Have you ever wondered how to make the block play area more appealing and interesting for children?
Typically, the block area is set up in a spacious area that can be bordered on three sides by sturdy cabinets or dividers and blocks can be stored in baskets, containers or those cabinets.
The block centre is active and is usually located next to other noisy areas, away from the quieter play and learning spaces, like the reading or meditation corner.
One of the easiest ways to make the block centre more interesting is to use different types of blocks, such as large wooden blocks, smaller table blocks, connecting blocks, wooden cookies and other loose parts.
Basic blocks are essential for any preschool classroom, while supplementary building materials add flavour to the main blocks, like unit blocks, hollow blocks and table blocks.
While there are many types of blocks, including:
- Unit Blocks
- Architectural unit blocks – hardwood columns, domes and spires that are used with the unit blocks
- alphabet blocks
- Marble runs
- Pipe construction sets
- Tree blocks and tree cookies
- bristle blocks
- Lego, Duplo and other connecting blocks
- Lincoln Logs
- plastic stackable blocks
- shaped sorting blocks with container
- waffle blocks
- wooden building blocks
- K’NEX
- Flexiblocks
- Coloured see-through blocks
- and many more
So… the easy way to add interest to the block area and materials children have been using and are a little bored with them, is to add pictures of famous landmarks, such as the tower bridge, sphinx, San Fransisco Bridge and other local landmarks. I have created them using Canva; you can see it is pretty easy to find online and add the title in any language.
