Building Center Ideas

Provide a variety of materials for your building center.  Besides floor blocks, try playdough lids, little people figures, ice cube trays, egg cartons, crates, boxes, and other manipulatives.  Expand your building materials to include Legos, Lincoln Logs, Locktagons, Power Rings, Tinkertoys, and anything else you can think of.  Provide book resources, too, to give students ideas of what to build, and to get their creative juices flowing.  As your students build, encourage them to tell a story about their creation.  Building and storytelling often go hand in hand!  Take a picture, and ask your little builders to dictate a story inspired by their creation.  Include the setting, characters, and important events.  These "building stories" can become chart stories, a wall story, or become pages in a class-made book.