ELCHC PROVIDER’S FOCUS MAGAZINE elchc.org Spring 2021
Blocks, Play and Focus By Lissette Godwin, Regional Area Manager, ELCHC Teachers lay the building blocks for the future and as luck would have it children love block play. All too often we think of block play as a preschool focused learning center but what about our infants and toddlers? Regardless of a child’s age, babies to school age, blocks are an integral part of children’s development and learning. Block play provides the opportunity for children to develop a variety of skills that children will use throughout their lives such as: encouraging social emotional skills, gross and fine motor development, cognitive development, language, and communication and arguably the ability to just have fun. But how does block play stack up when looking at Teacher-Child Interactions and CLASS? EMOTIONAL SUPPORT AND RELATIONAL CLIMATE Block play in all ages provides an opportunity for children to practice their social emotional skills. You may default this line of thinking to preschoolers learning to wait their turn or sharing a limited supply, but even infants will reach for the same object and show frustration. Take this opportunity to model with your children how to use gentle touch and turn taking. With your toddlers and preschoolers’, you can take this a step further by introducing appropriate language to problem solve disagreements. Block play provides children an opportunity to show independence and responsibility We refer to this as Child or Student Perspective. Teachers support this by providing an environment where children may be creative and imaginative and encouraging them by following their lead. Making children responsible for selecting materials to use as well as putting things back when its time also builds children’s self-esteem as they begin to believe in their own ability to take care of their own needs. CLASSROOM ORGANIZATION, FACILITATED EXPLORATION & LEARNING
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As mentioned before all children should be exploring block play. Blocks come in many materials and can even be home made with recycled boxes. Integrating block play in your Infant and Toddler classrooms will create an additional opportunity to facilitate your children’s exploration and creativity. Babies may begin to develop motor skills as well as eye hand coordination by trying to stack blocks and crawling to them. Make sure to be supportive of your younger children and adjust their experiences as necessary for a successful challenge. Cheer them along and most importantly PLAY with them, become a part of their learning. Being a part of children’s play is key to improving your teacherchild interactions. This is where you have a chance to observe and challenge their thinking. Make a conscious effort to challenge children by “stirring the pot” and asking them to explain their decisions. In older children, block play can become a very involved and time-consuming project. Give children warnings of
