The Creators of the

Ultimate Obstacle Course

An Inquiry on Storytelling, Cause and Effect, and Problem Solving.
The Creators of the Ultimate Obstacle Course
An Inquiry on Storytelling, Cause and Effect, and Problem Solving.

Laura’s 4 & 5-Year-Old Lab

Fall 2019

Teacher Oksana
Logan, Micah, Tate, Hayde, Kinsley, and Jacey
Introduction
Our investigation was bound to have the Campanile involved somehow. In the beginning,
it was a process of trying to find out where the study was going to lead us. We first
started by playing with Oobleck. The children seemed to have fun, but didn’t ask many
questions about it or its properties so we didn’t continue.

This is how children described their experience with Oobleck.

This means that the Oobleck feels funny and This means that Oobleck is weird
Oobleck is soft. because sometimes it’s soft and
is super messy.
sometimes it’s hard.
While investigating the Oobleck, the children kept pointing out the Campanile through
the art room window. I took this as an opportunity to see where their interest was and
they sat and drew the parts of the Campanile.
“The
Campanile
“The
has a red ball “I can see
Campanile
on top. I have the
is big and
seen it at Campanile!”
has four
night after
sides.”
football
games.”

Then we tried playing in the large motor lab with fans, tunnels, and scarves. The
children also enjoyed this activity. They liked catching the scarves and putting the
scarves through the tunnel, but they did not want to investigate more. Throughout the
week, the children made comments about the Campanile and how they saw it from the
art room. Naturally, we had to take a trip to the Campanile and go see it as a group.
This sparked our first interest in building the Campanile.
In the Beginning We walked to the Campanile

On our walk to the Campanile, we started by going to the amphitheater to look

at the Campanile from multiple perspectives at a distance. The children walked
up the stairs with their notebooks and pencils and sat down and drew what they
observed about the Campanile.

Logan and Jacey worked side-by-side as they drew their representation of the
Campanile. Jacey and Micah shared a conversation about the stairs they had to
climb up and down to get to the Campanile and how many stairs they thought
the Campanile had inside.
After we were done drawing the Campanile, we walked across the campus
green or as the children called it, the “yard”. Once the children reached the
Campanile, some of them wanted to keep drawing and others explored the
doors and the plaque that has the information about the Campanile. They also
found the time capsule where they felt the letters on the plaque. The children
noticed that the doors were locked, and they couldn’t go inside. They had a
conversation about what kind of key could open the doors and where they could
get it.

Some suggestions were… “Teacher Laura has them.”

“The monster has them.”

“The police have them.”

“The key holder has them.”

“WE HAVE TO GO GET THEM!”

After this walk, we decided that we would try focusing on building the
Campanile with a variety of materials. We first used blocks in our block area to
construct the Campanile based off some pictures we found online and what we
could remember from our walk. We also looked at books of other architecture
in Venice where you must use a boat to get around. The children used google
earth to look at other buildings, but then we wanted to fly back and look at the
Campanile. The children shared how they thought it was so “tall”!
When the children looked in the books at pictures of buildings in
Italy, they drew the important things they observed in the images.
Some of the children really enjoyed the flowery patterns on the
building and other children thought it was cool how there was a
palace and a whole city that was on the water. They asked
questions, such as “How would you get around in this city?” and “How
would you get to the city?” Then we looked at the architecture of
the Campanile through printed pictures and went to the makers
space to find items we could use to build our version of the
Campanile.
From there, we watched a video about the Campanile, and we learned that it
was 165 feet tall and had 180 stairs inside. To represent how tall the
Campanile was, we counted out 165 Unifix cubes and stacked them together.
Our next step was to introduce Legos, and we tried to build the Campanile out
of Legos and model magic. The children got so creative with the process. They
all had a different focus. Some wanted to focus on the yard and others
focused on windows and doors to the Campanile.

“WOW, that is “One, two, three, four, five, “There is a lot

really TALL!!!!” six, seven, eight, nine, ten!
Teacher I did it!” of stairs.”
 Building the Campanile out of Legos.

“We need doors for the Campanile.”

