Block play builds spatial skills!
April was full of tools, blueprints, and working together as we asked all kinds of great questions like, “How is a building made?” “What do these tools do?” “What jobs are there on a construction site?” and so many more! From pretend city planning to measuring our classrooms and visiting live construction sites, we soared above the rafters through our imaginations and brought our structures to life with a Skyscraper competition!
Does it sound like we just played with blocks? Amazingly, block play and construction play an integral role in spatial development and unlock engineering skills in preschoolers!
“When Yvonne Caldera and her colleagues observed the construction activities of 51 preschoolers, they discovered a pattern. The kids who showed more interest in construction– and built more sophisticated structures–performed better on a standardized test of spatial intelligence (Caldera et al 1999).
Similar correlations have been reported by others (Oostermeijer et al 2014; Richardson et al 2014), and the results seem make sense. Building structures encourages a child to test spatial relationships and mentally rotate objects in the mind’s eye. Such practice might lead kids to develop superior spatial abilities.”*
We love it when research affirms our amazing inquiry experiences! We had a blast Building It Up and learned so much… up next, we’re digging deep and getting Down to Earth!
*http://www.parentingscience.com/toy-blocks.html#sthash.8ae9iBeO.dpuf