1 Do you have construction equipment made from natural materials, such as wood? Sensory exploration of textures, shapes and sizes is important.
2 Do you have an area for your blocks and bricks? If the large items have special places on shelves or in boxes for their storage, then children will be learning about capacity and length at tidying up time too.
3 Have you tried supplementing your construction equipment with junk and recycled materials? In particular, large cardboard boxes and cardboard tubes from carpet shops make big and exciting building materials.
4 Are there spaces where children's constructions can be saved, so they can come back to them later? This gives children the time to develop their ideas and makes them feel that their efforts have real value.
5 Does your construction area include pictures of buildings, or architects' plans, or engineers' drawings of aeroplanes? These can widen children's horizons and give them new ideas.
6 Do adults interact with children to support pretend play with large construction equipment? With wooden blocks, children can build a den, boat or space rocket as a starting point for imaginary play.
7 Are there pens, paper and clipboards in your construction area? These will give children opportunities to draw plans, or make sketches to record their work.
8 Have children had rich, first-hand experiences of building? You could go on a trip to a building site or watch shopfitters at work through the shop windows on your local high street.
9 Do you sometimes display children's construction work for parents? A series of photographs showing a child at work can give parents an insight into their child's involvement and thoughtfulness while building.
10 Have you got too many different sets of construction equipment? It might be better to have a few sets, each with a large amount of pieces, so the children can become specialists. Its also useful to have enough of a set to encourage sharing and collaboration.
