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In the ten years I taught preschool, the block corner was always a popular place in my classroom. All of my big kids loved block corner, and now my smallest also adores the fabulous block corner at the preschool he goes to. When I ask Noah what he has done at kinder (preschool) he always answers "bwocks and puzzles."

We don't have the space for a dedicated block corner at home, nor can we afford the fabulous big sets of unit blocks, hollow blocks and all the fabulous accessories they have at kinder, but that doesn't mean we can't enjoy block play at home.

The Best Toys for Block Play at Home

Over the years we have bought some lovely commercially made blocks and construction toys, but we have also made or collected many other great items to include in block play. One of the priorities with the toys we select is that they have to be open-ended (they can be used in a variety of ways), good value for money (or better yet, free) and we have to be able to store them. All the items we use for block play fit these three ideals.

I made some simple castle blocks a long time ago out of scraps of wood from a building site. Over the years we have added more scrap wooden blocks, including some we made into chalk board blocks. It's easy to find soft pine off cuts at many house building sites and all you need is a little sand paper to round the edges and they make perfect blocks.

We gave our children a set of these small Grimm's Rainbow and Water Stackers many many years ago and they have been played with in so many ways ever since.

There are so many natural materials that you can collect to add to your block play - pine cones, stones, acorns, gum nuts, seed pods, sticks, and much more. Keep your eye out when you are out and about and start a collection of interesting natural materials.

If you are handy with a saw, then it is easy to make some homemade tree blocks. Just saw slices through branches and then sand smooth.

You'll need a bigger saw and some bigger pieces of wood to make these tree slices and slabs but if you know someone who has an open fire you could surely steal a log or two of fire wood to slice up.

This is the cheapest and easiest way to add all kinds of construction materials to your block play. There are so many recycled items that are fabulous for block play, we've only collected a few. Here's some ideas - tin cans (make sure you use a tin opener that leaves a smooth safe edge on your cans), cardboard tubes, pieces of cardboard, small boxes, meat trays, plastic containers, old CDs.

We may not have the space or the budget for a big set of unit blocks but many of the same mathematical concepts of size and shape, can be experienced with a small set of wooden blocks that don't cost the earth. We asked family for this set of blocks for our twins' first birthday ten years ago, and they are still loved all these years later.

We are very lucky to have a grandfather who makes these lovely turned wooden blocks for us. We also have lots of off-cuts and left overs from his wood turning that are fabulous to build with. If you know a wood turner or there is a local workshop near you, ask them if they can collect the scraps and mistakes for you.

You can add almost any loose parts to block play to make it really take off. All the little accessories and extras really spark a child's imagination and often add extra opportunities for learning. We only added a handful of things that we had on hand - our free printable hexi cards, some glass gems, fabric scraps, plastic bottle caps and lids, and pompoms. Here is some more inspiration and ideas for loose parts from Learn With Play At Home.

Because we love imaginative play, my kids often add animals or people to their play. At the moment we have an odd collection of animals and and even more odd collection of people including a prince, a wizard, some fairies and some animal warriors! You could also add cars and road signs, or even use some of our free printable space accessories.

Tips for Block Play At Home

We use two Ikea Trofast units in our family room, and the kids can easily drag the tubs to where they want to play. It is also easy to change the contents of tubs, so when we are ready to have a break from block play we can pack the blocks into storage and add something new.

Our kids roll back the rug and build on our wood floors, or on our big dining room table. If you have carpet you might like to buy some big wooden boards for your kids to build on, or a train table also works well.

Adding some pencils or markers and paper opens up a whole world of literacy learning. Kids love to add signs for their block constructions, and even a child who is not writing yet can dictate a sign to you and see the power of words in action.

What They Are Learning.

Block play is lots of fun, but is it really so important? Is it worth going to such an effort to collect blocks and accessories?

I think it is and here are just some of the things kids learn when they play with blocks:

Maths skills such as - number, shape, size, weight, volume, grouping, sorting, patterns, and measurements.

Physical skills such as - eye-hand coordination, spatial awareness, large and small muscle movements, and visual perceptions.

Science skills such as - experimentation, planning, cause and effect, balance, gravity, and symmetry.

Literacy skills such as - expressive language, vocabulary, pre-writing skills, and seeing words in action.

Creativity such as - representing ideas, using imagination, story telling, taking on roles.