- Hayde

“We have to make the Campanile a

square shape because it has four
sides.”
- Tate

“We need four doors because there “We need to make the Campanile tall like
are four doors on the Campanile.” really, really tall!”
- Jacey - Logan

“I can help find you more doors.” “We need to put some flowers around
- Kinsley the Campanile because there is SDSU
flowers next to the Campanile.”
- Micah
After building with Legos for a few days, we decided to explore some model
magic and Legos together to see where the investigation could go. The children
explored the model magic and added a creative twist that would turn around our
entire investigation. These are the quotes that inspired us to change directions.
These are the Lego
versions of the Campanile
that the children made.

*Tate wrapped model magic around the part of the Campanile he built.
Tate: "It’s going to hold and make it tough.”
Tate: “I am going to use these (model magic) so they stick.”
*Tate talked about how they used cement on the real Campanile to hold the
bricks together.

*Hayde worked with model magic.

Hayde: “It’s going to make it tough and real.”
*Hayde blocked windows with model magic.
Teacher Oksana: "Why are you covering the windows?"
Hayde: “Because monsters are coming. They stole money so we need to block
the windows so they can’t go in.”
*Logan working with model magic.
Logan: “I’m making the backyard." "Can you roll this for me?" "We
need doors.” “This clay is going to be the sidewalk.”

Micah: “This can be the door!”

Teacher Oksana: "Where is the cannon at the Campanile?"
Micah: “There isn’t one, we’re just making it for fun.”

Teacher Oksana: "Kinsley what are you making with your model
magic?"
Kinsley: “It’s slime to put in the Campanile.”
Teacher Oksana: "Why are you putting slime in the Campanile?"
Kinsley: “I’m protecting it from bad guys.”

Jacey: “Teacher, look what I made.”

Teacher Oksana: "Tell me about your creation."
Jacey: “It’s a person to climb the Campanile.”
Teacher Oksana: "How is the person going to get through the slime that
Kinsley is putting into the Campanile?"
Jacey: “They can swim through it.”

I asked the children if they would like to create an obstacle course for a character and
their goal would be to make it to the top of the Campanile. There was a unanimous
YES!
The Obstacle Course Adventure begins!

We first had a brainstorming session where the children drew what they wanted
to include in the obstacle course with chalk. We put our Lego Campaniles in the
center to remember our goal was to reach the top. Our main conversation on
day one was to create our character. This is where we came up with “Mr.
Snowpants.” Mr. Snowpants is very blue and yellow. He has blue and yellow
pants and a blue and yellow coat. Some of his special gear includes a pair of
skis, a button, and a suction gun to get over big obstacles. He can click the
triangle button to call the meeps for help, but if he pushes the circle button,
then too many meeps would show up and just get in the way. He has magic
stepping blocks to hop over obstacles, and a fabric boat because “he has to
have a boat!”
 MR. SNOWPANTS
After our brainstorm, we had toMAN
go make our Mr. Snowpants characters that
would take the hazardous trip to our well protected Campanile. We used the
maker's space to come up with our supper creative Mr. Snowpants. Some of the
materials we worked with were duct tape, beads, wire, wire cutters, popsicle
sticks, wood blocks, blue and yellow fabrics, and sharpies.
Tate’s Mr. Snowpants who Hayde’s Mr. Snowpants. He has one
has three eyes on each side eye on each side of his head. He has
of his head. He has yellow a yellow face and blue arms.
pants and a blue face.

This is Logan’s Mr.

Snowpants. He drew
the face on with the
sharpie and decorated
his legs with beads.
 OOBLECK
After we created our Mr. Snowpants characters, I asked the children what
obstacles they would want for Mr. Snowpants to encounter on his journey to the
Campanile. The children voted on exploring Oobleck. Oobleck was something we
played with earlier in the semester and they enjoyed it so much. In the process
of exploring this Oobleck again, the children wanted to explore what would
happen if we added more water. Some of the things the children found were…
“Ha, ha, ha, this is “It’s so slimy!”
so fun.”
“It’s so slimy now.
“Look, Mr. Snowpants How do I make it
can run really fast!” hard again?”

