on the bridge of the play structure. To get the lego blocks, the participants have to solve a simple math problem. They need to pick up a set of flashcards and add them. Then they need to jump on the trampoline that many number of times, go up the stairs, collect that many lego blocks and slide down. This is how they rescue the blocks. They keep taking turns one by one to rescue all the blocks.

As they keep rescuing the blocks, they also come down and start stacking them to build a tall tower. As the tower keeps getting taller, they need to work together to support it and ensure that it touches the ceiling.

How it happened

All the children participated and were good at adding the dots together. They struggled a bit initially to co-operate but after a while, they came together as a team. As the tower became taller, they realised that they need to come up with a strategy to prevent it from falling and need to figure out a way to keep stacking on top of the already tall tower. Samaira held the tower from the base and Nathan helped her by providing support in the middle. Daksh, Sherry and Isa kept adding more blocks from atop the bridge. The children had chosen the spot to build the tower themselves because they anticipated that it will need support. Some children also realised early on that the tower needs to be close to the bridge because they will need to keep adding blocks once it becomes tall.