E29: "Block Party!" Why Block Play is Important

The Speckled Bees: A Celebration of Childhood

Today, we are continuing our exploration of early childhood curriculum areas with block play! Research has consistently shown that block play supports the development of mathematical thinking, social skills, abstract thinking, creativity, and most recently literacy (Hanline, Milton, Phelps 2009). We go over a brief history of the unit block then we get in to the benefits. Of course, we have to do a developmental continuum break-down! We also talk about the adults role and how important it is for both the adult and the child. Block play has been shown to actually increase parent knowledge of early development in the areas of math and science education, while at the same time providing opportunities for young children to increase their math, science, social and literacy skills.
References and Resources
“Evaluate Your Block Center Around 21st Century Skills: A Checklist for Teachers" https://www.naeyc.org/resources/pubs/yc/mar2015/using-blocks
https://www.naeyc.org/resources/blog/what-research-tells-us-about-block-play-and-stem-learning
https://docs.msl.mt.gov/librariesweb/documents/Ready2Read/PlaySpace/pg_rrps_stagesinblockplay.pdf
https://www.scld.org/7-stages-of-block-play-building-and-early-learning/
https://www.naeyc.org/resources/topics/blocks
https://www.naeyc.org/resources/pubs/yc/mar2020/rocking-and-rolling-building-new-skills-block-construction-toddler
https://www.naeyc.org/resources/pubs/yc/mar2015/using-blocks
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