Village Library of Morgantown received materials from The Office of Commonwealth Libraries to implement a series of Block Play Parties for young children and their adults through the Cruise into Kindergarten program grant. Blocks offer children an almost infinite variety of opportunities to express themselves, from constructing simple designs to veritable engineering feats of bridge building.
Block building is no idle pastime. In fact, research shows that block play is shown to help children develop social-emotional skills (cooperation, self-confidence, initiative); social studies (people and their work, when played with in conjunction with character figurines and other props); physical development (eye-hand coordination, hand manipulation); mathematics (shape, classification, order, size, space); science (gravity, weight, balance, trial and error); language arts (exchange of ideas, naming of building, stories about building); and art (patterns, symmetry).
In addition to the wooden blocks, the library received a variety of figurines, animals and other props for the children to use with the blocks. They are only limited by their imaginations! The libraries also received professional resources about block play and children’s development. For young readers, the library has books about building, tools and more.
Village Library of Morgantown is holding a Public Block Party on the Feb. 27. To register for the Block Parties, please contact Pam Mohl at 610-286-1022 and pam.mohl@villagelibrary.org.
