By Ann Gadzikowski
Ann Gadzikowski is the Director of Early Learning for Encyclopedia Britannica and award-winning author of Robotics for Young Children, Creating a Beautiful Mess, Challenging Exceptionally Bright Children in Early Childhood Classrooms, and Story Dictation.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, many early childhood and primary grade classrooms are closed and teachers must find ways to engage young children in remote learning. While there is no online equivalent to the rich variety of experiences that take place during in-person schooling, we can still make the best use of the tools we have to connect to children and support their learning and development.
Often the key to engaging children in a remote learning experience is making sure there are tangible objects on both sides of the screen. This means the teacher uses props such as puppets, picture books, or blocks while the children at home hold a toy or another item that allows them to actively participate in the lesson. Seeing and holding physical objects helps children focus and engage in learning.
Blocks, in particular, offer a rich variety of creative options for play and learning. Here are some strategies for including blocks in remote educational experiences for young children.
Invite children to build with what’s already at home.
It’s important for teachers to find out if the children in their class have blocks or construction toys at home. Survey parents or ask children directly during remote lessons. For example, invite children to gather and show their blocks during a virtual “show and tell” activity. Any construction toys, including wooden blocks, LEGO or DUPLO bricks, or magnetic tiles, can be used to engage children in open-ended play and learning.
If a family does not have any construction toys, many ordinary household materials and be used for building projects such as cardboard boxes, food containers, and paper cups.
Prepare and deliver construction play kits to children’s homes.
If your school has funding for remote learning materials that can be delivered or shipped to families, consider purchasing construction toys. Lightweight foam blocks or thin wooden plank blocks can be divided into smaller sets for multiple households. Make sure each child has at least two of each shape, to allow for matching activities and symmetrical constructions.
Other great construction materials include craft sticks, clothes pins, foil, and clay.
Engage in live video demonstrations and conversations about blocks.
Once you know the children have materials available, add construction activities to remote lessons. These can be aligned with specific curriculum objectives or included as creative brain breaks.
For example, demonstrate how to build a tower, a bridge, or house on screen and then ask the children, “What can you build?” These activities can be offered live as a synchronous activity in real time or as a provocation at the end of a lesson, with the invitation to children to build their own structures later, on their own.
When you demonstrate a construction project on screen, be sure to fumble and make lots of mistakes! The children will enjoy correcting you and offering suggestions for creative problem-solving.
Show short videos as block play provocations.
Whether you are teaching on Zoom or another online platform, take advantage of these digital environments by showing children short videos that will inspire creative construction play.
Rather than taking your chances with an ad-heavy video platform like YouTube, try The Kid Should See This and other curated sites for selecting educational videos for your class.
Here are a few great examples of short videos that will encourage children to create their own exciting construction projects:
- Block City
- An Eiffel Tower Made from Kapla Blocks
- Marbles & Magnets Synchronized to Tchaikovsky’s Waltz of the Flowers
Read picture books that inspire creative block play
If your remote learning lessons include story time, read picture books that inspire children to build houses out of blocks and other construction materials.
For example, The Little House by Virginia Lee Burton is a classic picture book in which the house is the main character of the story.
The beautiful illustrations and poetic text in Deborah Freedman’s This House Once teach about the raw materials used to build a house.
Windows by Julia Denos is a picture book that calls attention to specific architectural features of houses and apartment buildings in a child’s neighborhood.
Trust in the power of play
The prevalence of remote learning during the COVID-19 pandemic raises concerns that some children may fall behind and miss important milestones in their early education. This is a serious concern, especially for children who were already vulnerable before the pandemic. But let’s not underestimate the power of play to help children develop physical, cognitive, and social skills. Open-ended construction play with blocks and other tools is one of the best sources for creative and challenging learning experiences at home.
For more block play ideas, check out Young Architects at Play: STEM Activities for Young Children.
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