Blocks

I worked in Owen’s classroom today.  I met with two small reading groups with about five kids each  The story we read was about a little boy who was building a tower with blocks.  He seemed mad on most the pages until the last page where he smiles and says he is happy.  On that page he is standing next to a completed tower of blocks.

As we talked about the book, I asked the kids about their experience with blocks.  One kid  in each of the groups said that they thought the boy in the story was mad at the people who got near the blocks because he was worried that the tower would get knocked down. (this was what I expected that a typical five-year-old would have experience with.)  But I was surprised by the number of students who gave me a dirty look when I suggested that they had blocks at home.   Their eyebrows furrowed, then their nose scrunched, and they said (quite disgustedly) that they didn’t have blocks at home.  Three students responded this way, and about half of the students said that they didn't have blocks at home at all.  It seemed so sad to think of that. 

I  love to play with blocks with my monkeys.  I must admit they they have not picked the blocks out on their own in a while, but they are very happy to play them  if that is what I pull out.  Blocks are so good for math skills – not to mention creativity and lots of other every-day skills.  It seems like such a shame that every kid hasn’t experienced the joys of blocks.