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"How Come He's Always in the Blocks?" Block Play in the Classroom
by Judy Ward

Michael,4½, spends all his time at nursery school in the block area. As soon as free play begins, Michael races for the blocks. Never mind what other enticing activities are available in the classroom. Never mind who is or isn't willing to join him. What invisible line reels Michael back to the blocks every day? Why am I, a teacher of 4- and 5-year-olds, always keeping one eye on the blocks, afraid I'll miss something interesting, despite the fact that I'm busy in another area of the classroom? Should Michael's parents or I be concerned that he's not trying other activities?

Blocks, as open-ended play materials, have an established place in the developmental early childhood classroom. Although other types of blocks have great value, I will limit this discussion to two types of blocks--large wooden hollow blocks and unit blocks, which are different-sized multiples and fractions of a unit, plus curves, cylinders and triangles. These two types of blocks have long been recognized for their value in dramatic play. However, other values of block play are perhaps not so obvious and may have been overlooked. What Lucy Sprague Mitchell, founder of Bank Street School of Education, said in 1945 still has relevance today:

"Grown-ups are still prone to organize a curriculum for one "area of learning" and then another, and to work out equipment which they think will develop one patch of a child and then another. But children just refuse to respond in this piecemeal fashion."

She goes on to say that children are small scientists, dramatists, workmen and artists and that blocks provide the ideal medium for the growth of the whole child: physical, social, emotional and cognitive. Because the whole child is involved, blocks can be an entire curriculum in themselves.

Manipulating large blocks, whether we are talking about toddlers or 6-year-olds, is clearly gross motor activity and develops muscle co-ordination and control. Eye-hand co-ordination and visual perception are also enhanced through block play. In thinking of the physical nature of block building, I'm reminded of a group of 4- and 5-year-olds who were building fast and furiously for a period of about five minutes until the entire supply of large hollow block was depleted. Finally, Bobby, who had been completely caught up in the physical activity of building, stepped back and said, "Hey, what are we building anyway?"

Children go through stages of block building and these stages roughly correlate to the stages of socialization which children experience. At first, children may simply carry blocks from place to place or stack them in irregular piles, horizontally or vertically. Soon towers emerge and rows become neat. The same structures occur over and over, as children love repetition. The more sophisticated builder uses bridges and enclosure or symmetrical patterns. Eventually children name their structures and use them for their dramatic play. A child's first attempts at block play will be solitary, but soon she will be building a structure similar to that of another child who plays nearby. We call this parallel play. Play then becomes more associative, with one or two children loosely connected. Finally, when children begin to use their block structures symbolically, they will usually do so while playing cooperatively with others. Because blocks permit a variety of social options--building alone and ignoring others, building alone but working with others, building as members of a group that is part of a larger group, or building as part of a large group with a common purpose--the child may fit into the block area at the appropriate developmental level.

Socially and emotionally, children grow in feelings of cooperation, respect for others, competence and self-esteem. The block area is excellent for fostering autonomy and initiative because here the child starts from scratch. Unlike the housekeeping area where the stove, refrigerator, and doll bed provide a framework, in the block area, the child creates the "set" as well as the "drama."

Cognitively, children experience the basis of the curriculum which they later will study formally. Math, science, social studies and language arts are all found in children's block play. As their dramatic play with blocks becomes more complicated, children often make maps or ask the teacher for signs and labels for their structures. Here the child is moving into the adult world of symbols, but the impetus comes out of the child's own activities, giving them special meaning and significance.

Therefore, perhaps, we should congratulate Michael on his time well spent and instead ask ourselves, "What can we do to encourage Katie to spend more time in the block area?" But that's another article!

Judy Ward, M.A.T., has taught 4- and 5-year-olds at Willow Wood Pre-School in Winnetka for ten years.