Helpful Rules when Constructing Buildings or Structures

In addition to the wonderful role the block area plays in children's learning about math ,science, and social studies, it can also be a place for building a sense of community in the classroom. The block area is a place to teach respect for space, one's own and others, and to practice skills for getting along, sharing, and resolving conflicts. When young children are constructing blocks, magnitiles, lego's etc... There are bound to be knockdowns, both on purpose and by accident, and these can cause hurt feelings, anger, and even physical hurts. Today the Tel Aviv All Stars took the time to make a few very important rules, for the block area/classroom.

At circle time we talked about how creating some "helpful rules"will make all building/construction areas in the classroom more enjoyable for everyone. We asked the children to suggest some rules. One child suggested we use a buzzer or object that makes a loud noise if you knock a friends structure over. We then posed the suggestion to the group, and they replied, "It would depend on what kind of alarm it is,because we wouldn't want it to scare us!" At this point in our discussion it was clear to the teachers, the children needed to get up and move around...So we switched gears, opened the room for free play,and individually asked the children to share their ideas about "helpful rules" when constructing buildings or structures.

The following are a list of the "Helpful Rules" the children came up with:

• Ask a friend before you knock down a structure/building
• If you want to help friends with their building/structure, ask them first, please
• If a building gets knocked over please help your friend build it again