Building corner Sleeping Beauty

Figure 6. A regular building corner. (Gertrude, n.d.).

In figure 6 there is a regular building corner as we all know it. Children go in there and build something they like. Though this building corner is very regular, it is not that hard to turn it into a fairy tale themed building corner and combine the building with playing as well. 

Setting

If you already have a regular building corner in your classroom, you can obviously choose this one to start with. If you don't have one, that is not a problem. In figure 6 you see a lot of wooden blocks and some Lego. In reality, you can choose anything to build with. It can be cardboard boxes, corks, Knexx, popcicle sticks, plastic cups etc. So the lack of materials it not a good reason to not have a building corner. You can always be creative and find things to use.

Make sure that your materials are visible and arranged so that the children know what is there for them. In figure 6 there is a soft rug on the floor, but depending on your materials you might decide to not do this, because some materials are hard to stabilize on such a rug. 

Equipment

In this case, our building corner is themed with Sleeping Beauty and the big castle she is sleeping in. Of course, you can theme this corner with any story you'd like. You can decide whether you want the children to use themselves as characters or if you'd like to put some puppets in the building corner. If you want the children to build and play with themselves as characters, you should provide some costumes or necessary objects. In the case of sleeping beauty, you can provide a crown, a dress, a sword for the prince, a dragon tale for someone to play the dragon etc. 

If you want the children to use the building together with puppets, you should provide those. In this case you can think about the princess, the prince, the dragon, the old lady and maybe the king and queen. 

In order to choose the right equipment, it is obvious that you need to have knowledge about the story. Choosing the equipment can be done just by you, but you can also do this together with the children. Ask questions, like:

• Where is the princess living?
• What happens when the old lady comes?
• Why is the princess sleeping for so long?
• Who is going to wake up the princess?
• Why is it difficult for the prince to find the princess?

Those questions are just some examples you can use in order to make a list of objects you can put into the corner. Again, keep in mind that the objects never have to be really realistic. It doesn't matter what you use as long as you guide the children in giving meaning to all those objects. 

It is nice for children to start building from scratch, but sometimes it might be a little though for them to start. To make sure every child has a chance to start, whether it is with his or her own ideas or an example, make sure you have some examples or cards to show some interesting objects to build. In figure 7 you can see an example of a castle that is build out of wooden blocks. This type of building might be better when you decide that the play will be with puppets. When you want the children to play themselves, the building in figure  might be a better option, since it is bigger and more open.

                                               

 Figure 7. Example of a castle. (Hommad, n.d.).                           Figure 8. Big castle. (Juf Anke, n.d.)

You can also create some example cards yourself or find some nice ones on the internet. In figure 9 there is an example of a card that you can find on the internet. This is also a nice one if you want to let the children build the dragon instead of play the dragon. 

Figure 9. Building example of a dragon. (Van der Starren, n.d.). 

Preparation

When you create a specific corner, you want the children to make use of the corner. In this case, we created the corner around the fairy tale of Sleeping Beauty. Of course, as I wrote earlier, playing has to be voluntary and the children have to decide what they will do. As a teacher, you give them the possibility to use elements from the fairy tale in the corner with all the equipment. In order to achieve this, it is good to read or tell the fairy tale. Not only once, but multiple times. Talk about the story and about the things that happen in the story. You can even create some activities around the story to make it more living for the children. It is also important to make sure that the children know how to use the corner properly and that they use it with respect, without you taking away their freedom in the corner.