It’s Monday! Welcome back to class. 😀 Really, though, I love that so many of you are joining us in the learning-at-home game via these fun, Teach Yo Tots lessons. Thank you for your kind feedback about them! These lessons/posts are a small piece of my heart that I love sharing right now, since we’re all swimming so hard in these uncharted life waters. Being in your service, mama, in just a small way has made my swim a much happier one, so thank you, as well, for just being here.

Let’s jump into today’s material! It’s fun stuff…

Here’s the lesson plan…

BRIDGES

Topics covered: engineering, writing, public speaking and *bonus* field trips! 

GROUP DISCUSSION

 — Ask the kickstarter question, “What is a bridge?” Olivia answered that it’s “something that can get you from one place to another.” Claire said that “a bridge is something to walk on when you’re crossing something big.” BINGO. There are no wrong answers in these lessons, folks! Only great ones that sometimes need a little coaching. 😉 Their answers here were spot-on, though, the perfect segue into the next discussion topic: 5 common bridge types.

— Teach that there are multiple types of bridges, the most common bridges being…

Beam: a bridge made of a beam laid across piers

Arch: bridges with an arch support structure

Suspension: when bridge cables attach vertically along another main cable

Cable-stay: when all bridge cables meet at a central tower

Truss: bridges with triangular support structures

Ask your kids to sketch each bridge type with you as you introduce them individually (the girls went to town here)!

— Discuss the science of bridges: how bridges work! I led our discussion here with the help of the awesome STEM, engineering book below. I picked it up for $10 at our Costco three weeks ago (during a blissful, pre-COVID shopping trip, if you can remember what those were like 😉 ), but I found it on Amazon for you, in case you want to add it to your at-home-lesson materials arsenal. I think it’s a darling book – so well designed and super informative and FUN. This YouTube video also explains how bridges work, which was a good cherry-on-top for this discussion.

— Play “hang man” as a review game. We used our white boards to play hang-man as we reviewed the types of bridges and their names. I thought this part of the lesson would take longer than it did but the girls got the hang of the game and the bridge types STAT and blew right through this little activity, haha. Kids, man! 😉

— Quiz time! Since you’re becoming a bridge expert and all 😉 , quiz your knowledge of bridge types while watching this video showcasing different bridge types  below. Name every bridge that you see! We were calling out names the whole time. “There’s a beam bridge!” “That’s a truss!” “Oh that’s an arch and a truss!”

 

 — Catch a glimpse of bridges around the world by watching the below video, “The 12 Most Amazing Bridges In the World,” and once you’ve watched it, ask your kids to pick their favorite bridge from the video and to write a super short report about it. Then have them stand up and share their report with the class (hearty applause upon their conclusions is recommended 😉 ).

Olivia’s report (insert applause 😉 )!

— Now it’s time to play! Hit the floor to build your own bridge. Use any toys/supplies you have to work with your kids in making their own bridges. Magna-tiles were awesome building materials, along with regular building blocks ( in fact the Color Blocks are making a cameo down there, can you see?? 🙂 ), figurines, and pieces of an old cereal box (to act as beams/roads) that I cut up real quick.

Emmy + her arch bridge!

Olivia came up with a rad variation of a truss bridge…

And Claire made “the everything” bridge. 🙂 Once again, no wrong answers, no wrong ways here with these lessons. Just learning and some solid FUN.

And now, for the (bonus!) grand finale: GO ON A FIELD TRIP! This may be hit-or-miss for lots of you out there, but if you can make this part of the lesson happen, you HAVE to make it happen. Getting out to see bridges in the wild was so much fun. First, if there is a foot bridge within a reasonable distance of home, take your kids to check out the bridge. A log stretched across a stream here will work — simple is great! Just allowing them to see that bridges are part of their environment is helpful and fun. When you get to your bridge, ask them about the bridge type (the bridge on our hike/walk is a suspension bridge) and be wowed at their answers (because, remember, your bridge experts now 😉 ). Then, for a really wild field trip, drive across a BIG bridge in your area. This may very well be a “no” for many of you, but since we have the Coronado Bridge (a beam bridge!) here in SD, we threw on an audiobook and drove downtown and across the bridge and back again. I left my big camera at home during our field trips, so check out our footage there in the little video below. My girls looove the few videos of them that I have on my blog, so I’m trying to make more of them their sake. At the same time, if a video can give you an even more thorough glimpse into our at-home lesson, well then, I will make the video!

And with that, class is dismissed.

Hope you have fun with this one. Let me know if you do!!

xoxox!

PS, the next lesson in the line-up iiiiiis, “C” is for “Cars!” Stay tuned. 🙂