Play Provocations #9: Construction Play

In this inspiring episode of our Play Provocations mini-series, host Linda Harrison is joined by lead early childhood educator Michelle Jackson to explore how intentional environmental design can elevate construction play into a rich hub for creativity, engineering, and storytelling. 

Together, they unpack the pedagogical power of construction play—highlighting how manipulating open-ended mediums like timber offcuts, loose parts, and natural elements allows children to bring their 3D ideas to life. You'll hear expert insights on how constructive play acts as one of children's powerful "hundred languages" to test hypotheses, collaborate with peers, and express early mathematical understandings.

Ready to transform your early learning space? Tune in to discover tips on defining safe building zones, arranging accessible open storage, and honouring ongoing "work in progress" structures. Plus, you’ll hear three inspirational play provocations you can implement in your early years classroom tomorrow. Listen now to discover how thoughtful material arrangements can spark rich, child-led inquiry and take your block corner to the next level!

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Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:01

Welcome to Learn Play Thrive the podcast, the ultimate early learning podcast for educators and leaders in the sector. Let's learn, play, and thrive together.

SPEAKER_01 0:11

The Learn Play Thrive podcast was recorded on the land with the Dark and Jung people. We pay our respects to the traditional custodians, past, present, and emerging. Hands up, hands down, clear and dark and jungle.

SPEAKER_04 0:25

Hello listeners and welcome back to Play Provocations. I'm Linda Harrison, and joining me today for the second time is Michelle Jackson. So Michelle is a lead early childhood educator in a long daycare center with more than 29 years of experience in the sector. And she has lots of experience in designing hands-on learning, which invites and enriches play spaces and learning for young children. So today we are taking a deep dive into an essential part of play in the early years. We are looking at construction play. So a warm welcome, Michelle. Thank you, Linda.

SPEAKER_03 1:00

Thank you very much for having me. Construction play is very passionate to me. I think it's very important in the in in all rooms, but most certainly in the older preschool room. Construction play is a staple. It's almost in every early childhood setting. Yeah. And to today we're exploring how intentional open-end and play provocations can elevate a shelf of wooden blocks into a rich environment for creativity, engineering, and storytelling.

SPEAKER_04 1:26

Fantastic. And before we jump into the environmental design, if we just ground ourselves in the theory and pedagogical alignment around construction play, this type of play is crucial to early learning and it provides young children with those rich opportunities to create and to test ideas and make sense of their environment. So whether they are balancing blocks or they might be fitting puzzle pieces together or making creations from different materials, children experience that meaningful learning through that hands-on construction play. And construction or constructive play involves experiences where children manipulate various materials and mediums to build or shape or transform them into new creations.

SPEAKER_03 2:17

That's right, Linda. I think when we look at block play, we instantly just think blocks on a shelf that is so far from that now. I love to include the children in the objects that we're going to add to the area. So I'll ask the children firstly in the preschool area, which I'm mostly in, say, come on over, what can we have here? What do we need? What can we make this better? And they will often say, We need a pipe, we need a piece of string to add to this area. So thinking outside the box is of what you can add to the area is really going to enhance their learning. Using off-cuts, materials, loose parts, sticks, pipes, cardboards. I love to use different levels so that they can get that height if they're going to add some trucks to that area. Say, so they if they want to run a truck down it, they can have it run down and then go to another section. And all that movement is there's so much learning going on. Also, really thinking about that space that you've got for that because you with construction you need a a fair amount of space for the children to be able to effectively play. And also thinking about the height of your area. So lots of children would love to build it up higher, see how high they can make it. So if you've got another platform that they can lead it on, sometimes that enhances the area again and leaving the pipes out and for them to come back to, say, and not packing it away, but really having areas that they can clearly see where they are and what they can use is fundamental to start your construction area.

SPEAKER_04 3:44

And I think when children are engaging in constructive play, it really goes far beyond just developing their physical skills because children are using those different materials that you've just described, Michelle, to bring their ideas to life in three-dimension, like you were saying, as they're building up and out and different levels and layers. And when they are building collaboratively with, you know, another peer or a group of peers, their language skills do flourish because they have to negotiate and advocate for their designs. You know, I I want to build a tower today, or I'm wanting to build my local street or whatever they're talking about. And so that STEM learning, too, is incredible because they're exploring those concepts like scale and with the spatial awareness and then also symmetry and balance and gravity. Like there's lots of different STEM skills.

