Phil Armstrong explains how you can unlock the ewducational power of blocks and small world play with enhanced provision…
Visit any early years classroom and you are guaranteed to find blocks, large or small, and small world resources. When combined, these can create an inspiring “story factory” that supports children’s learning and development across the curriculum as part of any setting’s continuous provision.
Through the development of continuous provision, we provide a well-structured permanent framework for children’s play and provide a rich context for their experiences.
Planned well for the age and stage of your children, and with effective adult interaction, this provision ensures that learning can be both enjoyable and appropriately challenging.
However, as with any resource, there are questions we must ask about blocks and small world provision, including:
● Why do we provide blocks and small world resources in early years?
● How do they connect with the curriculum?
● How do we support learning to unlock their potential?
We all know that young children have a natural desire to construct and create. We see them use the blocks and small world resources to build new worlds and amazing structures, collaborate on complex designs, and bring their ideas and stories to life.
But where does this start, and how does it develop?
Let’s consider for a moment, reflecting on Harriet Johnson’s The Art of Block Building, the types or stages of play we might see as children engage with these versatile resources:
Stage 1: Blocks are carried around, not used for construction
Stage 2: Building begins, mostly rows, either horizontal or vertical, with stacking
Stage 3: Bridging, using two blocks with a space between them, connected by a third block
Stage 4: Enclosures, with blocks placed to enclose a space
Stage 5: Designs, patterns and elaborate structures emerge
Stage 6: Large-scale co-operation – children plan with a purpose and use what they’ve built
Of course, we know that as part of their unique learning journey, children will explore, experiment and investigate resources in a myriad of ways and at different times, but these stages give us a clear framework for development.
We can see from these just how easily children of different ages can utilise block play to build their confidence and expertise as they spend more time accessing these open-ended resources.
Blocks and small-world provision offer a wealth of learning opportunities, especially when provided consistently year on year in a variety of contexts.
Here are just a few examples of how block play supports different aspects of learning:
Physical skills: fine and gross motor skills, hand-eye coordination, spatial awareness
Social & emotional skills: autonomy, initiative, co-operation
Language & literacy skills: vocabulary, beginnings of story recall
Mathematical skills: size, shape, 1–1 correspondence, comparison
Creative skills: divergent thinking, imagination
Scientific skills: similarities and differences, balance, cause and effect
● Creating stories around a set of characters
● Developing stories with familiar patterns and sequences
● Retelling stories to, and sharing story ideas with, an audience
● Designing a setting for a story and characters
● Drawing and labelling designs
● Creating maps of story settings
● Exploring ways to record ideas and stories
Enhanced provision extends learning by enabling children to further develop their ideas and interests as well as offering new and unfamiliar knowledge, skills and understanding, and enriching vocabulary.
When we enhance provision, new resources, books, equipment, or artefacts are made available for a period of time, often for a few weeks, in response to what practitioners have observed children need next or to reflect themes, such as seasonal events.
These new additions do not replace continuous provision but add a new dimension alongside it. In this way, enhancements offer either an extension to existing learning or provide a starting point for new learning, acting as a catalyst for exploring, talking and thinking about new ideas.
Enhancing your blocks and small world area might involve providing:
● Focused texts, such as a story currently being shared with your children
● Small world people and/or animals linked to texts
● Props linked to specific landscapes
● Resources linked to children’s current interests or events, e.g. superheroes, space, football or minibeasts
Sometimes, rather than adding these directly into your continuous provision resources, you may prefer to develop an “enhancement area” (e.g. using a low-level play table), which gives a specific focus to the resources.
Enhancements and provocations are not permanent additions. To judge how long to offer them for, remember that enhancements need adult support, so make sure that you and your team have sufficient time to:
● Introduce the new ideas, resources and experiences
● Support and guide children’s initial explorations
● Facilitate group discussion and provide feedback
● Observe and interact with children as they further explore and deepen their learning
It’s also important to judge how many enhancements to have at any one time.
The key to unlocking the potential of any resource we offer is our understanding of child development and how children’s innate desire to experiment supports learning over time, combined with our knowledge of the curriculum.
Both strands guide how we interact with children as they experiment and create. As we play alongside children in the blocks and small world area, we should:
● Observe and take note of their key interests and fascinations
● Respond to their requests and ideas
● Sensitively suggest possibilities to extend their play and thinking
● Model language and extend vocabulary
● Support with the development of imaginative play
As we act as role models, we are able to:
● Model how to think aloud by making comments such as “I’ve not thought about that before”, “You’ve really made me think about…”, “How might I…?”
As we sensitively raise questions, our purpose is to:
● Stimulate ideas and add challenge with questions such as “What do you notice about…?”, “I wonder how…?”
And when we are able to mobilise ourselves to teach effectively in these ways, we can unlock the power of our provision.
Audit your current blocks and small world resources to ensure they are of high quality.
Reflect on the progression the resources offer, e.g. from two-year-old provision to Reception.
Explore how your resources are supporting your curriculum and how they are used for adult-initiated activities and child-initiated learning.
Check your whole team has a deep understanding of the potential of these resources.
Consider carefully how you enhance this provision over the year to reflect children’s interests and other themes you may be exploring with the children.
Phil Armstrong is senior education lead at Early Excellence. Take a look at its EYFS block area planning guide. Early Excellence also provides a carefully curated range of blocks and small world resources plus enhancements selected by its curriculum team to maximise learning outcomes.
How Does Early Years Practice Differ in Europe?
Editors picks
