By Mary Munday, Head Teacher
A 4-year-old child had been playing with a group of her East PM peers when she decided to venture off on her own to the unit block area in the classroom. She was carrying her two favorite stuffed animals, which she picked up every day upon arrival—a dog and a cat. The block area was quiet, and at this time she was the only builder. She carefully stacked shorter unit blocks on their sides and then balanced a longer block horizontally on the top, upon which she placed her cat and dog as if they were on a teeter-totter. After this, she used colored cube blocks to create patterns. “Look, teacher, I made a rainbow!” She continued adding to her structure, thoughtfully placing each piece. She paused, looked over at the teacher and said, “You know, teacher, I have lots of time to build this.”
At Bing Nursery School, children have two hours of uninterrupted time to play in the half-day session. Our founding director, Edith Dowley, believed in a program where children were treated as honored guests and given the “gift of time.” She believed in giving children back what hectic, busy, modern living had taken away. This founding principle continues to be a very important part of our program. Children can work on an activity of interest for this extended period of time without feeling rushed to move onto something else. Knowing she had time to build her structure, the child built it slowly and thoughtfully. She added more blocks, windows and signs, smiling as she did so. Another child became interested and asked if he could help. She said, “Sure!” Airplanes, cars and a bridge were added as she paused to watch. She returned and placed one last block and said, “I’m done, teacher.” She looked at her structure, stood up and ran off to find her friends.
The child inspired others to begin block building that day. Another child, age 4, who was watching, started a project nearby. She began placing unit blocks vertically, and then worked hard to figure out how to get a large flat board to stand upright. A teacher helped hold the board while the child collected and carried over more blocks to stabilize the board. She continued to place blocks on either side to help hold it up. When it fell, she tried again and again until finally the board stayed up on its own. “It worked! Let’s pretend this is a house. I made a TV. Pretend I’m a kid and I’m going to watch. I’m watching cartoons. This is the remote.” She scooted back and held onto a unit block, pushing on it as if it were a remote and smiling while watching her show.
Each day, a teacher sets a few blocks out to invite the children to begin building. One day, a teacher placed a large, flat board with blocks underneath one end to create a ramp. A 3-year-old walked by and looked at the ramp. He ran over to where the wooden cars were on the block shelf, picked one up, and ran to race it over the ramp. He rolled the car a few times in a fast motion over the board and then paused and looked around at the block shelves.
He began choosing blocks and placing them on the carpeted floor, starting next to the ramp and continuing around to build an oval racetrack. He moved quickly and enthusiastically as he added more and more blocks. He tested out the structure with his car while describing his work to a teacher nearby: “This is a racetrack. You go over here and over this block! You grab these [flat boards for ramp]. Yeah! Almost there!” He placed the ramp pieces next to each other. “So, the racetrack has a speed car and it goes vroom vroom and then it does a big jump ZOOM!” He drove the car around and around the racetrack. “Jump! Vroom!” A peer was watching nearby and became very interested. He picked up a car and tried out the racetrack, and the builder stepped back and watched. Soon the two drove around the track, racing their cars together.
Stories also inspire building. We have many books at Bing about building, construction and architecture. A 4-year-old was interested in the book How a House Is Built by Gail Gibbons. He read it at the end of the day with his mom and asked many questions as she carefully described each step in building a house. The following day he went to the block area and began laying long blocks on the carpet horizontally. “I’m building a house. I put the cement on the ground. The cement is under the bricks. It’s graham cracker cement (he says with a laugh).” He then placed another layer of blocks on top. “This is the cement. If you jump here, be careful because this is concrete.” He placed a flat board on top. “This is the floor of the house.”
Next, he began stacking long blocks on top of each other very carefully. They began to slip, and he tried again. A teacher nearby observed that the blocks kept falling, so she offered to hold the blocks as he placed a new block on top. “Now I’m doing the walls,” he said, as he completed one side and then did the other. As he was about to place one more block, he looked at the other side and stopped. The blocks were evenly stacked. “Now I need to do the roof.” He held two large flat boards next to each other at an angle making a triangle shape on the carpet. “How do I make it stay? How do I make my roof stay?” A child was watching nearby. “With one of these giant boards. You need to do it like this.” She placed the board flat onto his house. He went on to describe his house: “I put no windows or doors because a long time ago houses did not have windows or doors. This house is built out of wood and bricks and cement. The floor of the house is cement and the roof of the house is cement. This is a door [large flat board on side] and that’s another door [board on other side]. The doors are made of cement. It made me think of ideas in this book (he pointed to How a House Is Built) when I built my house. I need a flashlight because it is so dark inside my house.”
A few children stay for late care, which is one 5-year-old’s favorite time to build. It is a quiet time with only a few children, and she can focus and work without interruption. She has built many complex structures involving careful vertical placement of long blocks. If a block fell, she picked it right back up and carefully placed it again. The use of this open-ended material to build anything a child can dream of brings out so many creative ideas. She built castles, beds for her babies, houses, and desks, and she often tested to see if she could fit inside her structures. She experimented with many mathematical concepts such as balance and symmetry, used her problem-solving abilities by rebuilding if it came crashing down, and she expressed her creativity as new ideas emerged each day.
Children work independently or with peers in the block area. Many times an idea inspires a child to begin building, and others observe and later join in the play. A group of 3- and 4-year-olds worked cooperatively each day building with the large hollow blocks. A few who have worked on many block-building structures initiate the play while others observe at first. This group began as a small group and then later moved outdoors to the hollow blocks to create life-size structures—beds, desks, tables—with many rooms inside of their homes set with dishes, food, keyboards, phones, blankets and pillows: a place to work and play!
Children learn many concepts through block play as they work on their gross motor skills and problem-solving abilities, and express their creativity. Many mathematical concepts are learned through block play, including length, measurement, patterns, symmetry and balance. Science concepts such as weight, height and gravity are tested. Literacy is shown with signs, stories about their structures, and inspiration from books. And block play helps children socially and emotionally as they take turns, negotiate, cooperate with others, become self-reliant and build self-esteem. Block play supports all areas of a child’s development and, thanks to the “gift of time” at Bing, children have “lots of time to build ….”