SPEAKER_03 4:40

There so is Linda. And adding always I'm trying to add measure measurements, rulers, tape measures so that the children are getting space and looking at the mathematical concepts as well, adding, you know, paper and a pencil to that area. Recently, our children weren't sure where to start with a construction area. So we suggested let's make a plan, let's draw something that we can add to this area and see if we can recreate that. This challenge just went crazy with the children. They were, they just couldn't believe how they could make this. And all of a sudden, I saw them working as a team. Well, how about I do this? I make this. What do you want to do? Well, you need to put that there. So they were researching their materials and then they were actually going out into the outdoor environment, choosing things from the outdoor to bring back into this play as well. To there was a tire, they used a tire outside, and two of the boys walked outside, got the tire, rolled it in to the construction area to raise the level up that they wanted to make this castle out of. So the the play that was happening was just amazing. I also love to take photographs of what they're doing. So we put it in a little book for them. So as the steps go on, they can go back and reflect what they're learning and to enhance the area more and think about next week what they would like to bring into that area.

SPEAKER_04 5:57

Oh, that sounds fantastic. I love you know involving the children where they can actually choose their materials. And I think, yeah, it's a great workout if we link back to the early years learning framework where children are driving their own research and their curiosity and persistence and creativity. So yeah, I think that's great for particularly the older preschoolers. But if we think about the younger infants and toddlers, and I'm just thinking about theorist Jean Piaget, that reminds us that children do actually first go through that functional play, don't they? Where they're they're feeling textures and they're testing weight and they're discovering gravity by knocking things down before they actually move into that intentional construction that you were just describing. So once toddlers and preschoolers understand how different materials behave, whether it be blocks or you know, those magnetic tiles, then they can construct with more purpose. That's right. But I think all of those open-ended materials that you've described that we're offering to young children, I it actually links in with the research that children often choose constructive play over 50% of the time in early learning services.

SPEAKER_03 8:54

I found that really interesting. I found it really interesting as well, that it's what you observe. Yeah. You notice them if how if the objects in that area, the play matures in that area, there's more exciting things there for them to work with, they will mostly go to that that zone. And you know, in being they're so inquisitive in every every aspect of that. Yes.

SPEAKER_04 9:14

And I think we can actually see construction play as one of the children's powerful hundred languages if we're thinking about Reggio Amelia and that approach, because children are using those their different languages to express their spatial and creativity through that kind of play.

SPEAKER_03 9:32

We've recently been reading after story time, we've been incorporating following up our language with story time. There was a beautiful book that we've just been reading, The Emperor's Egg. The children, there was a beautiful building in there, and I challenged the children after that. I wonder how we could create this castle in this book. They grabbed the book, they took it over to the play area, they were looking at the pictures, pointing, discussing with each other, and then looked around and made the castle with the tiles actually that you just said before the tiles, and then incorporated the pipes and use all these different materials within that room to construct this castle that was exactly like the one from the book.

SPEAKER_04 10:13

Oh, fantastic. So it's kind of like a story-inspired construction play. Absolutely, which can, yeah, be another springboard for children's learning and imagination through that kind of play. So I think that's a great idea if it, you know, educators, if children are really interested in a certain picture book, you can also include those picture books within the construction play areas as another provocation for their play. So, Michelle, before we introduce our three play provocations today, how should educators prepare the physical environment for construction play? I mean, you've already talked a lot about defining a generous space, but what else could educators do to set up an effective space that can enrich construction play?

