ALG Block Building Through the Years

As a play-based pre-school, ALG teachers are always positing, “how can this material be used to extend children’s play?”  Block building has become one of our favorite tools at ALG, because their use is literally endless and any age or skill level can engage in block play.  "Play may be seen as the child's substitute for adult musing, contemplation, hypothesizing, meandering among ideas and experiences.” (Cuffaro, Harriet. Dramaric Play: The Experience of Block Building) Play is more than what children do, it is how they are, how they think and how they make sense of the world and blocks can be a big part of that sense making.

Materials: When I first came to ALG in 2006, everywhere I looked children were busily playing. I once watched two four-year olds spin a play for themselves for almost two hours with a piece of string and some top knotch imagination and social skill.  But, what they weren’t doing is playing with blocks.  ALG only owned only one small set of unit blocks. With a graduate school course in early childhood block building (yes there is such a thing) freshly under my belt, I asked if we could buy some more blocks and by more I meant a ton. Several weeks, an enormous box and some repurposed old, red cubbies later, we set out on our new adventures in block building. We were ready! We had materials and knowledge--I knew demarcating an individual's block building space encourages focus and solves crowding problems, so I gave the children towels to build on which they used (of course) on top of the carpet. Clearly, our practice needed some fine-tuning....we needed to discover that towels on top of carpet isn’t exactly a stable building surface for block building!  But this is part of the beauty of ALG; we teachers try to reflect on our work and constantly look for ways to strengthen our practice. This is a nice way of saying we try and fail all the time and then try something different. (smile)

As we continued to settle in to that first year of more extended block building, I began yearning for another material I had learned about: hollow blocks. Hollow blocks are large wooden blocks, light enough for children to manage, large enough to be the setting for dramatic play. In my block book there were even plans for how to make them yourself. But, who could possibly have the set up, the materials, the time and the disposition to construct blocks? Enter Mark and Susie, an amazing pair of parents who are architects and builders and were more than happy to make the blocks for us.  Mark even brought the whole set up to school one day so that the children could learn how they were made and get to help make them themselves. Children got to cut, to sand, to shop vac! It was an incredible experience to help build those blocks

After a vision, a massive parent undertaking, and a ton of wood and sawdust, here we were with a set of awesome, custom made, hollow blocks. Let the play begin! Come on kids. Play!

Well, there was a lot of playing with blocks that year but it was exploratory; lots of carrying around, stacking and unstacking and the beginnings of dramatic play with kids making a bed, a house.  

Again it was thru slowing down, thru planning and reflection that teachers helped guide the children to a deeper, more sustained hollow block play. By the end of last year children and teachers were using the hollow blocks to create elaborate stages and sets for our dramatic play.

This year, the hollow blocks were introduced later, after children had played with the unit blocks and explored the many joys they bring.  By November, this year’s class was ready to scale up and play with the hollow blocks! There has been a lot of dramatic play (gardens, firehouses, etc)

COGNITIVE & SOCIAL BENEFITS: There are many cognitive and social benefits to block building.  Children have many opportunities to solve different types of problems. They encounter structural building problems, e.g. How can I balance this block here? Why does this bridge keep falling? Sovially, they have to figure out how to negotiate space and materials.

MATHEMATICS: Children grapple with mathematical problems, learning their shapes and their relationship to one another.  They explore what to do if there are no more long rectangles left and they need to complete a square. They learn balance and symmetry. Mathematical thinking is of course embedded in unit blocks. Two unit squares make a small rectangle, two small rectangles make a large rectangle, two triangles make a unit square, etc. So as children build they are experiencing these mathematical relationships. Unit blocks are designed in precise mathematical relationships to each other so that children engage in logic and mathematical thinking as they suss out part to whole relationships. They explore ideas of shape, size, weight, height and more abstract ideas like equivalencies and substitution all with their primary learning system—their physical bodies! As children gain experience they begin to work a lot with ideas of symmetry, pattern, repetition and variation. 

"It is easy for us teachers to point out how buildings can be made more stable, but learning thru problem solving will have more depth if children discover solutions for themselves. Wise questioning promotes better learning than showing how." Creative Curriculum.

SOCIAL STUDIES:

Blocks have a rich potential in social studies as well. One year, during a study on workers in our neighborhood, children were guided through a social studies experience through songs, books and dramatic play with blocks, that explored child labor in the early 1900s. 

