By: Alicia Jones
A few weeks ago when I first took out blocks for the children a battle erupted in which each child quickly tried to hold as many blocks for him or herself as possible. They were sitting on the blocks and yelling at each other. One little boy literally laid on top of the blocks and was screaming “mine!” So I proceeded to pick him up and sit him on the floor. I took the blocks and deliberately built a small tower. Meanwhile I was saying “build, build” in Hungarian.
At first he continued his hoarding and gathering of blocks in his lap. But as I built the tower he began to watch. As I handed him some blocks and said “build,” he began to build a little something, but soon lost interest and went to play something else.
Since that experience the children have all learned to play more kindly. And last week there was a beautiful moment one morning when I looked around the room and all the children were playing quietly at various activities; coloring, playing house, and building with blocks. I noticed this same little boy, who had lain on the blocks a few weeks before, was sitting next to another boy with the blocks. He watched carefully as the second boy, who is an expert builder after just one week of working with the blocks, built a tall tower. He began to build a tower too. Then they built a tower together. When they were finished they ran to each teacher, saying, “Look, look!” With delight the whole class paused what we were doing and celebrated the building of beautiful towers and then we captured this picture. See more pictures of the first month of kindergarten here.