50 Fantastic Ideas for Block Play

Book excerpt: The 50 Fantastic Ideas series is packed full of fun, original, skills-based activities for Early Years practitioners to use with children aged 0-5. Each activity features step-by-step guidance, a list of resources, and a detailed explanation of the skills children will learn. Creative, simple, and highly effective, this series is a must-have for every Early Years setting. Block play stimulates learning in all areas of development: intellectual, physical, social, emotional and communication as well as early maths and literacy. In this book, experienced author and practitioner Judit Horvath has put together a variety of exciting and challenging ideas that cover them all. Some activities include cheap, easily sourced props such as play dough, pebbles, fairy lights and flowers to capture the children's imaginations, while others prompt more challenging block play to encourage the development and understanding of complex patterns, such as classifying, sequencing, counting, fractions and problem solving. This creative collection of ideas featuring colourful and fun photography is a fantastic resource for incorporating successful and exciting block play into your setting.