Home Page \(\blacktriangleright\) Children and Youth Unit \(\blacktriangleright\) Games for Flexible Minds \(\blacktriangleright\) Task Tower
Games for Flexible Minds: Task Tower
🏗️
Activity Flow
A building activity during which the goal of the construction constantly changes, and the children are required to adjust their approach and planning.
How to play?
Step 1: Basic task:
Divide the children into small groups and ask each group to build a “tall tower” (a simple task that emphasizes height).
Step 2: Changing criterion 1 (flexibility):
After the towers are standing (or during construction), announce: “Now the tower needs to be wider than it is tall! It should look like a bridge or an arch!”
(The children are required to modify the existing structure and adapt it to a new task).
Step 3: Changing criterion 2 (different use):
When the wide structure is standing, announce a new task that requires a different use of materials:
“Your structure now needs to be a hideout for a small character/small doll, and it must be closed on all sides!”
(There is a need to discard the previous perception of a “tower/bridge” and think of the structure as a shelter).
Extension:
You can ask each group to explain how they changed the structure to fit the new task, or give tasks that require using objects in an unconventional way (for example, “The tower needs to hold a branch”).
Note:
This can be a collaborative building activity.
The adult and the child build the structure together, and the moment the task changes (“Now the tower needs to hold a book”), both must think flexibly about a way to change the structure creatively.
This encourages collaboration and joint discussion on problem-solving (“Maybe we should move this block here?” or “What will happen if we turn the cup upside down?”).
Required materials
Open materials or diverse building blocks (Lego bricks, wooden blocks, cardboard tubes, plastic cups).