Social and emotional learning such as - problem solving, co-operating with others, negotiating, feeling successful, working through failure

And an added bonus - my almost four year old built blocks for more than an hour today. That was an hour that he didn't ask what he could do, or for food, the only thing he needed from me was a few signs written up, so that was an hour I had pretty much to myself!

And don't forget, block play is not only for toddlers and preschoolers - my school kids all still love creating elaborate block constructions and they are still learning and practicing all those skills listed above.
So after all that... have I convinced you that block play is not just for preschool? Have a go at some block play at your place and see where it takes you!

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In the ten years I taught preschool, the block corner was always a popular place in my classroom. All of my big kids loved block corner, and now my smallest also adores the fabulous block corner at the preschool he goes to.

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Recently, I made my 4 and 6 year olds their own Inventor's Boxes. I didn't want my 2 year old to feel left out, but I also didn't want to give him a bunch of tools and electronic components. I came up with this Inventor's Box for Little Kids as a compromise. It's really more of a craft box, but so far he's had a lot of fun playing alongside the big kids. I just need to be sure to supervise my little one when he uses it (you know, to make sure he doesn't try to eat any of the pieces or stick glue all over the furniture).

I made my 4 year old her own big kid inventor's box, but really, I think she had just as much fun playing with this little kid version I made for her younger brother. She's always encouraging him to play with his kit when she plays with hers, I think so she can talk him into lending her some of the more fun items, like fake jewels and glitter stars.

Recommended Age Range: Preschool, Kindergarten
Time Required: ~30 minutes
Difficulty: Easy
Cost: As with the Inventor's Box, the box itself is the biggest investment. I added items we already had lying around the house to a $10 box, but you could probably make one from scratch for around $25 (with a lot of supplies left over).

Materials, Supplies, and Tools:
(These are just some suggestions. Honestly, I don't think my 2 year old cared much what I put in the box.)

A box to keep everything in. (I used a child's tackle box which was much smaller than I was expecting, but ended up being a good size for my toddler.)

Craft sticks

Kid scissors

Pieces of flower foam and Styrofoam

Lids of various sizes

Metal frozen orange juice discs

Clothespins

Rubberbands

Straws

Stickers

Clips

Pipecleaners

Craft jewels

Glue stick

Instructions:

1. Place everything in the box.

2. If you want, you can use the Inventor's Box label I made for my kids' boxes. Cut it out and tape it to the lid.

HAVE FUN!

Click here for more Homemade Fun activities for kids.

Related Links

Best Gifts for Kids
Pre-K Learning Ideas
Robotics Activities for Kids

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Recently, I made my 4 and 6 year olds their own Inventor's Boxes. I didn't want my 2 year old to feel left out, but I also didn't want to give him a bunch of tools and electronic components. I came up with this Inventor's Box for Little Kids as a compromise.

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I am not big on gender stereotypes and I try to provide the girls with a lot of different materials that are not gender specific, as well as some that would generally be considered 'girl' and 'boy' toys. And yet, they still end up mostly playing with the more 'girly' toys. When they were younger, the blocks on the shelf at first remained untouched, much to my dismay. There are so many benefits to block play, so I wanted to encourage it as much as I could! Block play promotes practice of many different skills such as:

Hand eye-coordination

Spatial reasoning

Creativity

Language development

Divergent thinking

Mathematical concepts

Cooperative play

Science concepts

Sequencing

Storytelling

So you can see why I really wanted to encourage them to use the blocks more. And yet, the only time I would really see the blocks used was when we had little boys over to play. They would head straight for the blocks!

I am happy to report though, that after making a few changes, block play is a daily occurrence here. They spend a lot of time making very elaborate creations daily! And so I thought I'd share my tips for anyone who had the same problem as me, to encourage the little girls in your life to play with blocks.

Create a dedicated block space

If I wanted the blocks to be a bigger part of their play, I decided I needed a more permanent area for building. I set up an inviting area near where they usually played, and they were immediately drawn to it.

The main thing I wanted was a flat surface to build on that was big enough for the two of them to use at once. My husband cut up a bit of wood he already had and sanded it a little and that's all there was to it. I like the natural wood surface, it makes such an inviting canvas. I placed it up against the wall but the space felt very closed in so I picked up the long mirror from The Reject Shop for only $10 and it made such a big difference. It feels so much more open now and also adds another dimension to their creations.

Present blocks differently

I originally had the blocks on the shelf in the play room in containers, and they were largely ignored. I have since moved them to open bowls and baskets and they are now much more accessible.

