As we’ve posted before, the Blue Room has been having block share sometimes after Free Play. We have been seeing a lot of ships, and rockets, but today was new and exciting! Not only did we have different structures to hear about, but we had 2! We sat patiently as Sophie shared her house including a swimming pool with people swimming.

The circle in the foreground is the swimming pool, and the stacked structure and arches are part of Sophie’s house

Then we heard about the castle that Asher, Drew, and Gabriel collaboratively built.

The tall area with cylinders and animals is the castle, the arches a drinking fountain, and the tall rectangular area a park in Asher, Drew and Gabriel’s structure

Block share is a wonderful opportunity for some children (the builders) to become comfortable speaking in front of a group of people- like our class and teachers.

Here Gabriel is sharing something about the structure he helped build

It also gives our audience (the rest of the class) a great opportunity too. As their friends present their creations they hone their listening skills, taking in what is being shared. Then they have opportunities to ask questions about what they are looking at or hearing.

Here, builders sit and listen while audience members ask a question.

While questioning and answering are skills that are somewhat second nature to us, it is still something many children are working on. Often when doing Block Share when it’s time to ask questions we hear more information or comments about the structure even when a child hasn’t helped! We remind the class about question words, like where, how and why to help them form their questions. If a comment is still said we might help rephrase it for them, comparing the difference between comments and questions.

Sophie answers a question about her structure

We have been noticing so many more questions rather than comments! Have you?