Try it out!

Children use blocks to erect buildings, create towers, enhance dramatic play, and so much more! Because they help children explore all they can imagine, blocks can be exciting tools for children’s playful learning! Children can use blocks to build skills in many areas of STEAM (science, technology, engineering, art, and math) development, from language and motor skills to the creative arts and more. Educators can provide a variety of blocks, interesting accessories, plenty of space to explore, and then watch the block party begin!

Be intentional in your exploration.

• Follow children’s lead, and let them decide how they would like to explore. Encourage children to use their creativity with blocks to represent familiar structures, or use their imagination to build new construction.
• When observing children, watch and listen for cues such as body movements, facial expressions, vocalizations, and children approaching or withdrawing. In response, offer comments or questions that reflect what children might be wondering, thinking, or trying to discover. For example, "Megan, are you trying to build a tower? You are balancing each block carefully."
• Support young children's curiosity and motivation to figure out how things work while building. This can lead them to discover or create their own "problems" to solve. For example, children might experiment with creating a tower and work on balancing different sizes within the tower.
• If children get stuck while problem-solving, ask questions like, "What else might work?" or offer suggestions by modeling possible solutions.
• Introduce math concepts like size and shape as well as spatial words like in, between, and under as children play with blocks. When working with children who are dual language learners, speak in short sentences and provide key math concepts in English and the child’s home language.
• Use words to accurately describe the shape of blocks; for example, “That block is a cube. Each side is a square.”
• For infants and toddlers, introduce shape and size by allowing them to explore different blocks with their hands or mouths.
• Model different ways to use blocks, from stacking, placing in rows, or adding towers to enclosures like a house or castle. Provide pictures or blueprints to spark children’s imaginations on what they could build.
• Help children use descriptive and comparison words to describe their structure size; for example, “That tower is huge! It’s as tall as your shoulder!”

Gather materials to support block play.

• Provide multiple types, materials, and sizes of blocks. Some common types include solid or hollow wood, cardboard, foam, or plastic. Connecting blocks like Legos® or Magna-tiles® may be additional options for block play!
• Natural materials can be used like blocks! Encourage children to use wood chips, rocks, pine cones, or other stackable materials to create outdoors. As always, adults should ensure materials are safe for the age and development of the children.
• Provide multiple accessories to accompany block play. Include small animals, figurines, cars, and more to promote dramatic play and to encourage additional language use.
• Enhance children’s literacy skills during block play by placing construction or building books nearby. Educators could also place blueprints near blocks, tape up posters of famous buildings, or encourage children to draw what they intend to build.
• Encourage children to use dramatic play materials with blocks and boost their creativity! Dolls, puppets, and costumes can be used to make a story using block creations. Likewise, use blocks to support dramatic play. Small rectangular blocks can represent a cell phone, while longer block planks can substitute for a table. Once you model this, children will come up with even more ways to incorporate blocks into their dramatic play plots.

Consider adaptations that help everyone engage.

• Assume that all children can test their ability to stack and create with appropriate supports.
• Offer a variety of blocks to support differing fine motor abilities. Blocks that easily connect can help children build without the need to balance items.
• Provide open spaces and different surface levels so that all children can easily reach building materials.
• Supply smaller, size-appropriate blocks for young children to grasp and manipulate. Expect young children to explore blocks by mouthing. Select blocks fashioned from nonporous materials and be prepared to clean and sanitize them after children finish playing.
• Model basic and descriptive language and vocabulary to support children’s block play.
• Encourage children to use their home or Indigenous language as they explore blocks.

Look for connections to the Head Start Early Learning Outcomes Framework (ELOF) goals shown below. Adapt this activity to connect with any domain:

• Infant-Toddler Cognition 9: Child uses spatial awareness to understand objects and their movement in space.
• Infant-Toddler Perceptual, Motor, and Physical Development 6: Child coordinates hand and eye movements to perform actions.
• Preschool Perceptual, Motor, and Physical Development 3: Child demonstrates increasing control, strength, and coordination of small muscles.
• Preschool Math 10: Child explores the positions of objects in space.

Connect and Extend

Create a culture of inquiry by asking great questions.

One strategy for extending conversations with children involves asking meaningful questions, such as, “What do you think will happen next?” Asking open-ended questions with many possible answers lets children express their ideas, offer explanations, and make predictions. For some children, especially infants and toddlers, this may mean providing them with time to think and watching for nonverbal responses and then giving prompts or labeling their gestures.

Prompt toddlers and preschool-aged children with questions such as:

• What does this block feel like?
• What sound do the blocks make when you tap them together?
• What are you creating with the blocks?
• What could you use to make the building stronger?

Develop creative connections and be a “good relative.”

We are all related and connected! What does it mean to be a good relative? In many American Indian and Alaska Native cultures, being a good relative is a way to describe treating others, the land, and all living creatures with care, kindness, and respect. It is a practice we want to encourage in all children and adults of all cultural backgrounds.

