Our legos have been an exciting tool for telling stories. In the beginning, we observed children creating vehicles and characters, weapons and buildings. We then invited the group to zoom in to tell one story all together. Creating a common focus around The Three Billy Goats Gruff provoked new partnerships and problems to solve.
“First, one bridge.” -Vivian
Vivian began making a list of all the story parts we would need. Birdie joined her and soon others added their thinking in writing.
We need grass. And rocks. Rocks are under, on the sides of the bridge, see? The troll sits on the rocks.” -Zaahra, looking through the book.
“How do you write K?” -Zaahra
“I know how.” -Ryan
“Almost done with my billy goat. I’m making the black one…Look, I made a wagging tail.” -Charlie
“We should do it the color of the billy goat.” -Maren
“Does that look like the hoof?” -Lyla
“That’s too tall.” -Maren
“Yeah.” -Lyla
“We don’t have three billy goats. We have eleven. We have seven extra, no eight. Cuz there are two…no, three added to five.” -Lyla
“Supports from the bottom and stairs from the top. I need a lot of these square pieces.” -Graeme, building a bridge.
“But Graeme’s troll doesn’t fit under the bridge.” -Ryan
“Could we make a small troll?” -Vivian
“I want to make it (bridge) really tall for the troll.” -Zaahra, trying to place the troll beneath her structure.
“Doesn’t fit because of the arms and the head.” -Maren
“I’ll make it even taller.” -Zaahra
“And it has to be wider.” -Lyla
“My brain just popped and now I know how to make the legs.” -Birdie
“Mine keeps falling apart.” -Birdie
“Birdie, that’s why you need to push it down really hard.” -Zaahra
“I have a good idea. We could do a play of the billy goats.” -Ryan
“Yeah, but that wouldn’t work cuz we would have so many trolls and so many goats.” -Lyla
“I made a thorn bush. I’ll make some rocks.” -Ryan
“You could be a rock cuz rocks are quiet and you like to be quiet. You could wear gray with gray shoes.” -Jane
And so, with characters and places accumulating, we teachers introduce a stage and children begin to explore...
