Features
Block play: Classroom essentials
continued

Managing the block area
A chaotic free-for-all in the block area is not only dangerous but also less likely to lead to constructive play and learning experiences. Keep children safe and maintain classroom order by managing and maintaining the block area. Keep materials in good order, make them accessible to children, and enforce rules consistently.

Organizing space
As you set up block and construction play areas for preschool and school-age builders, use these guidelines:
Use low, open shelves to store blocks, especially unit blocks. Cut out and laminate a colored template of each unit block shape and affix it to the shelf to assist children in locating and replacing blocks. If a child with a visual impairment is in the group, make the template out of sandpaper so that the texture helps guide the child. Place large heavy blocks on the lower shelves to help stabilize the storage unit.
Leave space on the shelf for accessories and additional props. Note: Storage bins or deep boxes do not encourage constructive play. Having to dig through the jumble of blocks is often so daunting that children move to a different activity.
Position the block center in an area of the room that gets little traffic. Locating it near the writing and dramatic play centers will encourage cross play, material use, and deeper investigations. An 8-foot-by-10-foot space is suitable for four to six children to work.
Use a low-napped rug to muffle noise, define the boundary, and provide a comfortable surface for floor play.
Store smaller construction blocks and bricks in clear plastic containers. Label the containers and store them on low shelves to make them accessible to children.

Number of blocks
Determining a block-to-child ratio will depend on the children’s ages and their experience with building. Experienced teachers suggest limiting unit block construction to four to six children at a time. A good rule of thumb is 200 unit blocks for a group of 3-year-olds, 300 for 4-year-olds, and 400 to 600 for kindergarteners and school-age children.
School suppliers sell construction materials in sets. Sometimes the packaging gives guidance on amounts to buy. Buy enough to encourage cooperative play and avoid squabbles about ownership.
Usually it’s best to buy large quantities of the best, most open-ended materials like Lego® bricks, wooden train sets, and Unifix® cubes. Experience has shown that buying a variety of small sets of materials won’t sustain children’s interest or hold up under hard classroom use.

Accessories
Props and accessories can turn an ordinary block area into a factory of imaginative, skillful construction. Props change the nature of block play from precision mathematical and muscle building routines into imaginative play with families, animals, occupations, and roles. Prop suggestions include the following:
writing tools including paper, pencils, tape, markers, index cards, blank books, and clipboards;
rubber, plastic, and wooden human and animal figures;
traffic signs;
cardboard cylinders and sheets (for chimneys, roofs, roads, and smokestacks);
boxes and baskets;
ceramic and vinyl floor samples;
carpet squares;
wheeled transportation vehicles like trucks, trains, and cars;
fabric swatches; and
large pictures of buildings, bridges, cities, farms, and factories.

Guiding block play
Children often need a facilitator in their play experiences. The facilitator is a model, an adult who can make play safe, calm frustrations, smooth hurdles, monitor negotiations, encourage problem solving, ask questions, and introduce new ways of learning. Some tips for facilitating block play:
Focus on the process, not the product. Avoid asking “What is it?” and instead ask open-ended questions that start “Why do you think…?” or “How does…?”
Listen to children’s conversations and acknowledge and support their ideas.
Help turn mistakes into constructive learning. If the tower falls down, help children analyze why the construction didn’t work out.
Encourage both quiet, introspective block play and more vigorous play that might happen outside.
If children seem uninterested in block play, go to the center yourself. Choose a couple of blocks and start stacking. Soon children will join you. Ask questions that spark curiosity and interest. As the children become increasingly engaged, distance yourself slowly, communicating your trust in their ability to proceed without you.
Add interest-grabbing props and accessories like traffic signs, architectural renderings, and pictures of cityscapes.
Provide duplicates of popular props.
Give children adequate time for planning and building (as much as 45 minutes for experienced builders).
Give advance warning of clean-up time so children can plan how to end their play. Allow adequate time for children to put blocks away.

Clean-up time
Help make clean-up time as fun and instructive as the rest of block play. Some tips:
Decide in advance whether everyone will pick up blocks or just the children playing with them.
Develop a system that encourages children to leave a project standing for more than one day.
Teach fun and cooperative techniques for making cleanup quick: forming an assembly line, gathering blocks in a basket or wheeled toy for moving to the shelf area, and calling out shapes. Make a game of cleanup by making shape or number cards that children can draw out of a stack. The drawn card dictates how many or what kind of block to gather and store.

More materials for construction
Beyond unit blocks, many commercial materials, recycled or repurposed objects, and discarded construction items enhance block play. Ask for donations of materials, scour garage sales and resale shops, and shop carefully to stock your supplies.
The following list is intended to spark ideas.
Building materials
lumber scraps
bricks
metal and PVC pipes and fittings
Plexiglas® and Masonite® scraps
logs and tree stumps
ropes and pulleys
wheels
clear plastic tubing
tape measures and rulers
spirit level

Household materials
packing boxes
carpet and tile scraps
small boxes
cardboard, metal, and plastic tubes
polystyrene sheets used in packing appliances
buckets, crates, baskets, and cartons
empty sewing spools
sea shells and stones
flower pots
maps
digital camera

Purchased materials
unit blocks, as many shapes and sizes as possible
small wooden cubes
Lego® bricks and accessories
Dr. Drew’s Discovery Blocks®
balance scales
Unifix® cubes
straws and connectors
Tinkertoys®
interlocking bricks and building baseboards
interlocking train tracks
large dominoes
Matchbox® cars and trucks
snap-together cars, trucks, and trains
large wooden and plastic dump trucks, farm vehicles, boats, and trains
rubber, vinyl, and wooden human and animal forms
doll house and furniture
steering wheel
familiar traffic signs

References
Chalufour, Ingrid and Karen Worth. 2004. Building Structures with Young Children. St. Paul, Minn.: Redleaf Press.
Johnson, Harriet. 1933/1996. “The art of blockbuilding.” In E. Hirsch (ed.), The Block Book. Washington D.C.: National Association for the Education of Young Children.
MacDonald, Sharon. 2001. Block Play: The Complete Guide to Learning and Playing with Blocks. Beltsville, Md.: Gryphon House.
Wardle, Francis. 2002. Introduction to Early Childhood Education: A Multidimensional Approach to Child-Centered Care and Learning. Boston: Allyn and Bacon.
Wellhousen, Karyn and Judith Kieff. 2001. A Constructivist Approach to Block Play in Early Childhood. Albany, N.Y.: Delmar Thompson Learning.