Letter Building Blocks

thingiverse

Often blocks are used to build structures, but have you ever used them to build letters? You can use these blocks to build any capital letter in the English alphabet. Teachers or families may opt to print several of each of these shapes so kids can build any letter. These blocks are a great way to support kids' knowledge of capital letter forms and notice similarities or differences between each letter. For a complete set, we recommend printing: 8 Big Lines 6 Little Lines 6 Big Curves 6 Little Curves However, you can build any single letter if you have at least 4 Big Lines, 3 Little Lines, 2 Big Curves, and 2 Little Curves. In the classroom, a teacher could have each student use the shapes s/he needs to make the first letter of their name in Tinkercad. Each student can put together his/her letter by dragging, dropping, and rotating the correct blocks to form the letter. Print Settings Printer Brand: MakerBot Printer: MakerBot Replicator (5th Generation) Rafts: Yes Supports: Doesn't Matter Infill: 5% Notes: You can print each block separately or you can print a mini set together (letter_making_blocks.stl) How I Designed This Steps to Make Each Block in Tinkercad Big Line: Take a box and move it onto the workplane Change the length, width, and height to dimensions you like. For the long line, I made the length 120mm, the width 10mm, and the height 5mm. Note: It's important to keep the width and height consistent for each block. Little Line: Take a box and move it onto the workplane Change the length, width, and height to dimensions you like. The length should be half the length of the long line. For the short line, I made the length 60mm, the width 10mm, and the height 5mm. Note: It's important to keep the width and height consistent for each block. Big Curve: Take a cylinder and move it onto the workplane Change the length, width, and height to dimensions you like. The length and width should be the same as the length of the long line. For the big curve, I made the length 120mm, the width 120mm, and the height 5mm. Note: It's important to keep the height consistent for each block. Take a cylinder hole and move it onto the workplane Change the length, width, and height of the hole to dimensions you like. The length and width should be the length of the long line minus two times the width of the long line. For me, I made the length and width of the hole 100mm and the height was 5mm. Note: It's important to keep the height consistent for each block. Center the hole on the cylinder Select both the cylinder hold and cylinder and group them Take a box hole and move it onto the workplane. Make the length the same as the long line (120mm) and the width half of the length of the long line (60mm). Put box hole over half the cylinder. Group the objects Little Curve: Repeat the steps for the big curve. Change the width and height to length of the short line (60mm). For the cylinder hole, the width and length should be 40mm. After all shapes have been made, you can copy as many as you'd like onto the work plane to create a set of blocks, or you can print them all separately if you want to have several shorter print jobs. Making the big curve block All the blocks on the workplane Overview and Background There are two options for this activity. Activity 1 The teacher/family member prints a letter making set of blocks. Children can use the blocks to create/build capital letters to gain knowledge of letter formation. Activity 2 If teachers would like students to begin to learn about 3D CAD Design and 3D Printing, the teacher may have students import different .stl files into Tinkercad and have students work in teams to design the first letter in their name out of the different blocks/pieces. The teacher will need to model how to rotate shapes on the workplane, move pieces, and group pieces into one object. Skills Learned (Standards): This project supports several of the Reading: Foundational Skills Standards for Kindergarten: Foundational Skills Standard 1: Demonstrate understanding of the organization and basic features of print. Foundational Skills Standard 1b: Recognize that spoken words are represented in written language by specific sequences of letters. Foundational Skills Standard 1d: Recognize and name all upper- and lowercase letters of the alphabet. Foundational Skills Standard 3c: Read common high-frequency words by sight (e.g., the, of, to, you, she, my, is, are, do, does). Lesson Plan and Activity Activity 1: The teacher/family member prints a letter making set of blocks. Children can use the blocks to create/build capital letters to gain knowledge of letter formation. After printing the letter building blocks, you can do the following: In a small group or one-on-one: Introduce children to the names of the blocks: Hold up a big line and say, "This is a big line." Ask student, "Can you show me a big line?" Repeat for other blocks. Model how to make the first letter of each child's name. For example, if the child's name is Alex, you can model how to make the letter A by saying, "Let's make the letter A: Long line (put long line block down), long line (put another long line block down), short line (put short line block down)." Then, have the kids try by saying, "You try it: Long line, long line, short line." Repeat for other first letters in each student's name Activity 2: After doing the above activity, if teachers would like students to begin to learn about 3D CAD Design and 3D Printing, the teacher may import different block .stl files into Tinkercad and have students work in teams to design the first letter in their name out of the different blocks/pieces Have students work with a partner on a chromebook/laptop logged into Tinkercad Model for entire class/small group how to create the first initial of your name using the letter building blocks under a document camera Have each pair design the first initial of one student's name using blocks on their desk Draw a sketch of their design on paper (this will be their prototype) Log in to Tinkercad and go to pre-made workplane with blocks on it (set this up beforehand by importing each block's .stl file into one project on each computer) Model how to make more of shapes they need and delete shapes they don't need With a partner, have students copy and paste shapes they need copies of and delete shapes they don't need Model how to move and rotate shapes to form a letter With a partner, have students move and rotate the shapes to form their first initial Have students export design to a USB drive or Google Drive Teacher prints letter Repeat for other partner Materials Needed 3D printer 3D modeling software, such as Tinkercad If pre-printing the blocks, you will need at least 4 Big Lines, 3 Little Lines, 2 Big Curves, and 2 Little Curves Skills Learned Organization Spoken Words Uppercase Letters Lowercase Letters Sight Words