Building Play Skills in the Block Area - Some Tools We Use

Here's the Block Center in our PreK classroom.   

Organized.  Inviting.  Maybe it's a lot like yours.  Just imagine the possibilities!

 Imagine this...

or this....

or .... this!?

Sometimes "chaos" best describes our experience with blocks and preschoolers.  But blocks offer so many amazing opportunities to develop social language, concept knowledge, vocabulary, problem solving, story telling, and pretend play.   So before you go looking for some sturdy boxes to pack them away, check out some of the tried and true tools we rely on in our PreK class to tame the block area.  

Guided Discovery

Just knowing the expectations is enough for some of our students.  Our classroom teacher devotes time at the beginning of the school year to lead the students through a guided discovery of each classroom center.   In the block area she talks about taking out blocks as you build, instead of clearing shelves.  She talks about the kind of language we use to invite friends to build with us, and what we might say if we want to build alone.  She talks about knocking down towers, and how to share the space.   For some of our preschoolers, this conversation is enough.

Other preschoolers need practice to meet these expectations...practice with the language, the impulse control, or the constructive and symbolic play skills.   These develop over time.  Once the foundation is in place from guided discovery, teachers and peers remind and support the children who need more time.

And we have more tools to help...

Topic Boards

Some of our students benefit from simple ideas and reminders to build on.  We've found that visuals help immensely with this! This is one of our topic boards for the block area.  (It's basically a low tech AAC board).  We have several students using these visuals to support comprehension and initiation.

I love these boards.  I have seen the lights come on for many children simply by pulling out and using topic boards.  They require teacher guidance at first,  and then children begin to use them independently.

A typical teaching prompt in the block area might sound like this:

"Hmmm...Let's build a bridge" (point).

Use three blocks to make a bridge....run a car over it....hand the car to the student.

"Try out the bridge!"

"Should we add a road or a tunnel?"  (point)...

The back of the board prompts some social language too --"Your tower was knocked down.  You can tell Joe, 'I don't like that!" (point).   

Books

There are lots of good books that address block play.  These are two of our favorites.  

These books have been spring boards to spur our preschoolers on to new levels of complexity and imagination in the block area.  They have been shared in large groups, small groups and one on one.  Children pull them down and flip through them on their own and ask teachers to read them.  Just as adults go back to a reference book again and again to extend our understanding,  our preschoolers have used these books to build their understanding of block play, layer by layer.

Building Skills

During those early weeks, and even months of school, the extra time and attention spent helping students discover their constructive, social, and symbolic play skills in the block area is well spent.  When preschoolers can navigate the block area, they will build a wealth of foundational knowledge that will support them throughout the grades and into their futures.   Whether they are engineering bridges, building houses, or constructing theoretical frameworks...they will be drawing on skills they learned in the block center.

 What challenges and successes have you faced with block play?  Got any more tools or ideas for our classroom?  Please share in the comments.  We are always looking to BUILD our knowledge.