Fort Building 101

"LOOK!"

screams a four year old, with such joy, we recognize this isn't your usual "I want to share something with you..." moment. As the gang rushes to catch up to her, they come to a complete standstill. Oh happy day! Some kind souls have shared a fort with their community! There before us, on this new unchartered adventure, stands the most wonderful teepee shaped fort we have yet to discover. We have had wonderful forts popping up all over our town the past year and I couldn't be happier.  This 14 foot monument has sparked marvel and wonder and curiosity in the minds of all of us. We have a STEM adventure at our feet!  This is math, science and engineering play that makes learning fun and allows the learning to come naturally and at the child's own developmental level!  

This is sharing!  It teaches children that our community creates beautiful spaces to be used by all who encounter them!

"Who lives here?" asks Liam as he bravely steps closer.

"Can we go in?" questions three year old Madison, not sure that she really wants to.

We do go in and the investigation of fort building has set us in motion for the day. Remember building forts when you were a kid?  Did that fort just pop back into memory? If it did, you retained that memory and are likely able to build another. These are the moments we like to create for our early learners! Hands on learning allows our children to take their understanding  to deeper level so they can actually apply, analyze and create their own fort.

After giving everyone a turn to observe, and discuss these masterpieces, we take a good hard look and investigate how this fort was made so we can make one of our own.  These are opportunities that are rich in learning, creativity and team building. We share theories and make hypothesis, of how many people worked on this fort. How did they get these huge branches up so high? We look at the bases and decide they were caused by a storm and not cut with a saw.  How did they create the base to stabilize the entire structure?  We know our forts won't look like these. We have to use whatever materials we can find in our own play spaces, but finding forts and observing how they were designed allows us to understand the fundamentals to building our own. They give us the spark to design a fort we can call home!

We recently discovered another fort on a hike in our neighborhood.

“I think this fort was started from that falling branch!" suggests Harper.  This leads to closer observation as we understand how this fort had sides that were built using sticks that range from large to small, and how leaning them against the main branch makes the fort longer and wider.  We begin to understand measurement by estimating and length and width by just using our eyes, as the children quickly begin to add branches to the fort that will become our camp for the day. We always add a few sticks or branches to any fort we discover. It adds to the feeling of a community fort while mentoring to our youngest learners that you can't really go wrong adding a stick or two.

"It looks like a triangle!" shouts Elizabeth, leading to discussions on shapes, and doors and windows and how we can add these shapes into our fort. Yes! We have geometry class happening before our very eyes! We are looking at two and three dimensional shapes, using visualization, spatial reasoning, and geometric modeling to solve problems! Bring out the assessment chart, this gang is on fire@  This playful experience in engineering shares ideas of angles, inclines, balance and elevation.  When we let our students learn through play, movement and trial and error, this is the deep learning that creates synapses in the brain to explode!

 Once the seeds are planted, we often find children taking fort building back to our program or their own backyards.  When the Midwest experienced a rare derecho in August of 2020, every neighborhood in our area suddenly had backyards full of branches!  Our students were creating forts in their own neighborhoods. They had joined the community fort building movement!

Notice the similarities?  By giving our children long periods of uninterrupted time to play and a few tools of knowledge, they can create their own fortress that will they will later be able to transfer to worksheets when the time is right.

When our students returned to our program this fall, we began napping outdoors everyday.  So, when a parent suggested a weekend nap to their child, the child insisted on napping outdoors.  In her fort.  When children build a structure, the play not only comes from the building but also returning to the comfort of the home they created for themselves, by themselves.

 These are the moments  when I thank our community of educators of all ages for "planting the seeds" of fort building 101 with us. These educators may be twelve year olds or ninety year olds. They may be truly seeking shelter from the weather.  These lovely forts are gifts of time, hard work and beautiful design that will sprout science, math and engineering ideas for our youngest citizens. Thank you for sharing days of STEM learning through play with the children of our community!  You inspire all of us! Thank you! You are truly changing our world!