Playing with blocks may seem simple, but it's one of the most beneficial activities for young children. It supports healthy development across many areas all while encouraging creativity and fun!
Through the use of open ended building materials, my pre k students will improve skills in areas such as fine motor, social emotional, early math and language development.
Students will be given the opportunity to engage in small group, cooperative learning with a variety of open-ended building materials such as wood and crystal fantasy blocks, colorful window blocks and arch blocks. While students engage with these hands-on materials to create and design new structures, I am able to facilitate language development through questioning and back and forth conversation. Students will be encouraged to engage in higher order thinking as they create a design plan, test their plan through building, and verbally share their design results with their peers. As students work together to complete theses steps, I am able to facilitate social emotional development through sharing, turn-taking, and active listening.
Research has proven that playing with blocks improves focus and attention all while fostering positive social and emotional development. Overall, block play is a powerful example of learning through play. It helps children develop cognitive, physical, social, emotional and language skills simultaneously, making it one of the most valuable toys for early childhood development.
Funding will be used to purchase all materials through Lakeshore Learning Materials.com
Tax and shipping costs have been included in Grand Request total.