“I want more water. “You have to put

I want Mr. the Oobleck
Snowpants to swim together to make
through it, but he it hard.”
might get stuck.”

“What about the super vitamins?”

The children brought up how Mr. Snowpants would get through the Oobleck and Micah
said “What about super vitamins?” Then the children talked about what powers the
super vitamins would give Mr. Snowpants. Their ideas were super speed and super hops.
 Elephant Toothpaste
Elephant toothpaste was my idea. I asked the children if they knew what Elephant
toothpaste was and they said, “Nope.” I thought it would be fun to do an engaging and
interactive experiment and it would be a fun problem for the children to solve with Mr.
Snowpants. The children helped me put the mixtures together to make the chemical reaction.
First the children watched me pour the hydrogen peroxide in the measuring cup. Then Tate
helped me hold the funnel as I poured in the hydrogen peroxide. Micah and Jacey stirred
the yeast and warm water in a cup. Kinsley and Hayde helped put in food coloring, but we
used a gel food coloring and it sadly didn’t show. I explained to the children that’s why we
tested our obstacles.
“What is this?” “I can help hold the funnel.” - Tate
- whole group
Logan helped put the soap into
“Hydrogen the bottle after the hydrogen
peroxide, it will peroxide.
react with the “Why do we put soap in there?”
yeast to make - Logan
the elephant
toothpaste grow.” “It makes the bubbles when the
- Teacher Oksana elephant toothpaste grows.”
- Teacher Oksana

“How could Mr. Snowpants get through this

“Wow!” elephant toothpaste?” - Teacher Oksana

- Whole “Mr. Snowpants can use a surfboard to get

around it.” - Logan
Group
“I can use a boat!” - Tate

“My Mr. Snowpants has long legs. He can walk

over it” - Micah
We had a visit from Leslie Olive so we took a break from our obstacle development.

Leslie Olive
Visit

We had Leslie (Les) Olive, who is the head architect on campus, come and
share some information on the Campanile. He showed us blueprints of the
Campanile at different phases. Les brought in Duplo blocks that he had used to
build parts of the Campanile and had the children put it together. He asked the
children to point out the similarities and differences between the Campanile
they built together and the real one. The children said the following things: “The
red blocks look like the bricks on the Campanile”, “The bottom is bigger than the
top”, “The Campanile doesn’t have these bumps (the stairs)”, “These pieces are
wider and don’t go in like the real Campanile.”
 Questions from the Children

How did they build the bricks?

- They used a scaffolding stand around the Campanile that they could stand
on and build bricks on top of each other. They also had one on the inside to
help build the stairs. There are 180 stairs in the Campanile, and its 165 ft
tall.
How does it play music?
- There are speakers inside like the ones you have in a car, but bigger and it
plays music through there every hour.
Why are the numbers here (the date under the Campanile blueprint)?
- Those are the numbers for the year that the Campanile was finished 1881.
It is very old.
How many bricks are there total?
- There were 325,000 bricks used to build the Campanile.
 SLIME “What if it was
raining big pieces
of slime?”
“What if it was
raining slime?”

“What if a big ball

of slime landed on
him?”

“Snowpants is going
to get through it
for sure!”

On our third and last obstacle, the children explored puffy slime. I asked the
children what kind of superpowers they would need to give Mr. Snowpants to
get through it. They said, “gummy bears, gummy bears!” so we talked about how
we could use floating gummy bears and Mr. Snowpants and his pet meep could
jump from one gummy bear to the next until they make it safely across. We
also brainstormed other possible threats they might run into, like slime balls and
a rainstorm of slime.
 BACK PACKS + SUPER VITAMINS + SURFBOARDS & BOATS + GUMMY BEARS
The next big phase after exploring the obstacles that Mr. Snowpants would
endure was to make our superpower backpacks. These backpacks were then
filled with our necessities, such as super vitamins, surfboards, boats, and
gummy bears.
Super Vitamins:
These vitamins gave Mr.
Snowpants
superpowers when he
got to the Oobleck. He
would swallow the
vitamin and it would
give him super speed
These were the backpacks that the children made to store and super hops.
all their superpowers.

