Block building has become a central part of the toddler’s daily interest here. Every day a couple of the children have shown a growing appreciation for building, sorting and manipulating the different types of building materials we have.
While inside, the toddlers have been exploring the geometric, magnetic shapes. They are pointed out and asked for by at least a couple of the children every morning. As they build with the shapes they ask about the colours they are seeing and the different shapes each of them are. They count, sort and express their own ideas and skills as they create.
Theo patiently creates trains and fire trucks from his blocks, which is a love of his right now. He shows his interests through his creations with the blocks this way.
Annie has been working hard to make towers and everyday tries new ways to make her towers taller and stronger. At first, she would build with one type of block and the towers would fall over quickly. Now she has combined larger geo shapes at the bottoms of her towers to add suability. This has been working well, and she showed us her learning by excitedly shouting, “yeah!” As she proudly looked at her large tower that had not fallen.
Jackson and Ford worked on building different shapes with the blocks at the table in a flat position. They like to mix and match the geo shapes to see what new shapes they can come up with. The toddlers show their love for working together with other peers to help create things with these building materials. We saw this inside with the geo shapes but also outside.
The natural playground and its many features have begun to emerge as the cold weather has started to turn. The toddlers have really taken interest in the wooden sphere stacking blocks that were placed in the shed for natural loose parts outside. The blocks are wooden but still very durable and light weight. This make it’s easy for the toddlers to lift, carry, maneuver and manipulate them.
Penny, Rose, Ezra, António and Jackson all created a large tower from these blocks using their gross motor skills and hand eye coordination. Not only did they work together but they showed persistence and patience with each other to make the tower. It took a few turns of stacking and rearranging the blocks to make sure it didn’t fall and roll away before they got it. While they use these building blocks they also get lots of gross motor work done. This helps get out lots of energy from their bodies and a good source of exercise.
Building with blocks has many benefits, not only for the child’s gross motor cortex but also enables a child to use their creative abilities and practice trial and error skills. The toddlers have definitely benefited greatly in all these areas while playing with blocks this month.