This year, children built homes during our early days of studying family. We built many fire stations that demonstrated the children's understanding of the life and responsibilities of firefighters and fires safety.

LITERACY: Melissa and Deborah have taken the lead on using blocks as literacy materials. Already rich in language opportunity through collaborative play, Melissa and Deborah took the language and literacy element much further with actually using blocks to recreate stories, songs and dramatic plays and build settings.

One year during a study on Nighttime, children read the story Where the Wild Things are about one million times and then played it out through a range of materials: hollow blocks, puppets, themselves as actors, unit blocks etc.

As children play with blocks they build those literacy skills of narration, of understanding plot, character and setting. Sometimes they even focus on the formation of letters and use the blocks the make the shapes of the letters themselves.

At other times they write signs and labels for their constructions. Here a carwash has the sign "NTR" which means "Enter". Again children have experiences, either going somewhere (a carwash) or reading a story or seeing their name written and then they get to process and assimilate that experience into themselves through play.

"Another question much pondered, is what supplementary materials best suit block play. Here Caroline Pratt [inventor of the modern unit block] was an absolute purist. No reason to provide a car, an animal, or a truck when the child could improvise or make a crude replica of a needed object, said she. In fact, one deep virtue for her in this material was the way it led children to creativity with other materials...Supplementary materials therefore should be adaptable to a variety of uses --cloth, bits of wire or hose, or oddly shaped pieces of wood, the springs of an old clock or whatever the ingenuity of the teacher brought to the class to stimulate the imagination toward an original solution of a problem in the children's construction." (Winsor, Charlotte. Blocks as a Material for Learning Through Play). Here children used old marker cap tops to decorate a castle. 

SOCIAL: The social piece of block play is complicated to master. While the youngest children tend to just carry one or two blocks around by themselves or even tussle over materials, as children gain maturity and experience, block building can be a deeply challenging and satisfying group experience. Children need a lot of social skills to initiate, enter and sustain a group block play.

Likewise, it can be very satisfying for children to work on their own. To have a vision and then execute it; to work at their own pace, in the manner of their own choosing. Building on your own is also nice to experience.

As our block building as individuals and as a school continues to grow and change, this year we feel we have reached a good structure that works for these groups of kids (subject to change of course!) Last year, Natasha cultivated focused block play by converting (or as Jose would say, hijacking) the lego table and demarcating it with colored masking tape. Natasha also began requiring the children to plan what they were going to plan through drawing and discussion; then build; and then, at least with the older children, reflect on their buildings and share them with each other. The buildings and thinking behind them were, and are, amazing. Children build with such sustained attention and energy.This summer, Natasha hand build the special low block building tables that are now the centerpiece of the block area.

We use a story related the theme, e.g. Fireman Small or Little Red Hen and after reading the story, we identify the important settings and characters. We use magnetic letters or pictures to record the spaces to be built, ie. h for house and then children get to choose who they want to be and the setting they want to build. They can choose to work together or apart and then they build and then they play. Not all groups move through this full process each time in the block area and this structure looks different with the different ages. When we were first learning about where food comes from, younger children sang old Macdonald and played with farm blocks. The yellow group read the Little Red Hen and used big blocks to construct a set and play out the story. And the blue and red group, read the story and then planned their building through discussion and drawing before building and playing.

BRINGING IT HOME: To encourage block building at home, you can buy a simple set of wooden table top blocks or make your own out of washed, cut and taped cardboard milk and juice boxes or sanded remnants from logs. Little plastic or wood people and animals and fabric scraps make great props. Play out a familiar story like The Three Little Pigs or try building a restaurant or firehouse. Have fun! You know renowned architect Frank Lloyd Wright loved playing with wooden unit blocks when he was a child. Your children are in very good block playing company. Love, ALG

Hurry, Hurry!

What a great study of fire safety we have had this year at ALG. We have ridden in many fire trucks, both real and pretend; we have chopped the doors down and we have saved and tended to babies big and small.

