Can you think of other materials that might provide the kind of open-ended play described above?

Teachers may be reluctant to encourage block play when they observe it devolving into seemingly random or destructive activity. However, children will benefit from more, rather than less, building time to fully engage with the process. In classrooms where time and supply must be limited, teachers can create ways in which structures in progress can be preserved from one play period to the next, and they or the children can document or photograph the children’s work.

Early childhood curricula may diverge significantly in the logic and labels applied to center locations, how boundaries are established, the level of emphasis devoted to specific areas, or materials and strategies used to support children’s interactions. For example, Montessori classrooms include an area called “practical life,” in which children use everyday things like pitchers, spoons, brooms and dusters that would be consistent with the concept of a housekeeping center in other models. But the intended outcomes of these two seemingly comparable activity centers and the means by which they are achieved are very different. Regardless of interpretation, all early childhood curricula devote considerable effort to articulating the way in which play serves as an organizing element for the curriculum.

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