Features
Tomorrow’s architects and engineers: They’re hammering and sawing in today’s classrooms
by Dianne Pape and Barbara Hatcher
continued

Wood art
(Age 3 and older)
Here’s what you need:
newspaper
wood piece, approximately 10 inches square, one for each child
small wood scraps in odd and various shapes from a high school shop class or construction site
collage materials such as thread spools, bottle caps, paper clips, string, and pieces of old wooden toys or puzzles
white glue
hammer
nails or tacks
paint (optional)

1. Spread newspaper on the table. Invite children to create a collage by gluing wood scraps and collage materials onto the wood piece. Some children may want to attach pieces with nails or tacks.
2. Let the collages dry overnight.
3. Invite children to paint or decorate their collages, if they wish.
Variation: Instead making a collage, invite children to glue wood pieces into a free-standing wood sculpture.

Wood scrap critters
(Age 3 and older)
Here’s what you need:
various sizes and shapes of wood
white glue
paint or markers
newspaper

1. Explain that children will select several pieces of wood and glue them together to make an animal, bird, or fish, for example. One piece of wood might form the body, another the head, and another a wing or leg.
2. Spread newspaper on the table and provide wood pieces and glue. Let children use their imagination in making a critter. Avoid providing a sample or model to follow.
3. Let the critters dry overnight.
4. Encourage children to mark eyes on the critter’s face or paint other features, if they wish.
Variation: Paint the entire critter. Use other materials for features—tacks for eyes or yarn for tails, for example.

Tree walk
(Age 3 and older)
Here’s what you need:
a field guide to trees
plastic bag for collecting leaves, bark, nuts, and twigs

1. Prepare for this activity by getting acquainted with common trees in your area. To identify trees, you will need to distinguish between leaf shapes and seeds. Borrow a field guide from your local library or go online at www.arborday.org.
2. Invite children to point out items made of wood in the classroom. Ask: “Where does wood come from?”
3. Take children on a nature walk along a tree-lined street or to a park with a wooded area. Point out a half dozen common types of trees. Encourage children to feel the bark, crush and smell the leaves, and gather items to take back to the classroom.
4. Encourage children to make a collage with the items or paint a picture of a tree.
Variation: Set up an assortment of small wooden items—cutting board, spoon, salad bowl, jewelry chest, picture frame, pencil—in the science center for children to explore.

Measure it!
(Age 3 and older)
Here’s what you need:
yarn
wood scraps
scissors
rulers or yardsticks
marker

1. Give each child some yarn and a scrap of wood. Explain that they will measure the wood by extending the yarn along an edge and then cutting the yarn at that length.
2. Ask the children to find something else in the classroom that matches their length of yarn—a book, card, pencil, or paintbrush, for example.
3. Invite children to lay their yarn length along a ruler and read the number. Explain that each number represents an inch. Use the ruler to measure an inch on the child’s pointer finger and mark it.
4. Have children use the ruler to measure the wood. Explain that length refers to the longer side, width refers to the shorter side, and thickness refers to how thick the wood is.
5. Encourage children to measure other objects in the room using yarn or a ruler. Challenge children to find objects of specific lengths—“something 11 inches long and 8 1/2 inches wide,” for example.
Variations: Instead of yarn, use other objects such as unsharpened pencils, blocks, or postcards for measuring. Have children make a simple rain gauge by marking inches on a can.

Draw with a straight edge
(Age 4 and older)
Here’s what you need:
yardstick or meter stick
chalk

1. Take children to a sidewalk outdoors. Using chalk, show children how to mark straight lines with a yardstick. Point out the line length in inches and feet.
2. Divide children into pairs, one to hold the yardstick while the other draws a straight line. Have them take turns drawing straight lines of various lengths.
3. Show children how to use the yardstick to draw geometric shapes such as a square, rectangle, and triangle. Point out the number of sides each shape has, and measure the length of each side.
4. Invite children to pair up and draw geometric shapes of specific sizes—a 4-inch square, a triangle with 6 inches on each side, or a rectangle 3 inches by 6 inches, for example.
Variations: Draw geometric shapes on cards using a ruler and pencil.

Nail designs
(Age 4 and older)
Here’s what you need:
hammers
nails
short boards, 6 to 8 inches long
string or yarn of different colors
1. After children have practiced hammering nails into a tree stump or wood block, invite them to hammer nails into a geometric shape or design on a board. They can draw the design on the wood first, if they wish, and then hammer nails along the lines.
2. Encourage children to wind string or yarn in and around the nails.
Variation: Paint the nails different colors to harmonize with the design.