The gummy bears were used

as stones in the puffy slime.
Mr. Snowpants would place
them across the puffy slime
and he would hop across the
These were the boats and the surfboards that would help Mr. Snowpants that he slime to the safety of the
would use to get through the elephant toothpaste.
Campanile.
 MEEPS
One of the things that the children wanted to put in the story was a meep.
Meeps are fictional characters made up by each individual child. Meeps come in
many different shapes, sizes, and colors just like us. We shared with the group
about what made each meep unique and how they were all awesome in their
own way. Meeps keep Mr. Snowpants company on his journey to the Campanile.

“The toothpicks “These are

are the arms. the eyes!
The blue button They are
is his face. long and
These strings pointy.”
are the legs.”
- Tate - Logan
 THE CAMPANILE
We can’t forget the Campanile. Our group really enjoyed looking at the
Campanile, so it had to be part of our storyline. This is where I helped the
children because we wanted to make a movie about our story with Mr.
Snowpants and they wanted to make the Campanile. I asked them if they were
okay if I helped out a little. They children said yes. We took some time to go
into the maker's space and check out the materials we could use in the building
process. We came up with cardboard, tiles, popsicle sticks, small blocks, paint,
wire, and beads.

“I want to paint “Teacher watch

the Campanile me paint the tiles!”
tiles!” - Micah
- Kinsley

“Teacher, I’m painting the bottom of

the Campanile white at the bottom.”
- Jacey
“Is it white or gray?” -Teacher Oksana

“It’s grey!” - Jacey

Over the weekend, I built the framework for our Campanile, kind of like Les did
when he brought the partly built Duplo blocks. The children then helped put the
tiles on the sides of the cardboard, put together the stairs to our base, and
created walls for the base. The children then painted the Campanile bricks red,
the base and tippy top grey. I then assembled and glued the parts together for
them and added the lights they wanted to make it as realistic as possible.

“Look how carefully I’m painting Tate and I worked together to put the
top of the Campanile together. Tate
“I can paint the tiles red!”
the tiles.” picked out the plastic cup to make the - Hayde
shape of the tippy top. He said we
- Logan needed to put wire around the top
because he saw the balconies at the
top. He also picked out the red bead at
the top of the Campanile. We also
talked about the blue lights that we can
see at night.
 This was our final product of the Campanile.
The children were so excited about the lights at the top.
 Our First Run Through

Our first run through for our video was where Hayde took his Mr. Snowpants and
walked him through the obstacle course. This was also a time for the children to
engage with the slime and Oobleck again before they went through it again. The
children then watched Hayde as he was going through the obstacle course.
Hayde forgot to bring meep along with him so he had to go backwards and
bring him along with him the second time.

“I can video tape the “How do you turn the lights on?” “I need more gummy
movie.” - Micah - Logan bears.” - Hayde
“It’s in the tower!” - Tate “I have some you can
borrow.” - Jacey
“Where?” - Logan

“Right here.” - Tate

 Our Final Run Through and Filming
The children all took a turn taking Mr. Snowpants through the obstacle course to
reach the Campanile. They decided that I should be the one that films the movie
so they could all watch and help with Mr. Snowpants' adventure. This is
Mr.Snowpants' adventure…..

“There was a very strange man was going through an obstacle course to the
Campanile.”

“Then he saw a big pond of Elephant toothpaste, so he used his surfboard.”

“And then he saw a bag. What was in the bag? Oobleck!”
“Well, what was he going to do?”
“Then, he used his super vitamins.”

He then used his super speed to run across the Oobleck.

“He kept hopping along when he came to the river of slime.”

“So, he got his gummy bears out and put them across the river.”

“He then hopped across the slime”

After we filmed the movie, the children were wondering how they could tell people
about their backpacks.

“What about the backpacks?” - Tate

“What do you mean what about the backpacks?” - Teacher Oksana

“Well, if we are making a movie, we need a commercial.” - Tate

“Do you want to make a commercial about the backpacks?” - Teacher Oksana

“YES!!!” - Whole Group

 The Commercial
“This is our SUPER HERO BACK PACK.
It’s really cool.
It’s really uniquie.
You can’t buy it.
Because we made it.
It’s NOT for SALE.”

