The other day Max brought out his blocks, something he hasn't played with in a very long time. We started to build and I drew up a few buildings, cut them out and taped them on. I was so amused, watching him drive his taxi in and out of the buildings, that I thought I'd share this with you.
Two great things about this project:
First it's a great way for kids to work on their counting skills, by counting how many blocks it takes to get to the top of the buildings (not to mention their guess and check skills).
Second, it's your time to shine as a parent by drawing these awesome buildings. Can't draw? Neither can I, but by checking out a few images online of buildings in NY, I was able to make some rudimentary drawings that Max was impressed with (he didn't directly say, but I'm quite sure he was).
This project goes well with this book:
materials:
paper
marker
blocks
tape
toy cars/trucks/people etc.
get to work:
1. Take an 8 1/2 x 11" sheet of paper and draw a few buildings on it. If you really, really need help here you can use Google's image search and print out a few buildings of your own to cut out. You can also follow this instructables page on "how to make a coloring book" (stop at step 9 since you're cutting out the project, you don't need to worry about the rest).
2. Hold the building up and ask your child "How many blocks do you think it will take to reach the top of this building?" Count along with them.
3. Tape the top of the building to the top block.
4. Continue with other buildings of varying sizes. You might want to talk about which building is "tallest" or "shortest" and compare their shapes and styles.
5. Play! Drive cars around the city, knock over the buildings and rebuild them, have fun!
Max liked to knock down the buildings with this dump truck and then haul the blocks to another part of the room and rebuild.
When we were finished I kept the top block attached to the building and let them hang from our bookshelf. A quick way to store them for another day.
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