block play

[Guest]

Community play things posted this on facebook....

 

Children who play with building blocks are likely to develop greater social, mathematical and creative skills, research has suggested.

Watch the BBC report on this http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-23791478

 

Hands up who loves blocks!

[narnia]

YAYYYYYYYY for blocks..........................and YAYYYYYYYYYYYYY for Community Playthings .................and YAYYYYYYYYY for children

[sunnyday]

I have both hands up!

[Fredbear]

The most fantastic resource we have. Kindly sold by a lovely practitioner on here.

Brilliant, incredible, amazing, do you get the feeling I love them.

Get what you pay for springs to mind, but worth every penny. :)

[MrsL]

What sets do you all own? How many bricks etc? Do you find them hard to store? I would dearly love some community play things blocks and have done for about 7 years!

[flowlow]

I have do have blocks but I would like more more more, I would love some plain wooden ones as we have coloured wooden ones and foam blocks (both of which I inherited) I am going back with new enthusiasm to convince the purse string holders that we need more more more

[narnia]

We havelots of Community Playthings blocks: two of the triple layer trollies; two sets of mini blocks; a preschool hollow block set; a half hollow block starter set and a load of big hollow blocks. Some of mine are about 50 years old and were rescued from my local school where the grumpy old caretaker was feeding them into the furnace because he couldn't stand them!!!!!!!! I am making one of our rooms into total block play space from the new term.........hope the children will love it. You can really never have too many blocks, wish I had space/money for lots more, but I do realise how lucky we are to have what we've got.............just missed out on a load of second hand ones recently, very disappointed, but someone had great good fortune, lucky them.

[flowlow]

would love community play things blocks but am told they are just too expensive am looking at other types in the hopes that I can get some more although quite where we are going to store them I am not sure but that is what toy clean is for a big sort out and throw away of all the things we don't use!!!! I was going to ask if anyone knows of how to lay my hands on reasonable priced ones (or second hand)

[narnia]

They are expensive, there' no doubt about it. But if you weigh up how long you will use them for and all the children, then it starts to work out a bit cheaper. Lots of companies sell them, but beware that some will splinter and therefore be useless. CP ones are made to fit each other exactly, in a mathematical way.one unit interacts with others. They will last longer than you, probably! One tip..............look for nurseries closing down, especially any in colleges, and phone to ask if they have any CP ones to sell off. Often they will just want rid at good price. Good luck.

[Fredbear]

Yes they are modular, so fantastic for mathematical concepts. We have a half school set of hollow ones, which includes planks etc. We have an old trolley woolworths we're selling off when they were sadly closing down which we store them in. Love to recycle if we can.

We are hoping to purchase the preschool set too to add to our collection. This has been made possible by our Committees wonderful fundraising efforts throughout the year.

Look out for the secondhand ones if you can.

[narnia]

modular.....................that's the word!! and planks too, I forgot about those...........

[finleysmaid]

TTS do some reasonable alternatives....

 

http://www.tts-group.co.uk/shops/tts/Products/PD1720248/Wooden-Blocks/

[Guest]

Our wooden blocks where the one staple of our CP that children wanted out week after week

In terms 1 to 3 imore often than not the blocks where a train track as the young children where so so into trains

Then they discovered our box of super heros then blocks became bat cars

 

My girls discovered that if they could get to the blocks first, they could build intricate castles for sleeping beauty and her mother!

 

Tidy up time causes problem solving as they tessellate the shapes to fit into the box because the lid needs to fit flush on top or we can't fit it in our tardis of a cupboard.

 

Huge huge fan

[flowlow]

great stuff Suer

 

I did have a quick look at tts they have some nice ones quite like the bamboo ones too

 

I know they are worth it it is just now convincing the committee to part with the money, actually wish I could have placed order at beginning of hols so that they would be here by now I really really want a new block area

[Guest]

realised I should have said were not where!!!!