The children were so proud of their backpacks and wanted to show them off,
but did not want anyone else to have it. You will not be seeing these super cool
backpacks on the market, but if you ask them to make you one, you might be
lucky to get one.

Through this process, the children worked hard to come up with a storyline for
the short film. The children worked on character development, set building, and
filming the movie. There are endless possibilities when it comes to storytelling
and we are excited to share ours with you.
THE END
 What I Learned Throughout the Investigation

Through this investigation, I learned so much from the children. The

children had me wondering about things that I would have never asked
about. The children also taught me how to be creative and think outside
the box. I would have never thought of Mr. Snowpants and meeps. These
characters took on a life of their own that drove the investigation later
on. I learned that even though we might have pre-conceived ideas about
a topic, when we take the time to slow down and enjoy the conversation
with one another, we can come up with some creative and beautiful
things. I also learned some fun facts about the Campanile that I might
have heard about in the past, but never really took the time to listen to
until we did this investigation. Some facts that I leaned were as follows
1) the Campanile is 165 ft tall (we counted out 165 unfix cubes), there
are 180 stairs (that’s a lot of stairs to climb), and the same person who
was the architect designer for Mount Rushmore helped design the tippy
top of the Campanile (that’s Cool). Most importantly, we learned how to
work as a team and share ideas.
 What the Children Learned Throughout the Investigation

The first thing that children learned through this investigation was the value of
teamwork. One person could not pull off this movie about this crazy obstacle course
all by themselves. They had to work as a team by coming up with creative ideas.
There was a bond formed and it was evident when someone was missing because the
rest of the children would say, "What about so and so? They will miss out and this is
so cool."

The children explored many academic areas, such as reading, writing, science, and
math. The children explored reading and writing through observations of books and
informational plaques. They practiced writing in their journals and drew pictures of
what they observed. The children practiced their math skills by counting 165 Unifix
cubes to represent the height of the Campanile and we talked about the number of
bricks needed to build the Campanile. We talked about the number of stairs to climb
up to the top of the Campanile. We investigated science through our obstacle course
development. They learned about how different materials reacted and formed new
substances. The children helped to measure and explore numbers through reading
recipes for our experiments.

They enjoyed the process of coming up with the ideas and helping develop the story.
Through this process, they practiced problem solving and developed leadership skills.
They also learned organizational skills as they had to plan everything out and then
carry out their plan.
 Early Learning Guidelines Touched on Throughout This Investigation
Approaches to Learning (AL): Curiosity, Information-Seeking, and Eagerness
• Goal AL-1: Children demonstrate curiosity and eagerness and express interest in the world around them.
• Goal AL-2: Children actively seek to understand the world around them in play and everyday tasks.
Approaches to Learning (AL): Initiative, Effort, Engagement, and Persistence
• Goal AL-3: Children demonstrate initiative and effort in play and everyday tasks.
• Goal AL-4: Children are engaged and maintain focus in play and everyday tasks.
• Goal AL-5: Children persist at challenging activities in play and everyday tasks.
Approaches to Learning (AL): Risk-Taking, Problem-Solving, Flexibility, and Resiliency
• Goal AL-7: Children use a variety of strategies to solve problems in play and everyday tasks.
Approaches to Learning (AL): Play and Imagination
• Goal AL-8: Children engage in increasingly complex play.

Social and Emotional Development (SED): Developing a Positive Sense of Self

• Goal SED-1: Children demonstrate a positive sense of themselves as unique and capable individuals in play and everyday tasks.
Social and Emotional Development (SED): Developing Relationships
• Goal SED-2: Children form relationships and interact positively with familiar adults in play and everyday tasks.
• Goal SED-3: Children form relationships and interact positively with other children in play and everyday tasks.
Social and Emotional Development (SED): Self-Regulation and Pro-Social Behaviors
• Goal SED-4: Children demonstrate self-regulation, pro-social behaviors, and participate cooperatively as members of a group in play and everyday
tasks.
• Goal SED-5: Children demonstrate an ability to identify and regulate their emotions in play and everyday tasks.
• Goal SED-6: Children recognize and respond to the needs and feelings of others in play and everyday tasks.

