BlocksBlocksPurpose: Although we tend to take blocks for granted, they make a very important contribution to children's development in many ways: For example, playing with blocks helps develop perception, motor skills, and mathematical ability (see notes below). When children work together, they develop not only important social skills but purposeful language. And playing with blocks is fun! The purpose of this activity is to provide opportunities for children to develop those language skills, as well as others, described below. Of course, the block area should be safe, and roomy enough for groups of children to play and interact.
Directions:
Notes: Creating a block area for children encourages creative play and the development of many concepts. Blocks are a great way to reinforce math skills. Children begin to understand one to one correspondence by pointing to each block as they count. Through blocks children also have a direct experience with the concept of height (taller, shorter). Blocks offer a natural way to teach children many of the key prepositions (words that represent relationships between objects) they need to know before kindergarten, such as above, below, on top of, under, and next to. Children must learn the basic prepositional concepts such as inside/outside, on/under before they can master more advanced concepts, like ordering objects from little to many or from short to long. Eventually this leads to the understanding of numbers, and then onward to arithmetic.
Acknowledgement:
Wisconsin's Early Childhood Excellence Initiative
http://www.uwex.edu/ces/flp/ece/promprac/curricul/t4cubb.html
Activities Home | Language Strand | Skills | Theme | Type | All |