How does this connection extend into block play? By creating engaging play spaces with your specific children in mind! Take time to evaluate your learning environment from the perspective of children and focus on their interests. You may find new insights and ideas about how to intentionally develop spaces for children to enjoy block play indoors and outdoors.

As children lead their own learning experiences and exploration, they will have opportunities to be good relatives by making positive connections through cooperative play. Children can learn to use their problem-solving skills to resolve conflicts with others and to celebrate together when cooperation results in a successful block structure. With the support of familiar and trusted adults, children can:

• Show awareness about self and how to connect with others.
• Show confidence in their own abilities and understand the value of interconnectedness through relationships, enhanced by block play with others.
• Develop a sense of belonging through relationships with others.
• Express care and concern toward others in play and learning settings.

Engaging families in planning and including their culture and home or Indigenous language is another way to be a good relative. Can you think of others?

Take a Look

Playful Learning and Joyful Teaching in Preschools
The preschool years are filled with excitement and wonder. Children learn new skills and build upon their existing capabilities through meaningful and exploratory play. This webinar connects play and the Framework for Effective Practice, which describes six integral elements of quality teaching and learning for young children in all program options. Fill your teacher toolbox with practical strategies for engaging in guided play to foster curiosity, joy, and lifelong learning.

Exploring Engineering with Infants and Toddlers
Discover the engineering component of STEAM, including how using hands-on materials supports young children in learning why and how things work. Infant and toddler teachers and family child care providers will learn strategies and teaching practices that can help all children explore engineering. Explore strategies for using art to encourage engineering concepts and skills.

Digging Deeper

The Q&A below is based on NAEYC’s “What the Research Tells Us About Block Play and STEM Learning.”

What do children learn through block play?
Playing with blocks provides the opportunity for children to learn elements of science and math, like problem solving, counting, adding, and subtracting. It also helps them build both gross and fine motor skills. Block play supports other key aspects of development, including language learning (as children talk about the structures they built with the adults and children around them), creativity, imagination, self-esteem, and social and emotional growth.

How does it connect to STEM?
Block play provides a natural context for exploring the physical world. Like little scientists, children experiment with structures and observe the outcomes of their building efforts. Through this process, they learn about mass, weight, proportionality, and balance, and can use their new concepts to plan and predict outcomes.

Block play with an 18-month-old is different than block play for a 5-year-old. What types of block play and blocks work well for different aged children and why?
Children progress through different stages of block play, moving to the next stage as they master the current one. As their skills grow, children often combine developmental stages to advance at their own pace, regardless of age:

• Stage 1: Discovering Blocks
• Stage 2: Stacking Blocks
• Stage 3: Complex Stacking
• Stage 4: Making Enclosures
• Stage 5: Creating Bridges or Arches
• Stage 6: Combining Enclosures and Bridges
• Stage 7: Building with Patterns and Symmetry
• Stage 8: Building Block Structures that Represent Objects for Pretend Play

What do families learn about their children's learning and development as they observe block playing?
Parents and children form an emotional bond during block play. Block play helps parents understand early childhood development in math and science. It also gives young children a chance to improve their math, science, social, and literacy skills. During block play, parents see their children engaging in behaviors like focusing, taking turns, listening, sorting, problem-solving, predicting, observing outcomes, creating patterns, comparing, naming, counting, wondering, and exploring various forms of math.

What does the research tell us about the value of block play?
Research over the past 20 years shows that children develop number and math skills early on, and those who are strong in these skills tend to excel in math later. Studies also link block play to a greater interest in STEM careers as children grow.

Read About It

Environment as Curriculum for Infants and Toddlers
This resource guides home visitors, program staff, caregivers, and early childhood educators in creating a safe, playful, and welcoming environment for infants and toddlers. It covers how to design play areas and caregiving spaces, as well as ways to incorporate home cultures. This resource also emphasizes the importance of flexible spaces that can adapt to the changing ages, interests, and needs of children over time.

The Building Blocks of Learning
Playing with blocks may be crucial for helping preschoolers to develop “spatial thinking,” or envisioning where blocks go in relation to each other as they build. Deciding whether a block goes over or under another block, or whether it is aligned or perpendicular to it, are just the kinds of skills that support later STEM learning.

Different Types of Blocks for Your Child Care Classroom
Blocks should be a staple material in almost every child care classroom. With a variety of colors, shapes, sizes, and textures to choose from, blocks can provide hours of fun on their own, even before adding manipulatives and other items to them. Explore different kinds of blocks and their benefits for your program!

Joy for the Journey

“The child amidst his baubles is learning the action of light, motion, gravity, muscular force….” — Ralph Waldo Emerson, philosopher and poet

Last Updated: May 21, 2025