SPEAKER_03 10:59

Make I see make sure it's always located away from a high traffic path. That's really important. Children do not want their things to be accidentally knocked down. Yes. And it's frustrating and they can become very overwhelmed if that happens. So it needs to be large enough for a collaborative group and for physical pay just so they can really make long tunnels, they can build up high, and it's not going to be crashing down and being in a walkway. We should also provide accessible characterized storage. This is really important. Store box at low shelves so that they can access and they're not too heavy. So you wouldn't put the heavy things up the top where they're trying to drag them down. So placement is really important for their learning as well, so they can access and that feels like achievable, that they can get their job done, what they they're wanting to do. It gives them a sense of agency. Yes. And also clearly labelled so that they and there's a picture on it as well to help to help guide some children. And they can pack away. So if they at the end of that they want to put something away to give them more space, they can easily see where it belongs. It's also helpful if educators set up dedicated display areas for their work. This is really important because they love a work in progress. So seeing they'll often come over and say, Shell, can you show me what would what did I do last week? And they've got the book out and they can go refer to it, reflect on it, what see what else they can add, how can we make this better? How can we make it bigger? How can we extend on it? What is the purpose of this building? What's it what are we going to use it for? So it might be linked to the book that they were doing. So let's add the book there. Let's do another page of the book, and all of a sudden we've got this wonderful story from construction zone that can be shared with their families later. Talking about it, revisiting it with families is really important to their learning as well. The parents are coming back and saying, they said that they built this really cool tower, and then we'll start saying, Yes, it was in this book, and it was about this. The children that then are sharing all these language as well with them about this construction area. So not only is this construction, it's turning into this wonderful, more dramatic place scene, as we we'd like to say. So having pictures on the wall for them to challenge themselves is really important.

SPEAKER_04 13:07

And that documentation piece of documenting the children's learning, so they can actually revisit their constructions and add on that.

SPEAKER_03 13:16

Absolutely. I love to add things from around the world as well, so they can just see what different kinds of buildings and add a world globe to that area because often as educators, you know, you can seize a moment by so we'll say there's a hut from Fiji and say, Oh, where is a child can say, where is Fiji? Well, hang on a minute, look at this the globe. Let's have a look at this. Yeah, let's have a look on the board where this building's from. I can show you here, it's this wonderful group learning that's happening just by them creating one piece of construction work on the ground.

SPEAKER_04 13:50

Yes, and I think that respect for children's ongoing work is so important as well because we can move from just having blocks on a shelf to creating those enriching play provocations. And when we think about play provocations, just a reminder that they are an inviting but also a thoughtful arrangement of materials. And all of those ideas that you've just described, Michelle, they spark children's curiosity, but they're not prescribing a particular outcome in any way. They're completely open-ended. Very open-ended. And educators can layer the loose parts alongside those, which we've already mentioned today. So you can include the fabrics or mirror tiles or clay blocks and providing those visual sparks, like you mentioned for documentation, are so wonderful. So let's now step into our three open-ended construction play provocations today that educators can set up in their early learning classrooms. So our first play provocation idea is a multi-textured block and loose parts tray. So, Michelle, how could educators set this one up?

SPEAKER_03 14:58

Firstly, clear a low carpet area or a wooden play table, then arrange a base set of natural wooden blocks in low baskets. Also introduce a wooden divided tray filled with loose parts like felt off cuts, smooth river rocks. We use river rocks in so many ways in the preschool room and fabrics. They love fabrics. So the blocks and the fabrics, you can use them to represent water. They can then bring the animals over into the area to add to the blocks, and they can just then they can do a whole scene. So it gives them so much more choice. So fabrics, blocks, cylinders, wooden people, animals, figurines can they are so important. They can really enhance an area as well. Lots of little felt-round squares and small, small and large pebbles in the older room has been beautiful in recreating scenes from books as well.

SPEAKER_04 15:48

And with that play provocation, I think it kind of links us to our next one, which encourages engineering and spatial reasoning and also connects to community structures in play. So with this play provocation, educators could set up a low shelf or a display board, you know, at children's eye level, and we could mount some photographs of local community structures. So you could include bridges or buildings or arches, and you could include those alongside photos of children's old past constructions as well. And then offer some different materials too. So maybe some hollow blocks or some wooden planks, magnetic tiles. And then I think a really important material to include in construction play is some clipboards with paper and maybe some pencils, even charcoal pencils, yes. And some rulers, some erasers, and that way children can begin to design their constructions and or kind of write their notes along the way of what they're planning on doing, or they might even like to draw what they have built. So it just offers that another early literacy support there, and then yeah, they can use those drawing tools. So it's yeah, integrating numeracy and measurement and that symbol making. And so, Michelle, what's our third construction and play provocation idea today?

