Teaching Numeracy, Language, and Literacy with Blocks

Block play is ideal for active learning in early childhood education settings. The possibilities are endless. Playing with foam blocks as infants or toddlers and progressing to unit wooden blocks as preschoolers, kindergarteners, and early elementary graders, , young children develop their physical skills (small and large muscles); their social skills (cooperative, group interaction); cognitive language, math and science language skills (vocabularies for size, shape, and positions; grouping and patterning abilities; and beginning awareness of gravity, balance and geometry); and creativity skills (constructing structures and engaging in pretend-play).