Yet Again, What’s Old is New: Will Block Programs Bring Back Hands-on Play?

Block play has been a staple in the progressive education philosophy for decades, but now charter schools and more traditional institutions promote “block labs” and block corners as the newest pitch to help children build the 21st-century skills essential to success in corporate America. On November 27, 2011 the New York Times published and article titled With Blocks, Educators Go Back to Basics. It featured educators and parents in elite NY preschools and early care programs who have “rediscovered” the educational and academic value of including an old fashioned material—wooden unit blocks—in the daily curriculum.

We at PreschoolFirst have to ask, when did block corners disappear? Open-ended learning activities that take place in a block center has been included in every theme/topic since the creation of the PreschoolFirst assessment & curriculum system in 2003. PreschoolFirst strongly believes that comprehensive unit block program integrated into a well rounded curriculum has many benefits for young learners.

We advise caution anytime an educational technique or approach is promoted as the “next, new magic bullet” to fix education and raise test scores, educators need to stop and carefully evaluate such claims. Studies over the years do indicate that block play can help children learn basic math concepts, perform better on language acquisition tests, and that sophisticated block play may help children earn better math grades later in school. Our staff feels it is important to ask a few questions to ensure educators understand the concepts and benefits behind a “new magic bullet”—in this case a comprehensive block program.

Do the wooden blocks themselves provide the benefits or is it the fact that when young children build with blocks they work collaboratively using real materials to model what they know and to represent what they learn?

• Could one of the benefits be that when children engage in block play they control the process and flow of learning as well as the product of the activity that represents their ideas and knowledge?
• Is the benefit of a comprehensive block play activity that it involves open-ended “project” approach yet participants use a framework of “rules” to guide their interactions?
• Might the benefit to language acquisition be tied to the fact that during block play children are involved in a language rich activity? A block area is not a silent place—children must express their ideas, identify problems and challenges, talk about solutions, discuss the process, and present their structures and creations to others.
• Might similar benefits be observed with other open-ended materials? In other types of project-based learning activities? During other child-directed learning activities? (i.e. Book making in a writing center, dramatic play, the sandbox, objects found on a nature walk, play dough, group sculptures, open ended art creations, etc.)

Block play is a multi-disciplinary activity, but so are many other learning activities. Include block play in your well-rounded curriculum, but do not replace the other developmentally appropriate practices or learning centers that are part of your program. We suggest programs avoid making pie-in-the sky promises about the benefits of any one material or activity…all children are different. Provide many meaningful ways for children to integrate social skills, fine motor control, new vocabulary, early literacy skills, geometric–spatial thinking, awareness of basic math concepts and relationships, and to explore principles of physics and cause & effect.

Read With Blocks, Educators Go Back to Basics by Kyle Spencer