As in all studies, we start with a little gentle information gathering to see what children already know about the topic. We sing songs, read books and ask children questions on the topic. Here, and throughout any study, there is great variety of quantity and depth of knowledge. The oldest children were able to draw upon past experiences and make clear connections to further their understanding; "Last year, I remember the firetruck left in the middle of our trip. That happens because you never know when there is an emergency for them to go and help." The red group was also able to generate more complex questions to ponder like, "Why does smoke always go up?" The oldest children wrote and illustrated a book about life in the firehouse and shared it with the whole school.  Some of the youngest children, on the other hand, simply said, "Firetruck." in response to any question. Each child is encouraged to make meaning and to explore the topic through the materials and experiences appropriate for them. All children can represent their experiences with fire safety. The oldest children are able to draw accurate pictures and write words to represent their experience and the youngest children talk, sing and engage in simple dramatic play. The middle children have a foot and both worlds and while many are not yet writing (nor should they be!) their dramatic play and block building represent their increasingly complex thoughts, language and motor skills. Each group has had an extended play experience with the book Fireman Small. The Blue group read the book and the reconstructed the various settings out of blocks and played the story. Here Andrea and Warona work on a scene with the rabbit falling down the well. As always the meta skills at play here are the real drivers of the work going on: children are learning to share space and materials, to exchange ideas, communicate clearly, take turns, execute a vision, and more! Those habits of mind are the meat of our work here at school. 

Soon we moved into the next phase of our study: investigation. Here we continued to read books, engage in dramatic play and sing songs to generate knowledge. We also engaged in two kinds of fieldwork. One was our trip to the firehouse. Here we got to meet real firefighters, see the beloved red fire engines and learn more about how to keep ourselves safe in a fire and what life in the firehouse is like. Our young purples had an extra special trip where the firefighters actually brought out the hose and squirted the street! It was pretty fabulous but not quite enough to appease the half that were crying. Next year those children will have another chance to encounter the same firehouse with their nearly four year old selves and they will forge a new experience. Also for fieldwork, we were able to interview our very own ALG FireFighter: Rachel Henighan! She regaled us with tales of firefighting and how she would have to spring into action every time the loud bell rung. We also got to investigate with genuine artifacts as we tried on her hemet and coat. Later the children also took a walk around our neighborhood searching for fire hydrants. We brought our own rope hose and fabric fire and children were able to play out again and again saving the day using tools like the real firefighters.

After all these experiences, it was then time to synthesize and represent our learnings in the final stage of the study: representation. Children were given many opportunities to talk about their experiences and to represent them through discussions, drawings, writing, block building and dramatic play.  All groups wrote thank-you cards to the firefighters we had visited and once again got to talk about their experience there. Blocks are an especially rich material and children got many opportunities to work in the block area representing their ideas and experiences.  Children drew upon their fieldwork and books and songs to build a firehouse of our own. Teachers facilitated the building by posing questions and problems for the children to tackle; "Where do the firefighters eat? How do they cook their food?" And yes, even firefighters need to use the bathroom! One child built a garage for a fire truck but left no opening. "How will the truck get out?" asked a teacher and the child spent the next chunk of time redesigning their garage with a door and a ramp. 

In block play children are learning how to tackle problems through planning, trial and error and constructing flexible solutions. 

At ALG we are developing a unique approach to representation through dramatic play. Children are able to demonstrate their knowledge and skills as the play out different scenarios: rescue, life in the firehouse, etc.  For our final formal play on fire safety, the three o'clockers again played out Fireman Small. Repetition is key to learning here, as any parent knows having read the same picture book one million times; each experience brings a new and different layer to the learning. After first using unit blocks to play out Fireman Small, we brought out our large hollow blocks from hiding and children designed the various settings in the story.  After reading the book again, children were guided to use letters and numbers to represent an outline of the story and to delineate the different settings we would need to build.  Then children split into smaller groups and each group built a different setting and got the props needed for their character. In every building there are so many opportunities for dissonance and then equilibrium; children try to build one way and it usually doesn't work at first and they have to adjust and recalibrate until they find a way that works. Then, settings built and actors assigned, we began to play out the story.  They must change their actions and body language to embody their pretend persona. Here, Poplar is a sad kitten stuck in a tree.    And Valerie, as Fireman Small, kicks the door down to a burning bakery.  Through this kind of dramatic play, children are literacy incarnate: they are narrative, plot and dialogue. They speak using an expanded vocabulary not available to them in regular day to day conversation and they curb their impulses and practice self-control as they follow a story line which is naturally embedded with constrictions.
     