 

we also have 3 types large hollow blocks that are outside, unit block and mini unit blocks

we also wooden vehicles and large wooden sit on wooden vehicles

 

they are worth every penny, will have them for many years to come

[Guest]

I feel so lucky! My local authority ran a block play project last year and I was lucky to get a place (actually run by the man in the bbc video linked above) This meant I got a full set off community playthings blocks with storage unit and a set of large hollow blocks for free!!!! All I had to do was my own research project on them! It was such a fantastic project and the benefits I observed due to having the blocks were fantastic. So much so that I have now given up half my classroom to the blocks. I can't recommend them enough. You will find they cover all the areas in the eyfs all the time and the quality of play that comes from them is wonderful!

 

Wish everyone could do the project as part of being an EY professional!

[catma]

In the olden days all schools in ILEA had them as default so I always had them in my classrooms. I couldn't imagine teaching without them really.

 

We went to visit Community Playthings recently and saw how they design and make their resources - they are guaranteed for 10 years and have all sorts of things designed into them to reflect how children of different ages will move, play, work.....I love them even more now but I also appreciate why they cost a bit more. But I doubt so much love goes into the making of any alternatives!!

 

Cx

[narnia]

I went to visit CP too and I agree, the work and precision that goes into them makes them worth every penny, especially when you realise that every single block is hand finished, to guarantee those lovely smooth edges. LOVE our blocks............how about we get some lovely block play photos up on site?? It might help reticent committees to dip their hands in their pockets?? CP have some great ones on their site, and they will send publications/training packs for free, you just have to ask

Edited September 7, 2013 by narnia

[ForestFlo]

We have been to CP too (Im going again next month too ) I managed to convince the committee last time we needed a dream coracle and partitioning for our toddler room, which looks fab. This time my mission is to convince them we need hollow blocks, its a hard one though when they see the ones in TTS less than half the price, I know why the CP prices are so much higher but the committee are rather short sighted when it comes to this sort of thing.

 

FF

Edited September 7, 2013 by ForestFlo

[catma]

I really wanted to have an adult sized dream coracle!!!

[ForestFlo]

Ditto that Catma! They are just soooo inviting.

My eight year old managed to curl up in our one!

FF

[Melcatfish]

great stuff Suer

 

I did have a quick look at tts they have some nice ones quite like the bamboo ones too

 

I know they are worth it it is just now convincing the committee to part with the money, actually wish I could have placed order at beginning of hols so that they would be here by now I really really want a new block area

 

We have the bamboo construction from TTS (it was me who wrote the review!) we love them! My own children also love them and if we go in during the holidays for me to get some jobs done they will play with them for ages and often ask me to bring them home for the weekend or school holidays! I also like the TTS tree blocks as well.

 

We do have a set of hollow blocks which were given to the school years ago. Unfortunately my the cart broke and my predecessor decided to paint them with wood paint (brown) and leave them out so consequently many are no longer in good condition. I have my eye on a new set at some point although it won't be this year as I have just spent a lot of our budget redeveloping part of our outdoor area and I have my eye on the Community Playthings Creative Trolley!

 

Mel

x

[flowlow]

I have only been back two day but the block play area is working really well! Its still under construction and a learning curve for us in what works - first day I didn't want to limit the area so no mat or definition of area and some children went mad but then the other children found it hard not to 'run through' or 'trundle their pushchairs through' the space in their games so it was constant need to remind them as it was knocking over models, although the block play had kind of taking over the whole setting.

 

The Second day we made a little definition of a space with a couple of tables that encouraged the other children to walk around and this worked really well. I am so chuffed. This coupled with objective led planing and I have already seen so much improvement this term to us and the children.

 

We are holding out for a set from community play things after looking at tts and reading views on here we have enough to start the process going and will hold off buying and fund raise for a descent set from them. Although I did like the rock shaped ones for outside from tts so might also fund raise for them too although they are not so expensive.