The Demeter School

In the October 2003 issue of the NCTM magazine, I read the article “The Power of Block Building”. I choose this article because it gave facts and evidence to our “world of data” on the power of play. Beth Casey and Barbara Cobb wrote about the mathematical benefits of blocks in the classroom and specifically focused on the book Sneeze Builds a Castle, which challenges children to use math concepts while building structures for Sneeze.
Casey and Cobb begin the article by explaining the benefits that most already recognized of block building. For example, balance, motor skill, and imaginary play. But since the increasing need for data and accountability the authors looked at the research on how block building improves math skills. Some positive evidence they discovered included that students who participate in block building at early ages have a better chance at achieving success in math in the elementary grades. Even gender differences in block building skills where recognized. Studies showed that boys built more complex structures then the girls did which suggests that “early intervention to develop spatial skills is needed, particularly for girls”.
The article introduces a book, Sneeze Builds a Castle, to help motivate the children in this play. Sneeze becomes involved with many problems that the children need to help solve. They learn to investigate how to build bridges and parts of Sneeze’s castle by using the blocks. There is a series of stories that go along with Sneeze’s journeys and the articles provides some classroom examples of how they involved the mathematical concepts into the block building lesson.
I can remember when I was younger playing with Legos. I would always build a house. Every single time. Maybe the rooms in the house would change, but my brother could always predict what I was going to make. I found this interesting when I read that in the elementary school and middle school levels, “boys build more architecturally sophisticated structures than girls do”. The article explains that these spatial skills are so important at younger ages, which is a good “defender” of block building.
I was also very excited to see a fictional character like Sneeze being played out in the classroom to reinforce math. When I think of math, I think of worksheets and workbooks. It is so wonderful to see it going in the direction that we know works! I was surprised to see that when the children played with the blocks, they reinforced their mathematical vocabulary such as “turn, flip, and slide”. The children really did use so many concepts and skills while investigating their problems. I even saw integration with others lessons such as science (exploring, discovering) and history (researching the background of castles and bridges).
This article gave me even more ideas about thinking “outside the box”when it comes to teaching mathematics. I enjoyed the integration of subjects, the play aspect of the lessons, and how the children were meeting objectives in creative fun ways. It also provided insight on the gender issue of education that I never planned for in my lessons. The article gave teacher ideas on how to implement this in the classroom and stressed the importance of new ways to approach mathematical concepts.

Filed under: General, Math on March 24th, 2007