At the recent Education Show in Birmingham, a number of people who stopped by our stand mentioned that children in their settings love our Hollow blocks and use them every day in very creative ways. But another practitioner said that her children rarely use the Hollow blocks, even though they are always available. Wondering what the difference was, we discussed it further. It turned out that in her setting the children have such a wide range of toys and materials to choose from that they flit from one to another without getting deeply involved in anything. This brought to mind the old adage: that often less is more!

By defining choice as providing limitless resources, we risk distracting children from the deeply-engaged play in which the most intense communication and learning take place. The benefit of open-ended materials like Hollow blocks is that they intrinsically provide choice on their own. Children can choose whether to play alone or together, whether to use the blocks to build a big ship, construct a road, create a horse to straddle or make a cosy one-child den to sit in! Imaginative play accelerates further if a few accessories such as fabric pieces and cardboard tubes are added.

Every child is born with a drive to engage with the world around them and imagination is a big part of that drive. Imagination opens new worlds to children. It also gives them a bridge to understanding the feelings of others. So imagination is essential for children’s well-being and future. The materials we provide must support, not stifle, children's imagination.

A training pack with a PowerPoint and booklet about simple materials and open ended play is available free for trainers or advisors.

What is a table for? It’s a simple question, but there’s more to the answer than “for sitting at to do schoolwork”. Several years ago an Infant School in Kent refurbished three of their reception classrooms. They replaced the bright red plastic tables and chairs with Community Playthings MultiTables with adjustable height legs and Woodcrest chairs. Following this change, they noted several unexpected consequences. When they adjusted the tables to standing height, some of the chairs in the room could be removed. This in turn freed up space for more activities. They also found that free-flow art projects worked much better when the children could comfortably stand at the table for taping, gluing and cutting.

Many computer tables used in schools are too high for the children to use the keyboard comfortably. An adjustable table with no apron allows staff to set the table at the correct height for the children. If a child in a wheelchair needs access, one table can be adjusted to the correct height right on the day.

At the Education Show last year we ran a contest to see who could adjust our tables the fastest. One lady adjusted the table height in 8 seconds on her first try. I can’t do it quite that fast, but who knows, you might set a new record.

I find it fascinating working with customers on their room layouts. You quickly become a team and share the hopes and dreams they have for their setting and the children in it. As we wanted another case study for our website, I visited Tidemill Primary Academy in London, a new building we had recently planned. I hoped to capture how the furniture shapes activity areas within the rooms. I was met by Carl, the early years teacher. He had spent a day with us in Robertsbridge planning and was eager to show us how the rooms had worked out. Carl introduced me as “From Community Playthings – the people who made our wooden furniture and blocks!” The smile of recognition from teachers who’d never seen me before started the visit on a positive note.

I was delighted with the light airy feel of the rooms. They had mounted Roomscapes pinboard panels on shelving to create displays in the different activity areas. I took some pictures showing the room layouts. Then the children arrived and the real fun began! Every activity area was soon humming. The children became deeply engrossed in what they were doing. The only difficulty was where to look first! The children were naturally curious and when I explained to one child that I work in the blocks and chairs factory her response was “No-o-o you don’t!” I guess I don’t look much like Bob the Builder. Next time I’ll take a tool belt and some wood shavings.

Imagine you’re making a Rocks and Minerals display in your classroom. Where should it go? The pinboard is great for the sign you’ve drawn, but not for crystal and granite samples you’ve dug out of the closet. And where do you display the books on the topic you’ve collected? Wouldn’t it be a dream come true if your pinboard had adjustable shelves for rock samples and a rack for book display as well as a nice deep counter top underneath with ledges to keep things from sliding off? Well sometimes dreams do come true.

Just mention to your Head that Community Playthings could deliver it to your classroom in less than two weeks, and then see what happens!

About ten or twelve years ago, an early years advisor told me there was a strong connection between block play and literacy. That seemed a little far-fetched. The only connection I could see was that both writing and block play require good hand-eye coordination and a certain amount of manual dexterity. However I began observing block play more closely. I noticed that children’s block play is often inspired by stories they have heard. A teacher in our local school observed: “I just told my Year Two class a fairy tale about a princess, knights and a dragon; now they are busy in the construction area building castles, knights and dragons.” After this, I started seeing numerous instances where children would go to the construction area after hearing a story and re-enact it with blocks.

My next realisation was really exciting. Writing is much more than a physical act of making marks on paper. Writing is a symbolic act! Whether someone is writing in English or Chinese, each of those squiggles on the paper represents a sound or an idea. Block play is also symbolic: when children construct with blocks they are representing ideas. Expressing ideas in concrete ways prepares children to symbolise ideas in abstract ways later. Think of block play as a language in which children weave elaborate narratives. It is a language in which boys in particular become amazingly fluent. The boy in this photo is Ian. He had rebuilt, in intricate detail, a map on the flyleaf of his favourite storybook. I asked Ian’s teacher Martha, “Could Ian have drawn that map with paper and pencil?” She replied that the pinnacle of Ian’s mark-making skills was drawing rainbows. Nothing more advanced than that. If Ian were not fluent in this language of blocks – if he did not have this medium in which to express his ideas – no one would have known that he had that map memorised!

I hope you are as excited by this as I am. It makes me realise how vital it is that we provide each child with a medium in which he or she feels at home. Then children can build their own strong foundation for future literacy.

Through the centuries those who care for children have understood the significance of a child's surroundings. Already in the 1800s, the childcare expert Froebel stressed the importance of environmental design in the sense of a garden, natural, organic, ever-changing. He maintained that when care is applied to children's surroundings, behaviour can be guided and inspired. The simplest of locations can become a haven of play and learning.

The amount of space in a room and how it is organised affects children's behaviour. A tight space may encourage working together but can also lead to aggression and frustration. Reducing clutter and installing flexible furnishings can maximize the use of each area. On the other hand, too much space in a room can cause children to be restless and unfocused and have low interaction with their peers. Using dividers to create activity areas or pockets reduces distraction and can help teachers facilitate absorbed play.

Are the children in your care deeply engrossed in their activities, or are many at loose ends? The difference may well stem from room layout, good or bad. As you are choosing the furniture you will also want to consider the way in which the furniture is laid out. This is why we offer a free room layout service which can help you create flexible learning environments and design ideal interest areas which will encourage the behaviour that you want to nurture.

Outdoor activity helps children keep a positive outlook. There is no aspect of the national curriculum that cannot be taught outdoors at the Key Stage 1 level. This approach is shared by Coombes Primary School where they state, ‘We continue to develop our outdoor environment as our largest classroom.’

Froebel maintained that the capacity to struggle persistently lies at the foundation of character; children love to encounter challenge in play and work. Outdoor involvement provides such challenge.

Children develop their vestibular sense (balance) through teetering, tipping, spinning, swinging, rocking, jumping, bouncing, sliding and fast forward motion. They have a biological drive for such experiences and use any opportunity to run, slide down banisters, roll down hills, hop from place to place. In order to develop perfect coordination of body and brain, children need action in which their muscles encounter resistance: pushing, pulling, stretching, carrying. They like to hang from bars, to dig and rake, to feel tension in their limbs. Skipping rope, climbing trees, pedalling bicycles and pushing wheelbarrows are actions that fill this need and only happen outdoors. Significantly, movement is actually what allows children to sit still.

From Lighting the fire – a free booklet on outdoor play and hands-on learning.