Learning with building blocks: A new perspective to today’s education
Most people—irrespective of their ages—love playing with building blocks. Indeed, the attraction of this bright-colored toy is irresistible. However, the use of building blocks is now not only confined to the realm of game. These days, they are increasingly being used in the teaching/learning purposes.
Teachers, across the world, are using these building blocks in various creative ways in their classrooms. Some teachers use them as a hands-on tool in order to help their students get a better understanding of a subject. A math teacher has once revealed how she uses this toy to teach various concepts of mathematics, such as fractions, multiplication, range, value and so on.
The use of these building blocks can also make the language class exciting. Be it teaching students parts of speech, alphabetical order, the art of narrating/storytelling or creative writing—their use can add some fun elements to the lesson, thereby retaining students’ interest.
In view of the growing importance of STEM (Science, Technology and Engineering) education and robotics, many schools are also using building blocks to develop students’ interest in robotics. A teacher of a renowned public school in Delhi believes that kids should be encouraged to build robots using these building blocks and this way, it will be possible to motivate them to pursue STEM education and robotics in the future.
Even in kindergarten schools, the use of colourful building blocks is quite prevalent. Teachers are using them to develop children’s fine motor skill and hand-eye coordination. Besides, when it comes to teaching kids how to follow directions using logic, these building blocks always come in handy for kindergarten teachers.
Last but not the least; teachers can use this toy to inculcate various life skills into students. Some of these skills include lateral thinking, three dimensional thinking, problem solving, organization skills, and so on.
