There's no traffic light here
A child was building cars out of blocks on the mat. When another one came over:
“You need a car to come in here. You can't just walk in.”
“I came to make a car too.”
And they built one out of the big blocks.
Then a third child came over.
“Can I come in?”
“It's a red light right now, so no.”
“There's no traffic light here — what red light?”
The two of them went to work out what a traffic light could be made of, and asked an adult. They settled on a box. They rolled black paint over it and waited for it to dry, and rolled more on, and waited again. Then they talked about what the lights themselves should be, and cut those out of red and green paper.
3–5communicationpretend play
Why does it go backward?
They were making cars that a magnet pulls along. An adult went through how magnets work, and then they built their own.
When one of them tried it, the car slid away instead of coming.
“Why does it go backward?”
An adult explained the two ends of a magnet, and which end meets which.
Then they put the car down on the floor and drew it along with another magnet.
“Whoa — it's moving and I'm not even touching it!”
3–5using their handscause and effect
Then it was dominoes
An adult stood some bowling pins at the bottom of the ramp. A child rolled a car down at them.
“Oh — it fell over?”
“I've done this before. This is bowling, right?”
An adult showed them how to stand the pins up, and let them feel one.
“This one is soft, so the car can knock it over without breaking it.”
“How do I stand it up?”
They go diagonally, an adult said, and offered to tape a line down on the floor for them.
“No, I think we're fine.”
They stood the pins up and knocked them down, over and over. Then one of them lined every pin up in a single row instead. The others watched until the row was finished, then rolled a car at it. The pins went down one after another, all the way to the end.
“Whoa — it's like dominoes.”
3–5noticing other childrencause and effect
It looks like it would fly
They were looking at pictures of cars that were up in the room.
“I want to turn into a car like this one. It looks like it would fly.”
So they made flying cars, and cars that turn into other things.
“I want to stick the wings on like this — what do you think?”
Their tape wouldn't hold the wings, so an adult put wider tape over the spots where they had stuck them.
On another box, a paper cup kept coming off and falling apart as a steering wheel, so they swapped it for a paper plate.
The car wash from the day before was still going, and by now it had parts — somebody at the register, somebody with the soap, somebody pushing the car through, and somebody being the water coming down on top.
3–5using their handspretend play
Let's charge it
They were building cars that run on electricity. A square of waffle blocks went inside one, and that square was the electricity. They ran a wire to it so the car would go.
Then they got in and drove.
“Everyone, Dad has to go to the store. Let's go to the store now.”
They parked.
“Let's charge it.”
And the wire went back on.
3–5using their handspretend play
The lighter one rides
One of them rode while one or two pushed. An adult moved the tables and chairs over to one side to open the floor up.
“The room got bigger.”
And round and round they went in it.
Then somebody said the two cars should race. Another agreed, and they worked out a starting line, who would judge, who would push, and who would ride.
Who rides, somebody said, depends on weight — it should be whoever is lighter. The others took that.
3–5noticing other childrencommunication
The word for it
They linked magnetic tiles into a tall stack with levels, and parked cars on it.
An adult told them there is a word for that — a parking tower — and after that they used it themselves, and stayed with the play.
Another one built a big square instead and packed the whole inside of it with cars, and called that a parking lot of their own.
Later, after watching car races — the drivers, what they wear, the track — boxes to wear as cars came out. Two at a time climbed in, put the shoulder straps over their shoulders, took hold of the wheel, and on the signal ran the box from the start to the finish.
3–5noticing other childrenpretend play
The broken one goes on the tow truck
New vehicles had come out, and they set a construction site up around the tunnel.
“I'm digging the ground here.”
One of them loaded small cars into a big dump truck and took them through the tunnel to the repair shop.
“The cars need fixing.”
Another pointed at the tow truck.
“A broken car — that one goes on this tow truck.”
A while later that same child was driving a car and stopped it.
“The car broke down. We have to call the tow truck.”
They went and got the tow truck, hooked the jeep up to it, and pulled it to the repair shop.
“The car broke down.”
3–5communicationpretend play
This way it won't fall
Nobody had planned it. Some of them started stacking magnetic bricks into a square with the middle left open, and put cars inside — a parking tower.
They kept checking the height and the shape so the stack would hold.
“We have to build this part up more.”
“This way I think it won't fall.”
3–5communicationusing their hands
A fan, and then just breath
A child was moving a paper car with the wind off a fan, and the car went further or less far depending on how hard the fan went.
Another one watched, came over, and blew at the car with their mouth instead.
They set a start line and a finish line and raced.
Blowing that hard got tiring, so an adult suggested moving in closer, or going back to something else for the wind.
3–5noticing other childrencause and effect
The other way around
They made cars out of water bottles, drawing on them, each one their own. Then they wanted to see them actually move, so they took them outside the room.
Some of them couldn't get theirs to go. An adult told them the rubber band has to be wound as far as it will go.
And the direction of the winding decided the direction of the car — forward, or backward.
3–5using their handscause and effect
We want to keep looking at it
They were looking at where the parts of a car sit, and reading a book about what each part does. Then each of them got a plain outline, a chassis and a body, with no color on it.
“Oh — the engine is here.”
“And the driver's seat is right behind it.”
They held the body against the chassis and compared.
“Can we color it in?”
They gave each part its own color and wrote it down.
“Put it on the wall. We want to keep looking at it.”
It went up, and after that they stood at it together, telling each other what they could see.
3–5noticing other childrencommunication