Developmental Stages of Block Building

Block Center

There are many different kinds of building blocks and construction materials; the most familiar to early childhood educators are unit (kindergarten) blocks, created by Caroline Pratt in the early 1900s. These and other types of blocks of different sizes, shapes, and materials are incorporated into the block-building area as children are physically able to handle them. The benefit of having various types of blocks is that they provide children with different options for the types of constructions they want to build.

Figure 7.3 displays and describes different kinds of blocks children use at different developmental stages. Teachers should also provide accessories and planning tools. As childrens experience with blocks increases, they frequently build structures around play themes such as airports, stores, or mapped layouts of other kinds.

Props can include things like:

• Small cars or other vehicles
• Play people and animals
• Flexible tubing or track
• Measuring tools
• Clipboards, paper, and writing tools for drawing or planning
• Miniature traffic signs
• Stickers or labels with familiar print, such as store or product logos

Teachers can provide inspiration and reference information for children by displaying pictures or posters of buildings and creating a file or notebook with photographs of structures children are familiar with, such as those in the immediate neighborhood or city, as well as those they may not know that have interesting architectural features, such as arches, turrets, bridges, skyscrapers, famous buildings, and airports. Documenting structures that children build by keeping photos of them in a three-ring binder or file-card box is also highly effective, both for tracking their progress over time and “preserving” work to make it less difficult for them when blocks must be put away.