{FREEBIE!} Can You Build It? Re-creating famous landmarks during block play

We often change materials around the room and encourage our students to use these materials wherever they like!  A few weeks ago, we noticed a group of girls gather the coloured plastic blocks we had at the light table and bring them to the carpet area.  They began building "towers and castles" all while engaging with each other as to how the structures should be built. 

That afternoon, my teaching partner and I had a discussion about extending the learning happening here.  We decided to print some pictures of structures and landmarks from around the world and add them into a binder set nearby.

The next day the girls noticed the binder and began to look through with sheer joy.

Some landmarks were familiar (C.N. Tower) and many others also caught their eye.

M.P.:  This is the C.N. Tower!  My dad works near there!

K.M.:  Is this London Bridge like the song London Bridge?

A.G.:  This I've seen when I go downtown!

Then they started building some of the structures by looking carefully!

This student spent much time looking carefully at the picture of the Eiffel Tower and trying to re-create it using the blocks. 

When I asked her to describe and tell about what she noticed, she realized that the bottom of her design didn't match the picture and worked at re-positioning the blocks carefully so it wouldn't fall.

Another student noticed that the binder had no front cover and wanted to create a title page for it.  I asked her what we should call it, in which she replied "Can You Build It?"!  So she designed a beautiful cover.

You can download these images (18 pictures total) by clicking HERE.

(Note: All pictures were downloaded from Flickr)

I hope your students enjoy building these just as much as ours do!