Do you have a child in your program who loves to play with blocks?

• Build with blocks using different senses. For example: close your eyes and see how tall you can build a tower! 
• Explore blocks of different materials, shapes, sizes and colours. 
• Balancing or velcro blocks 
• Weighing and exploring blocks using a scale and magnifying glass. What do they look like up close? Which blocks float? Which blocks sink?

• Build with ice cubes – you can even expand this idea to do ice cube painting! 
• Patterning with blocks 

• Explore measurement – add measuring tapes and rulers to your block play area to encourage and explore ideas like height, comparison, estimation, and symmetry.
• Add masking tape to your block play area 
• Add natural materials to your block area and encourage children to make a little town or a forest.
• Add blocks to the creative area (ie: paint with blocks, write or glue on blocks, etc.)
• Use paper, fabric pieces, carpet and tile samples to build and explore
• Counting songs while playing with blocks/building a tower – how many blocks? 

• Provide different materials of blocks to compare, contrast and discuss. Introduce ideas and concepts like: texture, weight, rough/smooth, hard/soft. Talk about what blocks are made of and encourage children to hold each one and tell you what they feel. Which one feels is heavier? Which one is softer? 
• Create a chart to compare and contrast different types of blocks
• What does the inside of a block look like?

• Create your own construction site!

• Here are some material ideas that you might want to consider:construction tape, road work signs, blueprints, work orders worksheets, supply checklist, employee name tags and construction worker I.D. badges, pylons, hard hats, toy tools, workbench, hard hats, fluorescent jackets, caution tape, paintbrushes and pails, lunchboxes, toolbox, overalls, construction goggles, big blocks, tape measures, cardboard, money, large dump trucks, desk, pencils, calculator, ruler, construction safety vests, water jugs, cups, scissors, electrical tape, hardware store flyers, sandpaper, pieces of wood, laminate flooring, paint brushes. 
• Provide a cash register, money and some of the items above to create a hardware store. 
• Add different puppets, dolls, little people to your block area!

• Use blocks to introduce simple early math concepts – for example: 
  • Number blocks, 
  • Counting blocks 
  • Adding/subtracting the numbers on blocks
  • Dice to stack and add or subtract 
  • Measurement – adding measuring tapes and rulers – comparison, estimation, symmetry
  • Graphs and charts 

• Sort and organize blocks from smallest to largest, colours, shape 
• Large floor puzzle blocks 
• Spell words with alphabet blocks – children can try spelling their names or say the letters
• Write and read words on blocks 
• Use tape on the floor to map out roads and buildings
• Practice putting different sized blocks into different sized openings 
• Matching blocks –  You can use two pictures or actual blocks and encourage children to find the pair/set!
• Add samples of floor plans to the block area for children to explore

• Find pictures  of different types of families in different homes and buildings from around the world (not just houses also apartments and tents) and put them up around the room where children can see them 
• Use play people from different cultures and with differing abilities 
• Ensure that you incorporate materials and shapes used to  create structures from different countries –  such as lengths of wood to create stilts for the houses, fabric pieces or straw, domes, minarets, circle-shaped pieces so children can build roundhouses Provide a multicultural block set  
• Provide books for the children to reference and explore (ie: different types of houses, who lives in a house, can there be a space for the animals in a house?)
• Provide small people and animals for children to add to their structures 
• Use alphabet  blocks to spell places around the world 
• Have pictures of different signs on buildings in different languages
• Different original food boxes from home to build with. (Example- cereals etc.) 
• Add pretend food and picnic items
• Extend block play into an exploration of transportation – You can include lots of   different kinds of transportation, like  motorcycles, bicycles, rickshaws, elephants, and camels 
• Use big waffle blocks to build little spots for children to sit in, or roads/paths to drive their large vehicles on 
• Bring in photos of different construction sites and the different vehicles and how they move and build things -for inspiration and to inspire discussion 
• Take photos of children building and put them into a story 

• Use blocks to represent real-life places, foods, people
• Have lots of pictures of different kinds of homes and families around your room
• Put photos of family members on blocks -Children can create their own family blocks and take them home!
• Use alphabet blocks to spell the names of children’s family members
• Add little people of all colours, shapes and sizes to the block area
• Build different kinds of houses/homes using different materials
• Use sheets and/or blankets to build tents/blanket houses/forts 
• Ask children questions like “What kind of building do you live in?” and/or “What other kinds of buildings do you see in our community?”
• Provide children with photos of familiar buildings and community helpers from the neighbourhood 
• Consider a field trip with the adult class, walk around and look at buildings and housing structures. 
• Build stores, hospitals, schools, zoos using blocks- you can provide different photos to help give the children ideas!. 
• Have a construction worker come in and teach about building and construction sites. 
• Create a community book for the classroom where children draw or you take pictures of all the different building structures they can find in their neighbourhood 
• What do other communities look like around the world? Do all communities have the same kind of building structures and use the same kind of materials? 
• Consider taking a trip to Home Depot or checking out their website/ flyers. 

