This week we introduced hammering in the classroom. We offered foam blocks with hammers and tees. Children were pretty excited to see the hammers. While some kids said they were familiar with them, many had never used a hammer before. With this group, we like to use foam blocks that have some pre-existing holes that children can insert the tees into before they hammer. This means that they can concentrate on aiming the hammer and not worry about accidentally hammering a finger. Most needed to be shown how to position a tee in a hole and aim the hammer. It takes children some time to figure out just how much force is needed to make the tee move and they worked diligently at hammering until they saw movement. Once they were able to successfully pound a tee in, kids were thrilled with their accomplishment! Here are a few quotes from kids as they worked:
I did it!
It’s going down!
It’s not working… I did it!
I did TWO!
I need so many! (while reaching into the container of tees)
I did this white one.
I did this for (my babysitter)!
I’ve got mommy’s favorite color!
Blue is my favorite color.
I like all the colors.
Once they hammered in all of the tees, children faced another challenge: removing the tees. Teachers demonstrated that the tees could be pulled out, either with the claw or with fingers and children set out to remove their tees in order to start over again. There is some variability in how much force is needed to remove different pegs. Some slide out easily while some really need to be pulled hard. The claws on the hammer head can make this job easier, but they only work on the largest tees and their use is not intuitive. Children must be shown how to hook the claw on the tee head and then rock the hammer in order to remove the tee. Some are able to remove a tee by just pulling up, but it can still be a challenge to get the claw positioned on the head of the tee. Children were highly invested in this activity and worked through these challenges, occasionally asking for adult help. It is exciting to watch each child’s sense of competence grow as they master the challenges of this new activity. Here are a few more quotes from children as they removed their tees:
This one’s easy.
This one’s hard.
I got it!
It’s stuck.
Can you help me?