Communication, Language and Literacy (CLL): Communicating and Oral Language Development
• Goal CLL-1: Through their explorations, play, and social interactions, children successfully communicate for multiple purposes.
• Goal CLL-2: Through their explorations, play, and social interactions, children speak clearly and use the grammar of their home language.
• Goal CLL-3: Through their explorations, play, and social interactions, children understand and use an ever-expanding vocabulary.
Communication, Language and Literacy (CLL): Foundations for Reading
• Goal CLL-4: Through their explorations, play and social interactions, children develop interest, motivation, and appreciation for literacy-based
materials and activities.
• Goal CLL-5: Through their explorations, play, and social interactions, children comprehend, use, and begin to reflect on and analyze information in
books and other media.
• Goal CLL-6: Through their explorations, play and social interactions, children begin to recognize basic concepts of print and discover that they can
get meaning from print.
• Goal CLL-7: Through their explorations, play, and social interactions, children listen, identify, and respond to sounds, and develop phonological
awareness.
• Goal CLL-8: Through their explorations, play, and social interactions children develop knowledge of letters and the alphabetic principle.
Communication, Language and Literacy (CLL): Foundations for Writing
• Goal CLL-9: Through their explorations, play, and social interactions, children use writing and drawing as means of communication.
• Goal CLL-10: Through their explorations, play, and social interactions, children grow in their understanding of letters and writing skills.

Health and Physical Development (HPD): Physical Health and Growth

• Goal HPD-2: Children engage in active physical play indoors and outdoors.
Health and Physical Development (HPD): Motor Development
• Goal HPD-4: Children engage in play and movement to develop the large muscle control and abilities needed to explore and move in their
environment.
• Goal HPD-5: Children engage in play and experiences to develop muscle control and hand-eye coordination to manipulate objects and work with
tools.
Health and Physical Development (HPD): Self-care, Safety, and Well-Being
• Goal HPD-7: Children use safe behaviors and personal safety practices with support from adults.

Cognitive Development (CD): Construction of Knowledge: Thinking and Reasoning

• Goal CD-1: Through their explorations, play, and social interactions children use their senses to discover and construct knowledge about the
world around them.
• Goal CD-2: Through their explorations, play, and social interactions children recall information and apply it to new situations and problems.
• Goal CD-3: Through their explorations, play, and social interactions children demonstrate the ability to think about their own thinking: reasoning,
taking perspectives, and making decisions.
Cognitive Development (CD): Mathematical Thinking and Expression
• Goal CD-4: Through their explorations, play, and social interactions, children count with understanding and use numbers to tell how many,
describe order, and compare.
• Goal CD-5: Through their explorations, play, and social interactions, children demonstrate concepts about position, as well as identify and
describe simple geometric shapes.
• Goal CD-6: Through their explorations, play and social interactions, children compare, sort, group, organize, measure, and create simple patterns
using concrete objects.
• Goal CD-7: Through their explorations, play, and social interactions, children use mathematical thinking to ask questions and solve problems.
Cognitive Development (CD): Scientific Exploration and Knowledge
• Goal CD-8: As a result of their explorations and participation in simple investigations through play, children observe, describe, and demonstrate
respect for living things, the environment, and the physical world.
• Goal CD-9: As a result of their explorations and participation in simple investigations through play, children demonstrate their ability to use
scientific inquiry by observing, manipulating objects, asking questions, making predictions, and developing generalizations.
Cognitive Development (CD): Social Studies, Family and Community Connections
• Goal CD-10: Through their explorations, play, and social interactions, children demonstrate an understanding of relationships, roles, and what it
means to be a participating member of their families and the diverse groups/communities they belong to.
• Goal CD-11: Through their explorations, play, and social interactions children identify and demonstrate appreciation of similarities and
differences between themselves and others.
Cognitive Development (CD): Creative Arts and Expression
• Goal CD-12: Children engage in a variety of creative activities for enjoyment and self-expression including play, visual arts, music, expressive
movement, and drama.
• Goal CD-13: Children demonstrate an appreciation for different forms of art including visual arts, music, expressive movement, and drama.