Name plaques
(Age 4 and older)
Here’s what you need:
short lengths of one-by-fours or other boards
pencil
ruler or measuring tape
large nails
hammers
sandpaper
short lengths of rope
tacks

1. Invite children to write their names in pencil on individual boards. Encourage them to make their letters about 3 inches tall.
2. Show children how to hammer a nail into wood just enough to puncture the surface. Invite children to make puncture dots in their boards to form the letters of their names.
3. Encourage children to sand the boards, especially edges and corners.
4. Have children use tacks to attach a length of rope as a hanger at the top edge of the plaque.
Variation: Use wood screws instead of tacks to attach the rope hanger.

Boats, trains, and planes
(Age 5 and older)
Here’s what you need:
small blocks of wood, various sizes and shapes
wooden dowels
crosscut saw
vise
ruler
wooden wheels, buttons, thread spools
cardboard, fabric scraps
toothpicks, craft sticks
white glue
nails
hammers
paint, markers

1. Encourage children to glue or nail pieces of wood together to make a boat, train car, or airplane.
2. Provide tools that allow children to add details—a saw for cutting a piece of dowel rod for a smokestack or making the pointed prow of a boat, for example.
3. Encourage children to use their imagination on finishing details. They can mark windows and other features on their vehicles, paint the entire vehicle, make flags from toothpicks and fabric scraps, and make propellers from craft sticks, for example.
4. Let boat makers try out their craft in the water play table. Make sure the glue has dried sufficiently first. Invite train makers to hook all of their train cars together with cup hooks.

Build a house
(Age 5 and older)
Here’s what you need:
How a House Is Built or another children’s book on construction
cardboard pieces from large boxes
scrap lumber, logs
bricks
sheets, blankets, or tarp
heavy-duty tape, rope
hammer and nails
camera

1. Engage children in a discussion about houses. Encourage them to talk about the design of their own houses or apartments. Point out similarities between houses and your building—floor, wall, roof.
2. Read a book about constructing a house or other building. Discuss the sequence of building such as selecting or preparing the site, laying a foundation, erecting the walls, putting on the roof, and finishing the interior.
3. Take children outdoors and show them the building materials you have collected. Invite them to make a house over the next few days. Discuss the design, including which materials will be used for each part of the structure. Divide children into groups of three or four to build a different part. Review safety rules before beginning.
4. Take photos to record the construction progress.
Variation: Invite a parent with construction skills to visit while the children are building and offer help.

Resources for children
Arkin, Alan. 2002. Tony’s Hard Work Day. Salt Lake City, Utah: Gibbs Smith.
Barton, Byron. 1961. Building a House. New York: Greenwillow Books.
Burby, Liza, and Diana Helmer. 1999. Day in the Life of a Carpenter. New York: Rosen Publishing.
Dahl, Michael. 2004. One Big Building: A Counting Book About Construction. Minneapolis: Picture Window Books.
Ehlert, Lois. 1997. Hands. San Diego: Harcourt Brace.
Freese, Joan. 2006. Carpenters (Pull Ahead Books). Minnesota: Lerner Publications.
Gibbons, Gail. 1996. How a House Is Built. New York: Holiday House.
Gibbons, Gail. 2002. Tell Me, Tree: All About Trees for Kids. New York: Little Brown Young Readers.
Gibbons, Gail. 1988. Tool Book. New York: Holiday House.
Gibbons, Gail. 1986. Up Goes the Skyscraper. New York: Four Winds Press.
Hayward, Linda. 2001. A Day in the Life of a Builder. New York: Dorling Kindersley Readers.
Homan, Dianne; Maria Antonia Salgado; and Mary Heine. 1994. In Christina’s Toolbox/En la Caja de Herrimientas de Cristina. Chapel Hill, N.C.: Lollipop Power, Inc.
Hopkinson, Deborah, and James E. Ransome. 2006. Sky Boys: How They Built the Empire State Building. New York: Schwartz & Wade Books.
Jackson, Thomas Campbell. 1999. Hammers, Nails, Planks and Paint: How to Build a House. New York: Cartwheel.
Klinting, Lars. 1996. Bruno the Carpenter. New York: Holt & Co.
Miller, Cameron, and Dominique Falla. 1995. Woodlore. New York: Ticknor and Fields Books for Young Readers.
Shone, Venice. 1990. Tools. New York: Cartwheel.
Winnie, Joan. 2001. A Day With a Carpenter. Children’s Press: www.publishing.grolier.com.

