Transcript

Text on screen: Problem Solving with Blocks (4–5 years).

Logo: Count, play, explore—for early education.

On screen: Weston plays with wooden blocks while a girl and the educator look on. He places a square wooden block at an angle at the bottom of a long, slightly concaved piece that he has been using as a ramp.

Child 1: What are you building right now, Weston? What are you building Weston?

On screen: Weston puts a wooden ball on his ramp and watches it roll down, hit the square block he placed, and then bounces off.

Educator: What are you noticing happens when you roll it down?

Weston: It turns.

Educator: It catches it?

On screen: Weston runs the wooden ball down the ramp again and it does the same thing.

Weston: It turns.

Educator: It turns. Oh.

On screen: Moments later, Weston continues running the wooden ball down the ramp. Now he is attempting use the ball and ramp to knock down the wooden walls he has built around the structure.

Educator: Boom. It's almost like it pushed it down, it was so fast.

On screen: Weston resets the structure. He again places a square wood block at an angle at the bottom of his ramp. The educator helps another child. Weston again runs the wooden ball down the ramp and watches it bounce of the square block at an angle. Moments later, the educator watches Vincent add to his tower of wooden blocks. Vincent begins to place a triangle block carefully on his tower, but he takes it off when he sees it isn’t balanced. Vincent turns and gets another matching wooden triangle.

Educator: What do you need? What do you think? Oh, you need two

On screen: The educator holds up two fingers.

Educator: One for each side.

On screen: Vincent places both triangles onto opposite sides of the tower structure at the same time, and the structure remains standing.

Educator: What would've happened if you'd only put one on there?

Vincent: It would fall down.

Educator: It probably would've fallen down, huh?

On screen: Vincent carefully adds a concaved ramp piece to the bottom of his structure, horizontally, from one wall to the other.

Weston: Maybe it’s going to fall down.

Educator: You think it's going to fall down? Should we watch out?

On screen: Vincent puts his wooden ball on the ramp and gives it a push. They watch it wobble slowly across the ramp. Vincent adds another ramp to his first ramp. He sets it on another tall block to give it a downward slant. As he sets up the pieces, the ramp slips a few times until he gets it right.

Educator: Oh, oop. Oops, I'm scared to touch it. I don't want it to fall down. Okay. Where will the ball go?

On screen: The educator points to the ball. Vincent rolls the ball down the new ramp.

Educator: It hit Weston’s structure.

Vincent: I built that, too.

Educator: You did build that, but it looks like you built something new, and Weston is using this one now, right?

On screen: Weston sets up a block at the end of the Vincent’s ramp.

Educator: What’s this for?

Vincent: I built that for my stuff.

Educator: To block it? Okay, Weston put something to block it. Let's see if it works.

On screen: The educator hands Vincent back to the ball. Vincent rolls the ball down and they watch the block Weston set up stop the ball from hitting Weston’s structure. Vincent claps and the educator and Weston high five. Moments later, Weston and Vincent are seen continuing play on their own. They set up a small play person so it is standing at the end of the ramp Vincent set up. Weston rolls his ball down the ramp, trying to knock the person off the block. The ball doesn’t make it all the way to the person.

Vincent: Ahh.

On screen: Vincent pushes another ball down the ramp with more force. It rolls off the side of the ramp and misses the play person.

Child 2: Yay!

Vincent: Wait, can we see that one more time?

On screen: Vincent and Weston adjust the ramps a bit. Weston places a large, curved block at the end of the ramp to catch the ball after each attempt. Vincent continues pushing the ball down the ramp with varying force until he gets it to land on target.

Weston: Vincent, let’s do this. This is the bridge. No Vincent, not yet. Hit me.

On screen: Weston adds a block to the end of the ramp and places the play person on top. Vincent pushes the ball down the ramp. It hits the block and knocks the play person falls off. Both boys smile.

Text on screen: A special thanks to the children, families, and staff of Placer Elementary School, without whose help these videos would not have been possible.

Logo: Count, play, explore—for early education.