• Create mazes and obstacle courses out of blocks and boxes
• Build structures- houses, apartment buildings, hospitals etc using large blocks 
• How can we move blocks around? How can we deliver blocks? (ie: fill up baskets and pretend to deliver them off using feet, bikes, wagons etc.) 
• Build huge castles or a city using cardboard boxes and paper rolls 
• Can you build a tower taller than you? Stack blocks or boxes high and count or measure how tall the tower gets! 
• Block races- How fast can you get your block to the other side? This can also be used as a tidy-up game – how fast can your team put all these blocks in the bin across the room? Then use a timer or stopwatch to see how quickly they can do it!  
• Do you have a spot where you can create paths for children to ride their bikes?

• Small blocks- Lego 
• Marshmallow and toothpick creations 
• Patterning using blocks 
• Tracing 
• Writing on blocks 
• Use a spoon to scoop small blocks into containers 
• Create puzzles of all different types of blocks 
• Use tongs, pliers or tweezers to pick up and sort  blocks 
• Wrap blocks using different paper
• Provide hardware store flyers for children to cut and make a collage

• Make people out of blocks or popsicle sticks
• Make feelings pictures on blocks – children can sort the blocks in different ways, or roll the block/dice and describe what they see in the photo 
• Use alphabet blocks to spell feelings words. 
• Take turns adding blocks to a tower to help  develop turn-taking skills 
• Take photos of the children’s creations and make them into a storybook 
• Play games with win/lose scenarios- Who can build the tallest tower? Who can build the fastest? 
• Use beautiful junk to build with –  children may be forced to share or have limited supplies, so it encourages teamwork, sharing and turn-taking etc. 
• Encourage partnerships or small group projects- for example: “let’s all build a tower together!” 
• Allow children to decide if they are ready to put away the materials or whether they’d like to  keep working on their project the next day

• Cut and paste hardware store flyers 
• Trace big/small blocks using different kinds of markers. pencil crayons, and/or texture papers 
• Block prints – dipping blocks into the paint. 
• Make your own block 
• Decorate blocks – provide children with stamps, paint, stickers, glue, fabric, letters, shapes etc 
• Making a face out of blocks- children can use a blank block and then provide yarn, googly eyes etc. to expand. 
• Take photos of the children’s creations and post them for families to see
• Glue wooden scrabble letters together 
• Explore with sandpaper – let children sand down blocks, build and paint 
• Use cardboard boxes for blocks 
• Gift wrap blocks – add tin foil, wrapping paper, sandpaper 
• Provide twigs, cardboard boxes and playdough for children to build with – children can poke holes in boxes and add different dimensions and shapes with twigs and playdough
• Add different shapes, sizes, materials and textures – wood, cardboard, dowels, nature, fabric, lots of loose parts – see what they create! 
• Build with ice cubes and a bit of salt – you can even add a bit of paint or food colouring,  sparkles, sand and/or liquidGet big appliance boxes to paint and decorate – what kind of structure could it be?
• Show pictures of different houses around the world and get children to do a creative representation of what they see
• Ask children to create a picture of where they live and other places they have lived.

1. Introduce block play related words in different languages such as:

• Build
• Door
• Window
• Wall
• Big
• Tall
• High/Low
• House/Apartment/Building/Tower
• Block
• In/Out
• Up/down
• Left/right
• Hard/Soft
• Under/Over
• Rough/Smooth
• Roll
• Through
• Tools
• Heavy
• Shapes – Square, Circle, Triangle, Rectangle

2. Post these different words in areas around the room. 
3. Ask parents to share some of these words in their home language so that you can use them during the children’s play. 
4. Look for shapes in books and find the same shapes in the blocks around the classroom
5. Discuss hardware store flyers 
6. Tell us a story using blocks, including buildings in different cultures
7. Makes signs for the block area 
8. Use alphabet and/or number blocks to support early literacy, reading, writing, and numeracy 
9. Use wooden scrabble pieces to spell words.

Different material ideas:

• Ten Things Children Learn From Block Play

• 27 Block Activities For Preschool Kids That Will Build Their Confidence

• Simple Block Activities For Toddlers And Preschoolers

• 25 Activities Using Blocks

• What is Block Play?

• 47 Block Activities for Preschoolers!

• The Benefits of Block Play For Infants and Toddlers In Your Childcare Centre

• Extending Block Play for Early Learning

• Why is Block Play Important for Toddlers and
• Preschoolers?

• Block Play | A New World of Opportunities!

• The Best Blocks Activities for Preschoolers
• VIDEO: The Teacher’s Role in Block Play