The educators in the Toddler room at RisingOaks Early Learning | John Sweeney, noticed that the children had not been using the large LEGO blocks and wondered how they could spark an interest in building again. The first day Debbie made a small row of blocks across the floor and stacked a few on top of each other. Hunter and Ilija gathered at the block centre and began stacking blocks on top of the ones that Debbi had previously placed. That same afternoon, while Debbie was removing blocks off the shelf Ilija, Quinn, Hunter and Florence came to join her in building. In order to make this activity accessible to all of the children, Debbie used a variety of blocks to create a sturdy base. Then, the children continued to stack the blocks on top of the base. Finley was the first to sit down on our structure and soon after, Florence and Quinn joined him. Seeing the children sitting on the blocks made Debbie think of people sitting on a train and she began singing “the train on the track” but Finley quickly corrected her, letting her know that they were on a “BUS”. She sang “The Wheels on the Bus” and he wanted “more, more!” So we sang several more verses. Malcom, Ethan and Lilia joined us when they heard us singing. Malcolm (who is one of the youngest in the class) sat on a block saying “beep, beep”.
The next day at the children’s request we went back to the block centre again. As the educators were taking some blocks off the shelf, we noticed that Hunter placed a small spatula between two of the blocks and began moving his arm back and forth. It mimicked the movement of a saw. The educators took this interest and added a few tool boxes onto the block area. Rosie, Aliana, Quinn, Hunter, Lily, and Finley all experimented with the hammers, drills, wrenches, clamps and even the ruler.
This continued over a period of days. As long as an educator was there to help build the base of the structure, making sure it was long enough and by adding the connecting pieces, the children stayed using the tools to build/ fix the “bus” or sit on “the bus” and help sing our new favourite song (“The Wheels on the Bus”). Sometimes the verse we started singing wasn’t the one they wanted to listen to so Debbie made picture props that were laminated and attached to popsicle sticks so the toddlers could use choose what they wanted to sing about. The toddlers brought their babies on the bus and we found a roll of paper tickets so everyone could hand the bus driver a ticket.
The children’s social skills have been enhanced as they have learned to watch, imitate, share materials and space with others, as well as work with others to complete a task. Problem solving skills were necessary when needing to re-adjust a block or choose a block of a different size to fit in the space needed. Fine Motor skills were enhanced as the children manipulated the tools and worked their muscles to fit the large blocks on top of other blocks. Language skills were increased as the children helped sing, label the pictures on our song props, and repeated words they’d heard their peers use. Having their educators close by to assist helped the children to feel a sense of belonging.
As educators, we discovered that when we take the time to observe and uncover the meaning behind the children’s choices and actions, we can provide them with the right materials allowing for exciting things can happen.
