The ‘language’ of Block Play
It is said Blocks have a language of their own! When children hold them, weigh them, mouth them – explore them with all their senses – what do the blocks ‘say’?
There is a language of natural texture of course. Of something that looks and feels lovingly made – a beautiful aesthetic carved from wood!
There is a language of weight and dimensions, of a magical mathematical ratio: the unit block has a ratio of 1:2:4 – it is 14cm long, 7cm wide and 3.5 cm thick (5.5, 2.75, 1.375 in inches ).
The blocks have a language of comparison, of fractions, of part-whole composition:
How many half-blocks are needed to build the same length as a unit, a double unit, a quadlong?
There is a language of pulling-apart and pushing back-together, of composition and decomposition.
How do I place these quarter circles and curves together to make circles?
There is a language of equivalence and transformation. How many units do I need to change them to a double or a quadlong?
What is a quadlong equal to?
There is a language of stacking, of bridging, of enclosing.
How do I stand and balance these units, these cylinders, these pillars to hold up my bridge?
Of course, Block Play is full of all sorts of play, of endless possibilities. Block Play is not only full of mathematical possibilities but of scientific, engineering, architectural, creative possibilities too.
And we know children learn holistically – with Block Play supporting all areas of the Early Years Foundation Stage. Who can watch children at play with the Blocks and not observe social interaction – collaboration and turn-taking – or communication and language or physical development or creative development, or children representing and modelling their knowledge and understanding of the world around them?
And of course Blocks are deeply and intrinsically mathematical.
Here at St. Paul’s Nursery School and Children’s Centre we have been playing, thinking, researching and reflecting on the brilliance of Block Play – how it affords children a visual and tangible experience in all sorts of mathematical concepts, all sorts of mathematical knowledge, skills and understanding.
We have used the work of the Early Childhood Maths Group Spatial Reasoning Toolkit – their brilliant guidance on all things to do with shape, space and measures! What is spatial reasoning? Perhaps for young children it is the question, “Does this fit here?” or more importantly, “Do I fit in here?” The ECMG talk about how children develop ‘spatial reasoning’ through Recognition, Visualisation and Representation.
So, children use all their senses to explore space and shape properties – they begin to recognise these properties and attributes. Children imagine and manipulate this ‘spatial information’ in their ‘minds’ eye’ as they move themselves and objects in, over, around and through spaces. Here, children begin to be fluent and confident in visualisation to help them remember, make links and predict problems and solutions – of fitting in, fitting together, taking apart of materials and objects.
Children then begin to represent their ideas, their experiences of the concrete world around them. Here they use gesture, language, models, 2D representations and pictures, drawings, maps, graphs and diagrams. They say “Look! I am making sense of my world. I am showing you my thinking… my ideas… my understanding of the solid, tangible, 3D world I am navigating and finding my way around!”
When using the Blocks, children are developing ideas around spatial relations and objects and images, as well as having visual and physical clues to key aspects of counting (such as subitising, abstraction, hierarchical inclusion and magnitude amongst many others). Here at St. Paul’s Nursery School and Children’s Centre we have used the ECMG’s Spatial Reasoning Toolkit as a “road map” and “guide” to develop our mathematical subject knowledge.
For us, here at St. Paul’s we have really focused in on developing confidence and competence in our own pedagogical subject knowledge. This has meant we have been able to dig deeper into all aspects of spatial relations – aspects of mathematical ideas and concepts that perhaps we have not considered before or have been unsure of – ideas of scaling, appearance, visibility and perspective-taking perhaps. I wonder how many of these concepts we consider – and as a consequence support – when playing alongside children in their Block Play? We have wanted to ensure our adult role is scaffolding and supporting, extending and challenging children’s understanding of mathematical concepts and ideas.
The Adult Role in Block Play
So, what is the best way to ‘be’ and ‘act’ alongside children in Block Play?
We can think about how positive relationships and enabling environments interact with each unique child to support learning and development can’t we? We can also think about how adults model, show, explain, demonstrate, encourage, question and narrate learning – just like OfSTED’s definition of teaching! So what does this mean when supporting learning in Block Play?
We have found that we need to be what Community Playthings call an active observer – carefully observing interactions and interests, possibilities and problems – ready to question, suggest and scaffold learning.
We have found that we need to introduce the blocks in small grouptimes, giving children intimate opportunities to explore and examine the blocks. Here the children can explore and examine the properties and attributes of the Blocks – talk about and experiment with these new materials, sharing and discussing what they are doing and learning from each other as well as the adult. During this ‘introductory’ period children also begin to become familiar with the names and labels of the Blocks – These names and labels ‘signpost’ children to not only the properties and attributes of individual blocks but how they relate to each other. After all, it is said ALL of mathematics is the search for relationships and pattern!
The blocks:
- unit
- double
- quadlong
- arch
- small ramp
- double pillar
Creating a ‘Mathematical Palette’
At St. Paul’s we have also considered those experiences that will support children’s confidence and fluency with Block Play. We have called this our ‘Mathematical Palette’– that is, how we ‘mix up’ and ‘mix in’ all the different experiences children have that are rich with mathematical potential.
So we think that Big Bold Movement outside – as children climb and balance, push and pull themselves and objects and materials around, use bats and balls and hoops and beanbags, carry mud and sand and water – helps develop spatial reasoning and adds to their ‘mathematical palette’.