SPEAKER_03 17:13

Yes, we're going to be setting up movie construction provocations outdoors into the grass area. Okay. And outside, this is another area that is fantastic. I observed actually the children setting up a plank outside, and another child went and got a truck and they ran it down the plank. They realized that this wasn't going fast enough and long enough, so they added more planks to that area to see how high they could get it, and then took it to the sandpit, and then we're doing a doing it in the sandpit, and then realize that the balancing in the sand pit, if I lean this side and we put the truck on one end and we jump on one end, it's going to jump up into the air. So it was this science, whole science concept that came from running one truck down a plank to see if we could jump how high this truck could jump and go off. So a whole science experiment came from this plank in the truck into the sandpit. We love to add tires, tires and putting a big bowl inside a tyre and filling that with water and then adding things into that can be a beautiful play piece for construction in the sandpit. Doing different levels in the sandpit, different heights in the sandpit again is really encouraging for the children to explore depths and heights and measurement and space in the sandpit. And getting the educators to be supportive of thinking about that in the mornings at setup. Like just instead of just coming in and in the outdoor environment and just putting the you know the buckets and spades just sat around, think about what you can use in your environment for the children to construct. You might have long, big, long leaves or some kinds of long sticks. Can we set those up and just have minimum things in there to be not overwhelming? So it's not overwhelming in the sand, but just have a few things and then get the children again to what we could add or what do we need to add to this area? So starting off simple and then getting bigger with what they can find in the area and listening to the children's voices is another thing as well of what their interest is. Was it from inside what we were talking about before with the Azeg book? Can we make a castle? How could we make a castle in the sandpit? What would we need? What we need to do there? Could we do we need the blocks, the ramps, like the children were doing with the trucks? What could we incorporate using the natural materials that are around the service to incorporate that can in our construction? The larger blocks, could we use the blocks in that area?

SPEAKER_04 19:34

Um so I think really from what we've been talking about today, that construction play really can be added to all parts of the early childhood curriculum. I think, you know, in any type of play, construction play actually. Children are natural little builders and engineers, aren't they? So they're always trying to work out different ways that they can construct. So it's a really important part of our early childhood curriculum and simple shifts in the environment, and again, that presentation of the materials can transform a construction play into a really rich learning experience. And when we're trusting children as capable researchers and learners by providing those open-ended materials, we're really supporting that capacity for critical thinking and creativity.

SPEAKER_03 20:22

I think it's really important, Linda, that the educators have a chat, a real deep dive into what are we going to purposely put into the sample or listening to the children's voices, what can we really enhance that area to gain their interest? And you see the difference when the educators are communicating of how much better and how much the children are getting from those areas and how much more resourceful they're being themselves as little learners. They inspire you daily of what they know and what they can do. So we just need to listen to the children's voices, know what we know as educators, and put the things that are in there that's that you know is respectful for what's the room's learning about at that time is going to enhance your learning overall. Yes.

SPEAKER_04 21:02

Well, thank you very much for joining us today, Michelle, on Exploring Construction Play. It's been amazing to hear all of your really inspiring setups within the service that you're working in. Thank you, Linda. Thank you so much for having me. And for our listeners, you can find out more at www.learnplaythrive.com.au. And until next time, keep playing, learning, and thriving.

SPEAKER_02 21:27

Thank you for joining us on this episode of Learn Playthrive the podcast. We hope you found inspiration and valuable insights to fuel your journey in early childhood education. Remember the key to fostering learning, promoting play, and empowering young minds lies with your dedication and creativity. Stay connected between episodes by following us on Instagram at learnplaythrive underscore and join the conversation on Facebook at LearnPlaythrive Australia. If you've enjoyed today's episode, please like, subscribe, rate or review our podcast on your favourite platform. Your feedback helps us to continue to deliver content that resonates with you. And don't forget to visit us at our website at learnplaythrive.com.au for additional resources, blog posts, and professional development opportunities. Until next time, keep learning, keep playing, and keep thriving. We'll see you in the next episode of Learn Playthrive the podcast.