The Bridge Investigation

Here at SVK, observation and reflection are a very important part of our everyday learning environments.  We use a variety of methods including photography, videography, audio recordings and note taking.  We observe children at play, conversations between students, interactions between children and teachers, and even the body language and facial expressions of the children during these interactions. 

Over the last few months of observations, I noticed that almost every day my students were building and creating bridges!  They were making bridges with logs on the playground, bridges for the animals on the light table and bridges for cars to cross over with blocks.  After reflecting on these observations with my fellow teachers I came up with some provocations to help expand our knowledge of bridges and their purpose.

I began by introducing the class to pictures of a few different types of bridges to start a discussion:

Have you ever seen a bridge before?

K:  "Yes! In the middle of the river!"

A:  "Bridges are so water can go down!  My Mommy drives her car on the bridge!"

O:  "The Brooklyn bridge!  The cars!  The cars are going on the bridge!  It’s a bridge!  The cars are going over the bridge!  The tractor is going over the bridge!"

To further the discussion of bridges over water, I invited the children to create bridges with a variety of materials. 

It became apparent through the children’s dialogue that my students were most familiar with the "Big Bridge" beside our school!  We decided to take a short walk to the Saxapahaw bridge that crosses the neighboring Haw River.  They were all in awe of the loud, rushing river underneath the bridge! And very excited about how big the bridge was as we walked across it.