Logo

This videative is one of three about a five-year-old child’s experiences with Learning Material Workshop Blocks; the other two videatives are titled "Counting Blocks in a Mirror" and "Symmetrical Structures." Block building provides children with opportunities to think about potential solutions to interesting and varied problems. In this videative, Ria builds a "spaghetti-maker" by putting dowels through the holes in a pair of cubes. Soon, however, she encounters a problem: the vertical dowels that inspired her idea prevent her from inserting a horizontal dowel between the same pair of cubes. Watch how she removes the obstructing dowels. Notice in particular how she removes the vertical dowel from the hole she is working on and then proceeds to remove the vertical dowel from the hole on the other side. Her actions indicate that she understands the implication of what she learns about first hole. That is, if the first hole is obstructed, that means the symmetrical hole is also obstructed.

Later, with the support of her teacher, she slows down to figure out why part of her structure rolls off the base. She identifies the subtle action of a round block in the middle as the cause. With the teacher as a calm and steady audience, Ria does more than play. She carefully observes and reflects on the relation between her objective and the effects of her actions.

Keywords: Fives, Blocks, Child-Teacher, Spatial Relations, Obstacle, Invention, videative

Length of videative: 3 pages, 4 video subclips
Length of stand-alone master video clip: 2 minutes, 1 second

Click here to see Learning Material Workshop Blocks.