Do you remember playing with blocks as a child?
Wooden blocks, alphabet blocks, interlocking bricks, over-sized cardboard bricks. Building blocks come in all different shapes, sizes, and colors. The simplicity of the idea is fascinating, and yet there are so many things you can do with blocks if you just let yourself dive into the world of imagination. Where you see a pile of cubes, a child will see a castle with a drawbridge or the world’s tallest skyscraper. The possibilities are endless.
But where is the math in the building blocks?
The short answer is EVERYWHERE!
Of course, there are the obvious connections. There are also some easy ways to extend those basic connections into something else. The magic lies in the questioning.
Counting
- How many blocks do you have?
- How many do I have?
- Who has more? less?
Measurement
- How tall is your tower?
- Whose tower is taller? shorter?
- How long is your train?
- Whose train is longer? shorter?
- How many cars does it take to equal the length of your train?
- How many books do we have to stack to make a tower as tall as yours?
Geometry
- Use your blocks to make a square? triangle? circle? rectangle?
- Use your blocks to build a cube? pyramid? cylinder?
- What’s the smallest square you can make? largest?
Patterning
- Sort your blocks by color? size? shape?
- How many in each group?
- Which group has the most blocks? least?
- Use one block of each color/size/shape to make a tower/train,
- Create a tower/train/castle that looks just like mine.
Engineering (yes, even for little guys)
- Create a structure that will hold a book (or some other object).
- Build a bridge that will hold your toy car.
- Build the tallest structure you can.
- Construct the longest bridge you can.
This is just the beginning. Depending on the type of blocks you are working with, there are endless possibilities to the suggestions you can make to your little mathematician. These ideas work with older children, too, especially when you consider more complex building materials.
Another thing I like to do is ask children to notice how things are built. So, once you start the discussion about building blocks, you can extend that to the bricks on the side of your house, the concrete blocks in the classroom wall, or even the pavers on the sidewalk. Structures and building blocks are everywhere!
What are some of your favorite ways to use blocks? I’d love to hear your ideas in the comments below.
Thanks for reading!