So we think that pattern play – with dominoes and dice, with pegboards and puzzles, with geoboards and threading, with numicon, cuisenaire and unifix, with painting and printing, with pattern walks and pattern spotting – also adds to their ‘mathematical palette’.
So we think playing with shapes – with designing and making with cardboard boxes and scrap materials, with loose parts and found objects, with cutters and tools in clay and playdough, with tangrams and pattern blocks – helps develop spatial reasoning and adds to their‘mathematical palette’
What we have found is that children who become absorbed in these mathematical materials and experiences then translate this learning into their Block Play – which in itself becomes increasingly complex, filled with pattern and comparison, composition and transformation.
For us, here at St. Paul’s we have come to understand how important the key concepts of pattern, attributes, comparison and change are to early mathematical understanding.
These are what the Erikson Institute calls Precursor Concepts – concepts that act as the firm foundations to lifelong mathematical thinking.
The ideas of pattern, attributes, comparison and change have helped us design and structure our maths-rich environment – and our Block Play spaces – to ensure children experience them through visual and tangilble first-hand experiences with all sorts of materials that make these concepts obvious and explicit.
Creating and Curating – making the ‘best’ Block Play area
What’s in your Block area?
We have spent a long long time building up our resources, materials and tools. And spent a long time together noticing, talking, thinking and reflecting upon how children are responding to the materials and developing their Block Play with increasing depth, breadth and complexity.
Our Block Areas are full of Community Playthings blocks, clearly labelled on shelves which house them according to their relative sizes and dimensions. Half-units, units, doubles and quadlongs are placed adjacent to each other so children can see the relationships they have to each other.
Our Block Play is full of other bits of wood – irregular offcuts, logs and branches – all cut to various sizes – so children can develop irregular language to describe attributes – sharp, zig-zag, wavy, in-out, pointy, “sort-of-like-a”! Our Block Play borrows from Montessori materials to support children to develop those abstract ideas of length, weight, height, number from concrete forms – pink towers, brown stairs, red rods, constructive triangles.
Our Block Play is also full of wooden stacking toys – those sometimes lurid rainbow-coloured stacking semi-circles or rainbow arches or triangles, squares, rectangles. These we think highlight ideas around properties and attributes, composition and comparison, transformation and equivalence.
Our Block Play is not only full of mirrors or vehicles, small world or scrapstore loose parts but also full of books on buildings and architecture, art and design – with children so readily inspired and ignited to recognise, visualise and represent these structures in blocks. So we find our Block Play materials and resouces provoke all sorts of unique and varied constructions, structures and representations. They provide the children with that real, tangible experience of making their thinking visible and concrete – right there in front of them!
What will you put in your Block Area?
Onwards and Upwards – learning the ‘language’ of blocks together
We remain keen to learn! From children of course, but also from each other and our wider early years community. We are still learning the full breadth of the ‘language’ of Block Play.
We have questions around gender differences and equality of opportunity in Block Play.
We have hypothesised about the impact of prolonged Block Play on the development of children’s number sense and numerosity. And we are keen to find ‘best practice’ when we consider how to document children’s learning – for the children themselves but for parents and practitioners alike.
We have been playful with technology in recording block structures and reproposing them to children by allowing them to manipulate the images on a screen – to show different perspectives and viewpoints, positions and appearances.
Does this kind of documentation amplify and augment children’s mathematical knowledge, skills and understanding?
We are really keen to learn from our youngest children too!
How do we best build upon their natural, inborn, intuitive mathematics?
How does Block Play – and all the other aspects of our “mathematical palette” – help them build upon their natural maths to create those firm foundations for mathematical success?
“Researching children researching the world” is a maxim from the Reggio Emelia schools in northern Italy.
And here at St. Paul’s Nursery School and Children’s Centre we have been doing just that!
References
Community Playthings “The important role of the teacher in block play” ( Video )
Early Childhood Maths Group “Spatial Reasoning Toolkit”
Erikson Institute Early Math Collective “Precursor Concepts”
5 responses to “Investigating Block Play at St Paul’s”
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‘After all, it is said ALL of mathematics is the search for relationships and pattern!’
This statement I feel is very powerful and something I am taking away with me to help develop maths in my school, not just in Early Years, but in other year groups.I like the idea of the blocks also being labelled, allowing children early on to see the links with size which will in turn set foundations ready for other areas of maths like ratio and fractions in their learning journey at primary.
A really interesting article!
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So interesting how many different areas of learning can be incorporated into block play!
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I really enjoyed reading this and was particularly struck by the idea of thinking about children’s experiences as a “mathematical palette.” It has genuinely changed how I now will notice and interpret elements of our environment that support children’s mathematical thinking and understanding—especially through block play and the development of spatial reasoning. The way the article highlights block play as a precursor concept—foundational experiences that build firm mathematical thinking—is a powerful reminder of how deeply play contributes to mathematical learning throughout life. It has made me reflect upon the organisation and resources that I want to be present in my setting.
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What really stood out to me about this research is how block play acts as a true language of learning, not just play. When children explore and manipulate blocks they are engaging in early mathematical thinking, using language, spatial reasoning and problem-solving naturally as they build.
This has really made me reflect on my own practice and the importance of how we set up our block area. When children are given open-ended resources and time to explore, and we join them in meaningful conversation, we can see how confidently they share their ideas, solve problems and develop early mathematical understanding. -
Super blog displaying some amazing block play! I liked how it discussed the role of the adult, not stepping in and directing but noticing what’s happening and supporting their thinking gently…helping them to explore the patterns, shapes and space in a natural manner.
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