Within all of our nurseries we have a wide range of blocks for the children to explore and play with and many children enjoy playing with blocks at home. But why is block play so beneficial for the children?
- Fine and gross Motor skill development – Block play requires movement and control from your fingers all the way through to using your core muscles to balance and reach.
- Imagination – Block play is open ended so the children can design and use the blocks in any way that they want to. This sparks children’s imagination and divergent thinking.
- Problem solving – Why did that fall over? Why won’t that block balance on there? How can i make it higher? What can I use?
- Mathematics – Important mathematical concepts are learnt through block play. Shape, space, measure, number, comparison, symmetry, pattern and balance.
- Language development – Block play encourages open-ended questioning and thinking which helps develop children’s language skills.
- Social development – block play allows children to learn the concept of turn taking, sharing, concentration and co-operation.
- Geometry – Through block play, children begin to explore 3-dimensional objects – cylinders, cones, cubes and prisms.
- Sensory – Children learn how to hold blocks, how heavy they are, what they fell like, what they sound like when they bang together and what happens when they all come falling down!
