Building Bridges

Build a Bridge

For hundreds of years people have been building structures to get over open spaces, rivers, railroad tracks, and much more. Let’s try our hand at constructing a connection of our very own.

Materials:   

• Two large items to build the bridge between (chairs, tables, stacks of books, etc.)
• You can use pretty much anything, but you’ll probably want some masking tape, scissors, and some flat sturdy flat items to form the bridge
  • Recyclables (cardboard, egg cartons, cereal boxes etc.) 
  • Building toys (legos, k-nex, tinker toys etc.)
  • Household items (straws, rulers, foil, chopsticks etc.)  
  • Craft materials (yarn, wood craft sticks, chenille stems, construction paper, etc.)

• An item to test the strength of your bridge (action figures, blocks, pennies, water bottles, etc.)

Steps:

1. Place two large items at least 10 – 12 inches apart. This will be the gap we need to cross. 
2. Now it’s time to create a bridge connecting the two. Go around the house gathering materials you think would create a sturdy structure.
3. As you gather your building materials, think about what type of bridge you can make with them. What kind of bridges have you seen? What did they look like? Here are a few basic styles of bridges to inspire you.
4. Now it’s time to see how much weight your bridge can hold. Place some light objects, like coins, on the bridge and notice what happens. Keep adding more to see how much weight your bridge can hold. Take a picture of your bridge in action and share it with the hashtag #RASatHome.