OK, pulling these out of my archives!! As this is cleaning my house week. Jake took these pictures a few years ago after he built this.
When Jake was younger he spent a good part of his day building. We had and still have many types of blocks. The large cardboard bricks-which are great for younger kids. They are light weight and you can build pretty large structures and knock them down with out too much noise or pain! I highly recommend a set or two of these-in this case more really is better! Or if you are like my in-laws and use lots of kleenex, you can use empty kleenex boxes! Or cereal boxes covered in contact paper.
We also have many wooden blocks. Now if you have the money or you have rich relatives these are wonderful!! We have a large assortment of non splintering hard wood blocks. I can’t remember where we bought ours, maybe a school catalouge. Again more is better, more shapes, more sizes even better!!
Adding props to block play is a great addition. Here Jake used army guys, but the possibilities are endless.
Adding smaller blocks, or colored blocks, “guys”,animals, cars, signs, shredded paper, popcorn….You get it, just about any thing will enhance block play. Imaginations will run wild turning rocks into animals or the structure becomes a quarry.
We also have an enormous amount of legos, K-nex, tinker toys, lincoln logs, magz and I am sure several others.
Two books I recommend are THE BLOCK BOOK by Elisabeth S. Hirsch and by far my favorite book Steven Caney’s ULTIMATE BUILDING BOOK. This is a great addition to any home library. Tons of building ideas using all kinds of stuff you already have around the house; newspaper, toothpicks…Great for some summer activities.
One more thing-sometimes kids want to save their structures and it may not be possible; clean up time or some other reason. We have a binder with plastic sleeves that holds photos of the my kids creations with a few words jotted down about the structure. A good way to document and revisit their work too. Sometimes they try to rebuild or add on to the idea.
And this is for my husband-virtual flowers and a new car, because he ordered me a new laundry umbrella, (because ours snapped), and he finished installing a new faucet and reverse osmosis water system for us last night! Thanks husband!
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Posted on April 29th, 2008 by Kristen
Filed under: 3-D, Activities, Sculpture
Taking pictures of block structures is a great idea! I’ll have to remember that one (before the little sister demolishes my son’s next castle!)
Thanks!
Love the idea of taking pictures to “save” all that hard work. I’m going to try this with my son and his forts. He would prefer to leave them up forever but my house isn’t that big.
Reverse osmosis! THE REAL DEAL. I’m jealous.
We had those cardboard blocks when my older boys we little. They loved to build. And Legos, nothing like stepping on one in the middle of the night barefoot. Hubby loved that, LOL.