GUIDE SHEET: TOY

DUPLO BLOCKS

Program Year: 1

Supporting Your Child’s Development: Block play supports many areas of your child’s development. By using his/her imagination, making decisions about which blocks to use, and problem-solving, playing with blocks supports your child’s cognitive development. Counting, sorting, and balancing are all parts of math readiness, and telling stories based on his/her imagination is part of early literacy. Placing and fitting the blocks develops your child’s small motor skills. In addition, practice in skills such as sharing and behavioral regulation, will aid your child’s social-emotional development, a very important aspect of school readiness.

Name and encourage your child to name:

  • New words: rectangle, stack, tower, balance
  • Colors:Blueblock, red flower, yellow window
  • Shapes:Square, rectangle, round
  • Sizes:Small, short building; large, tall building
  • Numbers:Many blocks, one cat
  • Relationships:Put one block on top of another; the red block is underneath the blue block; the cat is inside the building
  • Categories:Shapes, colors, animals, windows, doors
  • Textures:Smooth blocks
  • Causing things to happen:“When you snap the block in place, it will stay there.”

Describe your actions. Invite the child to describe his or her actions:

  • General:“Let’s put the flower outside of the house.”
  • Sorting and Matching:“Can you put all the red blocks together?”
  • Fitting: “These blocks snap together.”
  • Sounds:“Let’s listen to the noise the blocks make when we tap them together.”

Remind the child to think about what s/he is doing:

  • To Get Child's Attention:“Let’s take out all the pieces first.”
  • To Make a Choice: “Would you like to build a house or something else?”
  • To Encourage Self-control: “Let me show you how the blocks snap together first.”
  • To Remember Other Experiences: “What other blocks do you have?”
  • To Do Things in the Right Order: “Try putting the blocks around the door.”

Suggestions

  • Let your child “take the lead” and determine what she/he wants to build.
  • Before beginning to build, allow your child to explore all the blocks in the set.
  • Encourage your child to use her/his imagination and tell you a story about what she/he is building.
  • Compare the Duplo blocks with the wooden blocks that came with the block wagon. Which ones snap together and which ones don’t?
  • Use toys in combination, such as using the figures that came with the school bus in combination with the Duplo blocks.
  • Show your child how to keep all the blocks in their container and talk to your child about cleaning up after he/she is done playing. Help your child put away the blocks. Tell your child that when the blocks are put away, all the blocks will be ready the next time and none of the blocks will get lost.

The Parent-Child Home Program, Inc. 2013Section II - 1