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Blocks are a great manipulative for young children. They can be used to teach many things, but one of their best uses is to encourage children to problem solve.
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| SORTING BLOCKS |
Have your children sort their blocks by color, shape or size. |
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PATTERNING
Using the sorted piles from the activity above, make a pattern with the blocks.
Example: you had your child sort the blocks by shape.
Make a line of blocks, such as; two square blocks, one rectangle block, two square blocks, etc. Have your child try to match your line with an identical one below it. |
PROPORTION |
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Find a large rectangular block and have your child find two blocks that equal the same size as the one larger block. |
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Look for other blocks that are double or other multiples of smaller blocks. |
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Set out a balance scale and have children put a large block on one side and then experiment finding a group of smaller blocks that will equal the size of the larger block. |
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| MOVING BLOCKS |
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Tell your children that you need to move the blocks in your room (or house) to a new location. |
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Have your child or children try to think of ways you can move the blocks. |
| BLOCK EXPERIMENTS |
Here are some ideas for things children could experiment with using blocks. |
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Set out some squares of flooring. Have your children decide which surface is the easiest to build on. (Wood, carpet, rubber, artificial turf, cork board, etc.) |
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Set out a cardboard box. Have your children see how many blocks they can fit into the box. |
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Weight blocks to see which block is the heaviest. |
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Have children see how high they can build a tower. |
| BLOCK PROJECTS |
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Give your children a project to build. Examples: a hill, a road, a house, a bridge, a shape, a letter, etc. |
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Perhaps break them into two groups and see how different children solved the same problem in different ways. |
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