Who Builds Buildings? What Tools Do They Use?

 Preschool is currently working on our unit, Buildings.  During our exploration, we have discussed different features on buildings such as doors, windows, roofs and varying heights.  We went on a walk in the neighborhood to examine these features, draw our favorite homes, and observe the different shapes we see on each home.  Students also learned that buildings are created with many materials such as wood, bricks, rock, cement, and stone.  This week, we are starting to learn about the many people who help to build our homes and businesses, and the tools that they use. 

For this investigation, children were presented with photos of a construction site.  We observed the people, machines and various levels of work that were documented in the photos.  We talked about the people on the construction site, and learned that they were called construction workers and carpenters.  Construction workers and carpenters have many responsibilities on the job site to make sure they create structures that are safe for people and the community.  While they are creating their structures, workers use many different tools.  Today, children were going to guess one of the tools that construction workers often use on the job site in our Mystery Box. 

                                                                     The Mystery Box

I shook the box and let them listen to the sound.  They started guessing different tools they were familiar with such as tape measure, hammer, screwdriver and wrench. 

We came to an agreement that there might be a hammer in the box, and they were correct!  Hammer was our mystery tool of the day, and that is a very important tool for construction workers and carpenters.

This was a very exciting way to introduce one of the tools that construction workers and carpenters use to build different structures.