--- title: Building and making things safely — a lesson of Mova's school · trees and pragmatics description: «Building and making things safely», a lesson of the everyday course of Mova's primary school, sentence by sentence with dependency trees and pragmatics. It begins: Building is how engineers think: plan, follow the steps, test, and when something fails, change one thing and try again. --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/244-building-and-making-things/) [home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/) / [Everyday](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/) / Building and making things safely # Building and making things safely Lesson 244 of the everyday course of Mova's primary school: 29 sentences, each with its syntax tree and pragmatics. The lessons are written for Mova, and their agreed trees are part of Mova corpus 0.4 (CC BY-SA 4.0). How Mova does on its tests: [the lesson at school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/school-run/everyday/244-building-and-making-things/). - [0](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/244-building-and-making-things/0/) — Building is how engineers think: plan, follow the steps, test, and when something fails, change one thing and try again. - [1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/244-building-and-making-things/1/) — Failures are how you learn. - [2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/244-building-and-making-things/2/) — Real tools need real care. - [3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/244-building-and-making-things/3/) — Hold a nail low and start with light taps, let an adult help with a hot glue gun, and work with paint and glue where fresh air can flow. - [4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/244-building-and-making-things/4/) — A splinter should come out with clean tweezers so it does not get infected. - [5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/244-building-and-making-things/5/) — Things you build must not fall on anyone. - [6](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/244-building-and-making-things/6/) — A blanket den should use light things; a treehouse needs an adult, strong wood and a safe height. - [7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/244-building-and-making-things/7/) — Sand and snow can collapse. - [8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/244-building-and-making-things/8/) — Holes in sand deeper than your knees and tunnels in sand or snow can fall in and bury a child, and snowploughs cannot see a fort in a snowbank by the road. - [9](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/244-building-and-making-things/9/) — Example: a girl in Wellington builds a sandcastle. - [10](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/244-building-and-making-things/10/) — Dry sand crumbles, so she wets it, and it holds its shape. - [11](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/244-building-and-making-things/11/) — She keeps her hole shallow and does not dig a tunnel under the dune. - [12](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/244-building-and-making-things/12/) — Clear Lego bricks off the floor into a box after playing, because stepping on them hurts and pieces get lost. - [13](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/244-building-and-making-things/13/) — Follow building instructions one step at a time and check before going on, because skipped steps lead to mistakes. - [14](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/244-building-and-making-things/14/) — Make blanket dens with light things that will not fall, and tidy up after, because heavy furniture can tip over. - [15](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/244-building-and-making-things/15/) — Build a treehouse or outdoor fort with an adult, checking the wood is strong and the height is safe, because falls cause broken bones. - [17](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/244-building-and-making-things/17/) — If you hurt yourself and it bleeds a lot, press a clean cloth on it and get an adult. - [18](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/244-building-and-making-things/18/) — Ask an adult to take out a splinter with clean tweezers, because a splinter left in can get infected. - [19](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/244-building-and-making-things/19/) — Let an adult help with a hot glue gun, and never touch the nozzle or the hot glue, because it burns skin. - [20](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/244-building-and-making-things/20/) — Use model paint and glue in a ventilated place (with fresh air flowing through) and follow the label, because fumes can make you feel ill. - [21](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/244-building-and-making-things/21/) — Wet sand holds its shape better than dry sand; never throw sand, because it hurts and scratches eyes. - [22](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/244-building-and-making-things/22/) — Do not dig holes in sand deeper than your knees or tunnel into the sand, because they can collapse and bury a child. - [23](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/244-building-and-making-things/23/) — Ask before using a cardboard box for a project, and recycle it after. - [24](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/244-building-and-making-things/24/) — Never dig deep tunnels in snow banks, especially near roads, because snow can collapse and ploughs cannot see you. - [25](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/244-building-and-making-things/25/) — When a project does not work first time, change one thing, test and try again; changing only one thing at a time shows which change made the difference, and engineers learn from failures. - [26](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/244-building-and-making-things/26/) — A boy in Ohio used his dad's power drill without asking; it jumped off a screw and went into his hand, and he needed surgery. - [27](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/244-building-and-making-things/27/) — A girl in England called Ruby built a den roof from old planks and stood on it; it gave way, she fell two metres and broke her wrist. - [28](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/244-building-and-making-things/28/) — Power tools can cause deep cuts and lost fingers in a second, so children use them only with an adult right there. - [29](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/244-building-and-making-things/29/) — Things you build may not hold your weight, so an adult checks them before anyone climbs or stands on them. - ← previous: [Puzzles, money and video games](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/243-puzzles-and-video-games/) - next →: [Crafts: scissors, glue, paint and needles](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/245-crafts-scissors-glue-and-paint/) - ↑ back to [Everyday](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/)