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Block Room Essay

Decent Essays

The block room is a very popular area. It is an “area for children to develop imagination, critical-thinking, social skills, cause and effect, and organization, and team work skills” (Burns, Johnson, and Assaf p. 69, 2012). There are so many possibilities of things that can be accomplished either by an individual on their own or as a group. Each day is a complete new slate when it comes to the things that can be built in the block area. The buildings can build on things from the previous day or be a new idea that someone came up with. “The initial use of blocks as a vehicle for teaching young children in an educational setting is attributed to Froebel” (Wellhousen and Kieff p. 5, 2001). Froebel is a German educator and the father of kindergarten. …show more content…

“To maximize learning from block play, give them sufficient room to build, a clearly defined space, appropriate flooring, and a variety of props and open ended materials” (Dodge and Dodge p. 241, 2010). If the children have sufficient room to build, then multiple big structures can be built at once without them interfering with each other. The area should be “away from traffic and preferably defined by shelves in a corner of a room” (Dodge and Dodge p. 241, 2010). This is something that is important because if a child is working hard on constructing something and it gets knocked down by someone walking it can be very upsetting. This would cause heartbreak and discourage building of things that take up lots of time. When putting out blocks for the children it is important to place ones that are similar near each other. Trying to keep them organized is something that should be done all throughout the time they are being used. This will help the children better access them. Before the first cleanup this is something that should discussed and explained why. It is something that will be easy to keep up, but can be destroyed quickly

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