Building Blocks / Building Minds
August 18th, 2009 at 9:22
Children Constructing Their World
Shelves full of wooden blocks hold the building units needed for a child to construct the world. These simple cubes, rectangles and triangles exist as the concrete equivalent of a child’s imagination. Towers grow from simple rows and stacks, towers containing the world of childhood, and examining the elusive world of adults. Pieces of wood strengthen the fingers of toddlers and the friendships of schoolmates. The medium is as simplistic and complex as a child’s world.
What Can Playing With A Pile Of Blocks Teach?
Quite A LOT!
The concept of Kindergarten originated with Friedrich Froebel in 1840. A strong believer that children learned through play, he developed sets of wooden building blocks for play and teaching that he referred to as “Gifts.” Caroline Pratt later developed standards for a set of blocks we now refer to as “Unit Blocks” that are used in Kindergartens today. From these “Unit Blocks” a child can play and learn all the elements needed in education through the first grade and beyond.
So….
What Can Be Learned?
Math Space, Shape, Counting, Patterns, Size, Fractions, Symmetry
Science Gravity, Planning, Problem Solving, Balance, Cause and Effect, Inductive Thinking
Art Pattern, Creativity, Design, Order, Symmetry, Self-Expression
Literacy Reading “Visual Directions,” Naming, Labeling, Discussion and Planning
Oral Language Story Sequence with Role Playing, Directions for Clean-up, Directional Words