Technology volition is the will to develop knowledge of, and use, the physical world to design products, processes and systems. The aim of this study was to contribute new knowledge of children’s technology volition when they identify, build and improve technical constructions, and how teachers support this learning. Analysis focused on moments when children’s volition was expressed in a construction activity. In total, eleven preschool teachers and 49 children, aged 4–5 years, from three preschools, participated. Data consists of video-recordings from four activities, two each in preschool A and B, showing children’s expressed technological volition, as well as field notes about the teachers’ preparations. Results show how differences among children’s expressed volition is connected to their imagination of how materials can be combined to construct ‘houses’ and ‘vehicles’ from everyday objects. Building a house resulted in a focus on how to make the building solid and water resistant, and inspired children to learn about materials for different purposes in houses such as the floor, walls and an angled roof. Building a vehicle encouraged children to talk about speed, movements and fuel. Results show how children indicate and express their discernment of how materials are combined to create constructions, and how they discover ways in which materials change during the building process. For some of the children it was difficult to see the potential of a material other than its original use, while others used their imagination to find opportunities to use materials to make new objects.

This article contributes knowledge about technology education in pre-school, a research field that is still undeveloped.The aim is to study pre-school children’s ways of discerning a physical phenomenon (equilibrium) during collaborative construction play. Two different activities have been studied: playing on a homemade seesaw made of a log and a plank, and building towers with blocks. In the first activity, 3 children aged 4-5 years from one pre-school participated. In the second, 4 children aged 3-5 years from another pre-school participated. Data consist of video-recordings of the two activities and field notes. The video-recordings are analysed based on variation theory. In both activities, children discerned and explored the phenomena of equilibrium, centre of gravity and balance.Three children tried different ways to spread their mass over the seesaw. They distributed the weight both by crawling to the middle and by standing on the ends of the plank. In the building activity, a group of four children tried to build high block towers and discerned the importance of the weight distribution for stability and for the construction not to collapse. The results showed that the children who had discerned more aspects of the phenomenon of equilibrium were able to use and develop their knowledge during the activities to a greater extent than children with less knowledge. They also shared knowledge with other children by making them notice aspects needed to understand the activity, thereby participating in a more active way. The results can be used by pre-school teachers to design collaborative play activities for learning science in pre-school.