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By
Catherine M. Pruissen
The
construction centre will require more floor space
as children are involved in active play using blocks,
farm sets, cars and trucks, construction materials,
and roadway equipment. Blocks
are one of the best toys for the construction centre
as children can build anything from skyscrapers to
roadways, or from fences to corral the horses, to
actual towns.
What the children learn while playing in the construction
centre is more than you might imagine. For example:
- It
takes coordination to build a skyscraper.
- It
takes counting and visual cognition to line up a
bunch of houses in a town.
- A
roadway takes precision in lining up the blocks
perfectly, as does building a fence.
- Through
it all it builds a child's imagination, creativity
and thought process.
CONSTRUCTION
CENTRE MATERIALS
In addition to blocks, when integrated with other
types of construction materials like:
- sandpaper
- foam
pieces
- play
cars
- toy
people
- string
- longer
pieces of lumber, etc. add to the excitement and
creative process, and
- larger
boxes make great club houses, a post office, or
a tunnel.
The
possibilities are endless. A great construction centre
comes complete with:
- an
assortment of blocks (wooden, cardboard, foam, even
covered-up milk cartons) Dublo, etc.
- foam
or rubber scraps
- cardboard
boxes
- lumber
scraps
- farm
and zoo animals
- airplanes,
cars, trucks, and
- excavation
equipment of allsorts.
For the older children you might want to include:
- nuts
and bolds
- kid
size tools
- paint
odds and ends like steering wheels
- small
wheels
- road
signs, and
- Tinker
Toys, Lego or other building toys.
For
more information on setting up play centres in your
home or daycare centre, consult the wonderful book,
Start and Run a
Profitable Home Day Care, and check out these
other related articles:
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©
Catherine M. Pruissen
Catherine M. Pruissen is the CEO of About Child Care
Consumer Services and developer of child care online.
She has published numerous child care related literature,
including Start and
Run a Profitable Home Day Care, The
Daycare Alternative, How to Find Good Child Care,
Caregiver Aids: Business
Forms for Caregivers and Parents, Income
Tax & Record Keeping for Child Care Providers,
and a host of workshops and workbooks. She was the editor
and publisher of the bi-monthly newsletter, Parent Care,
Your Child Care News-line. Catherine was also the coordinator
and workshop facilitator for The Child Care Information
Centre in Calgary, Alberta, and ran a successful dayhome
for eight years. |