All in all, we had a great time as we puzzled our way around issues both large and (Fireman) small. We learned lots about how to work on our own and in a group and how to persist through challenges. We might even remember what to do if our pants catch on fire! See you next time. Love, ALG

"What grows?" we asked the children. "Hair, fish, frogs, toenails, armadillos, carrots, teeth" and more were some of the answers children generated those first few weeks as we invited each other to wonder a bit and to ponder what and later how living things grow and change. Before starting and then throughout the study, teachers wondered about the best ways to get children talking. A formal debate with a moderator? Sitting in a circle? After reading a book? In a hideout in the bushes? While playing with frog puppets? While scratching the rabbits ears? It turns out all of these, minus the formal debate, are the million rich opportunities that present themselves throughout the day for discussion. Teachers were ready with clip boards and scraps of paper, to document and then further provoke children's questions. Some children looked at the world around them and ventured the idea that babies grow in eggs too, like the chickens. Some explained why people start as babies with, "Well, you couldn't just Pchuuuu! [exploding sound] and have a kid. That would be weird." Indeed. At ALG we really try to cultivate the virtue of not knowing, of wondering, of hypothesizing. "Knowing the right answer requires no decisions, carries no risks, and makes no demands. It is automatic. It is thoughtless..In most classrooms it is the quick right answer that is appreciated. Knowledge of the answer ahead of time is, on the whole, more valued than ways of figuring it out." (Duckworth, 1996)

At ALG we are, if you couldn't already tell, much more about process than product; more about learning how to think, than learning what to think. "Certainly the material world is too diverse and too complex for a child to become familiar with all of it in the course of an elementary school career. The best one can do is to make such knowledge, such familiarity seem interesting and accessible to the child. That is, one can familiarize children with a few phenomena in such a way as to catch their interest, to let them raise and answer their own questions, to let them realize that their ideas are significant--so that they have the interest, the ability, and the self confidence to go on by themselves." (Duckworth, 1996) Furthermore, we want to give children all the time we can to be in the natural world. To know it as a place both filled with mystery, joy and magical potential and as a place that is as familiar to them as, well, their own backyard. Throughout this study, we were struck by how social, how connective this learning could be. Children would spontaneously gather, their heads leaning together as they shared a discovery: a worm, a caterpillar, an unhatched chicken. At other times, you would see a child on their own, rapt in quiet concentration as they watched ants crawling in and out of their hill.

While there was a lot of growing this year: tadpoles to frogs, caterpillars to butterflies and seeds to food, we also explored and quietly attended to our unhatched chickens. Holding dead chickens, like life itself, is not for the faint of heart. But children again and again demonstrated their curiosity, their reverence and sadness when something dies, and above all, their willingness to explore, to take closer looks.

 We all know that children learn best by experience, by using their senses to touch, taste, see, and feel. How then we pondered, could we give them the experience of hatching? After much thinking, and even a teacher trial run, we decided we would wrap them in paper, give them a knife (their egg tooth) and a cracker (their nourishing yolk) and have them hatch. We split the children into chicks and hens and then switched.

 The chicks were so delighted to be in their cozy egg and were also eager to wobble and then hatch, using their egg tooth to poke their way out. .

We did some lovely one to one correspondence counting as the momma hens flapped their wings 21 times to symbolize the passing of the 21 days until hatching. 

 We were struck by the real tenderness this play engendered as the momma hens took their care-taking responsibilities very seriously and there was lots of gentle hugging as the mommas ushered their babies into the world. Children demonstrated their scientific understandings of incubation, of growing and changing and of the roles and responsibilities of raising a baby.

There was much good work done on pattern, symmetry and design as children worked in many mediums to create butterflies. Children need, and so were given,  many and varied opportunities to approach  and re-approach ideas and skills. For example we cared for caterpillars and watched them make their chrysalis then we cared for and then released the butterflies. We read books about butterflies and then painted and drew pictures of them. We built butterflies out of blocks and we sang songs about butterflies and pretended that we were caterpillars and then turned into butterflies. All the while children are learning how to work together, how to solve problems and negotiate, how to represent and thus comprehend their experiences through dramatic play and visual arts. This was a lovely end to a lovely year and there has been much growing indeed. May we all go forth and hold a worm, or watch a bird gather sticks for it's nest. Now get out there and, fly butterfly fly!!