References
Adam, R.J. 1976. Creative Woodworking in the Kindergarten. Minneapolis, Minn.: T.S. Denison.
Anderson, S., and J.L. Hoot. 1986. Kids, carpentry and preschool classrooms. Day Care Early Education, 13, 12-15.
Andrews, T. 1997. Woodworking: Winning from the beginning. Texas Child Care Quarterly, Fall, 28-33.
Ard, L. 1990. Building skills with wood and hammers. Texas Child Care Quarterly, Spring, 24-33.
Bredekamp, S., and C. Copple. 1997. Developmentally Appropriate Practice, Revised Ed. Washington, D.C.: National Association for the Education of Young Children.
Bowman, J., C. Sobun, and A. Wycheck. 2004. Basic Woodworking: All the Skills and Tools You Need to Get Started. Mechanicsburg, Pa.: Stackpole Books.
Brandhofer, M. 1971. Carpentry for young children. Young Children, October, 12-13.
Broman, B.L. 1989. The Early Years in Childhood Education. Second Prospect Heights, Ill.: Waveland Press, Inc. 231-235.
Cartwright, D. 1975. Classroom carpentry, ages 5 to 10 (pamphlet). Tenants Harbor, Maine: Community Nursery School Press.
Day, B. 1988. Woodworking, in Early Childhood Education: Creative Learning Activities, Third Ed. New York: Macmillan Publishing Co., 539-563, 611-612.
Freeman, J. 1976. If I had a hammer. Teacher, 93, 56-57.
Hendrick, J., and P. Weissman. 2007. Total Learning: Curriculum for the Young Child, Second Ed. Columbus, Ohio: Charles E. Merrill, 265-266.
Hillman, J. 1976. Woodworking in the nursery. Michigan Council of Cooperative Nurseries. Programming Guidepost No. 19, 1-3.
Huber, L. K. 1999. Woodworking with young children: You can do it! Young Children, November, 32-34.
Kelsey, J. 2008. Woodworking (Kidcrafts). East Petersburg, Pa.: Fox Chapel Publishing.
Kulla-Branz, J. 1984. Woodworking for preschool handicapped children. Teaching Exceptional Children, Winter, 111-113.
Maxim, G. 1990. The Source Book: Activities for Infants and Young Children. Columbus, Ohio: Charles E. Merrill, 101-105.
Nielsen, Dianne. 2002. Preschool Multiple Intelligences: Activities to Nurture Various Abilities in the Early-Childhood Classroom. Grand Rapids, Mich.: Frank Schaffer Publications.
Nielsen, Dianne. 2006. Teaching Young Children: A Guide to Planning Your Curriculum, Teaching Through Learning Centers, and Just About Everything Else. Thousand Oaks, Calif.: Corwin Press.
Patnaude, C. A., and C. Costanino. 1995. Owning a piece of the forest. Early Childhood Education Journal, 23(2), 115-118.
Robertson, C., and B. Robertson. 2004. The Kids’ Building Workshop: 15 Woodworking Projects for Kids and Parents to Build Together. North Adams, Mass.: Storey Publishing.
Skeen, P., A. Garner, and S. Cartwright. 1984. Woodworking for Young Children. Washington, D.C.: National Association for the Education of Young Children.
Sosna, D. 2000. More about woodworking with young children. Young Children, March, 38-39.
Starr, R. 1990. Woodworking with Kids: Over 30 Projects for All Ages. Newtown, Conn.: The Taunton Press.
Stowe, Doug. 2006. Woodworking with kids. http://www.taunton.com/finewoodworking/SkillsAndTechniques/SkillsAndTechniquesArticle.aspx?id=29548.
Texas Department of Human Resources. 1980. Working with wood, Texas Child Care Quarterly, March, 36-40.
Thompson, D. 1981. Easy Woodstuff for Kids. Mount Rainier, Md.: Gryphon House.
Walker, L. R., and D. Macaulay. 1985. Carpentry for Children. Woodstock, N.Y.: The Overlook Press.
Wardle, F. 1987. At the workbench: Woodworking experiences for young children. Scholastic Pre-K Today, May/June, 32-35.

About the authors
Dianne Rush Pape, Ph.D., a senior lecturer in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction at Texas State University in San Marcos, has worked as an elementary school teacher in the public schools and as a preschool teacher at the University’s laboratory school. She currently teaches courses related to language development in early childhood and practicum classes for teaching preschool children.
Barbara Hatcher, Ed.D., professor in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction and assistant dean of the Graduate College at Texas State University in San Marcos, has worked as an elementary/early childhood teacher in the Texas and California public schools. She currently teaches curriculum and practicum classes for preschool and kindergarten teachers.