Have different types of good quality blocks

We started with your regular wooden blocks of a few different shapes, but our collection has now grown and we are still adding to it. The girls very rarely use just one type of block while building, preferring to combine them all.

In the photo above we have natural construction blocks, rainbow blocks, imaginarium blocks, Grimm's rainbow stacker (large), and some jenga blocks.

Set out the blocks at night

The block baskets usually live on the shelves and the girls bring them down next to the block area to use. However, sometimes I will set out some blocks at night with some other materials for them to find in the morning. It's usually the first thing they go to.

Add loose parts

Combining loose parts and other materials with the blocks has been one of the most effective things in encouraging more block play. They are not interested in only building with plain blocks. These girls need to decorate! The things they love to add to the block area most are:

glass stones

minerals

mirrors

spielgaben

story stones

natural materials (seed pods, flowers, leaves, sticks)

shells

wooden shapes

Most of our loose parts are picked up very cheaply from discount stores.

Little treasures like this are to be found all around our house. Each piece very carefully placed.

When loose parts are added, the block space comes alive with creativity.

Little pieces of fabric scraps and lace become water, the night sky, mud, a flower patch, rainbows, and much more with a little imagination.

Fabric is used in block creations in one way or another, every day.

Add figurines

Adding figurines to the block area has also been really effective in encouraging more block play, along with imaginative play and story telling. They can spend a long long time building little worlds together. I personally prefer to find wooden figurines when I can, and love these little wooden people we have painted. They don't have faces or anything, leaving everything entirely up to the imagination. We also have some wooden animal figurines.

I had been on the lookout for some wooden tree and house figurines to add to our collection, and we were recently lucky enough to be gifted these beautiful little blocks from Krystal at Sweet Elephants. They are magnetized and come with two magnetic boards. As expected, the girls loved them and got to work creating little towns immediately.

Aren't they beautiful? I love how simple and natural they are, leaving space for imagination to grow.

Combine blocks with art

My girls love anything to do with art. So one surefire way to get them interested in blocks is by combining them with art materials.

Simply setting out some blocks, loose parts, and oil pastels led them to tracing the different shapes and then building on the cardboard and adding drawings to complete the picture.

We also recently created some beautiful shadow art outside with the rainbow blocks.

The Machi blocks also come with chalk so that you can draw on the magnetic boards. My girls like drawing roads for the cars.

As you can see we have a lot of creativity with blocks happening in our home!

Do your daughters or the girls in your classroom play with blocks? How do you encourage block play?

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Encouraging Block Play {With Girls} | Happiness is here

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I am not big on gender stereotypes and I try to provide the girls with a lot of different materials that are not gender specific, as well as some that would generally be considered 'girl' and 'boy' toys. And yet, they still end up mostly playing with the more 'girly' toys.

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The idea of a Tinker Tray is not new. Some people call them Tinker Tray, some Invention Boxes, some just Loose Parts. The name is not important, the concept however is. Children need opportunities to exercise creative thought, imagination and problem solving. Tinkering, especially with Loose Parts, is a great way to develop this kind of flexible thinking. Enter: Tinker Trays. They are just one way to develop these skills, but an easy addition to your art or play space.

Ours is still a work in progress, Meri Cherry recently shared an awesome one! and you can find tons of inspiration if you search "Tinker Tray" on Pinterest. It can be daunting, however to know where to begin. Our son is working on answer the major question "How Does it Work?" in most of his play these days. He is constantly questioning, exploring, and planning various ways to approach this question. A tinker tray is perfect for him so I stopped stalling and jumped in. Here's how you can get started as well:

Step One: Gather Supplies
The supplies will vary greatly. To begin with find a tray or box of some sort that will work to separate a variety of materials. Thrift Stores are a great resource for this kind of thing. Honestly, the right tray is what kept delaying me from putting mine together. I am still dreaming of a beautiful wooden tray with tons of varied spaces for materials. I haven't found it yet. A simple kitchen utensil tray from Target is doing the job just fine.

Once you have your tray, gather materials. It is best not to over think this. Anything small, interesting, varied could work. I started with things I found in our art basket of collage supplies, plastic gears and some Unifex cubes. I also added Washi Tape and Glue bottles.

The great thing about the Tinker Tray is that it will be constantly evolving. You can add and subtract things whenever you want or need to. Our twins have started doing this as well. We unwrapped a gift the other day that used twisty ties and my daughter immediately collected them for the Tinker Tray.

