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Children enjoy playing with all sorts of blocks, including large blocks for building forts and castles, plastic snap-blocks for making robots, animals, airplanes, or cars, table-top blocks for creating patterns or settings for small dolls, and all other types of construction materials. Unit blocks, made from wood in standard, mathematically related shapes and sizes, are a valuable part of many early childhood settings. The fun that children have with all these types of blocks is enhanced by the fact that blocks provide children with opportunities to develop and learn. As children play with blocks, they develop understandings about geometry and physical space, they acquire concepts, they learn to create and represent meanings, and they find ways to work together to solve disagreements (Hirsch, 1984). A great deal can be done by teachers to help learning happen with different types of blocks.

We know from years of research and teaching that children develop ...