Step Two: Prepare
To me this is the fun part. Separate the materials in the Tinker Tray. I divided them mostly by item, but a few things (different kinds of rings and cardboard pieces) got grouped together. I also cleared a space on one of our art shelves to store it in a way that would be accessible to our kids.

Step Three: Introduce the Tinker Tray
It is usually best to introduce your child(ren) to a new material or process. This is a great time to discuss any rules or procedures. Our kids can do what they want with the materials, but whatever they don't use should get put back in the Tinker Tray when they are done and they can save their work on a specific counter until they are ready to work on it more.

The Tinker Tray has since launched an interesting project about Skyscrapers and Landmarks that I am excited to share when we are a little further along. The materials have changed quite a bit, but this was a good starting point. It introduced the idea, it got them started and interested, and gave me an opportunity to observe them and figure out where to go next. All I needed to do was begin.
What will you put in your TinkerTray?
I'd love to see other examples. Please share a link in the comments or on our Facebook page!

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The idea of a Tinker Tray is not new. Some people call them Tinker Tray, some Invention Boxes, some just Loose Parts. The name is not important, the concept however is. Children need opportunities to exercise creative thought, imagination and problem solving. Tinkering, especially with Loose Parts, is a great way to develop this kind of flexible thinking.

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My boys are really into building right now. Any chance they get, they are building something! I love it and definitely encourage this activity. I was cleaning out my catch-all drawer, and I came across a bunch of baby food pouch lids that I've saved and I decided they would be a great material for my boys to build with. After doing some digging around the house, I came up with a tinker tray for them to create with.

So what is a tinker tray anyway? A tinker tray is a tray full of materials that kids can create with. You can use them to make art, build, or just play with. There are all sorts of tinker trays (which you can see at the bottom of my post) so yours doesn't have to look like mine! But I will say that this tinker tray was a huge hit at our house and my kids loved it!
Here's what we used:

silverware divider (from Walmart)

pipe cleaners

styrofoam balls

rubberbands

small clothespins

golf tees

styrofoam blocks

baby food and applesauce pouch lids

There are no directions with a tinker tray. Just let them explore and create! They found out that the golf tee goes into the back side of the round lids, so they became wheels for cars.

The styrofoam balls were definitely fun to build with. They had to dig a hole with the golf tees and then they could put it into the golf tee.

I was thrilled just watching them busy building and creating for over an hour. (The hardest part was keeping baby brother away from wrecking their work!)

A very satisfied builder. 🙂

And their finished products!

If you're thinking about making a tinker tray, you can check out some of these fabulous ideas out!

Fall Tinker Tray from Left Brain, Craft Brain

Tinker Trays for Preschoolers from Bambini Travels

Make Tinker Trays for Kids from Meri Cherry

Happy Creating!

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My boys are really into building right now. Any chance they get, they are building something! I love it and definitely encourage this activity. I was cleaning out my catch-all drawer, and I came across a bunch of baby food pouch lids that I've saved and I decided they would be a great material for my boys to build with.

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(e.g. all things circle, all things white)

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(e.g. identify shapes in an objects, using objects to make different shapes of different sizes, using rectangle sticks to make a triangle)

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(e.g. place leaf first, place rock second, what's the first object in the line?)

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compare length/height/ mass using appropriate vocabulary

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compare length/height/ mass using appropriate vocabulary

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(e.g. which is taller, make the longest snake using pipe cleaner etc)

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(e.g. by size: big/small, increasing larger etc, length)

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(e.g. all stones together)

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(adding on, taking away, how many altogether etc)

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(e.g. counting total number of bottle caps and sticks and making a simple chart)

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(Leaf is as long as stick. Leaf is as long as 4 paper clips. leaf is also as long as 6 pegs)

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(how many more)

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use positional terms / directions expressively and receptively

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use positional terms / directions expressively and receptively

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(e.g.placing items under the leaf, build a stick house next to the train track)

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(e.g. 1 attribute, e.g. same colour, 2 attributes, same colour and material)

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sort by material (e.g. wood, plastic, rubber)

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sort by material (e.g. wood, plastic, rubber)

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(e.g. all wooden objects, all plastic and red objects)

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(simple AB to complex ABB etc, create own patterns)

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(e.g. sets of 2, 5 etc)

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(let's add on one more peg, take away one less peg etc)

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comparing 'more than', 'less than', 'equal'

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comparing 'more than', 'less than', 'equal'

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(e.g. there are more leaves than stones, which set of objects has the most quantity)