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This colourful collection is full of practitioner-made construction signs for early years. It has everything you need to set up a fun, themed play area. Let children's natural curiosity about different materials guide their own learning. Providing construction play in early years for children with a range of fun materials is a stimulating and inviting space for little ones.
Our construction signs for early years can be used to help inspire creations. They encourage children to explore mathematical concepts like size, shape and space. As they play, children deepen their understanding of these concepts in a way that is memorable, engaging and fun.
Our collection of construction signs for early years activities and exercises include content that promotes the benefits of holistic development for children at an early level.
As well as a huge range of display materials to encourage child-led learning, there are early years' construction activities too. Our challenge cards and connecting bricks games are great construction activities. Children can enjoy driving them on their own or directed by an adult. They offer great opportunities for you to hone in on specific skill sets and allow you to evaluate children's progress in a structured way. They make ideal opportunities for observation assessments to see how children are developing a range of skills. Browse the collection to find construction play in early years resources that EYFS children will love to learn with!
It can be tricky compiling both exciting and engaging work that also fits in nicely with mandatory core learning in the EYFS. So, why not take a browse through these ridiculously easy to download resources, and save yourself some time with planning construction signs for early years learning materials.
Children can be supported by being given easy access to materials that are safe to use but will still nurture their learning in construction play in early years. Materials can be used in a goal-orientated way to make something special. They could be both two-dimensional and three-dimensional.
Materials for construction play in early years could be:
There are even more brilliant benefits to encouraging construction play in early years! Children get to be creative, testing out these concepts and applying their own logic to what they make. Experimenting with materials lets children work on their logic and puzzle-solving skills. EYFS construction supports their maths skills as they learn about shapes, space, measuring and sizes.
Children’s language and literacy skills are also improved during construction play in early years. They’ll learn new vocabulary and grow the complexity of the vocabulary they already know, through their interactions with others. It’ll provide them opportunities to use their vocabulary in the most suitable ways and make connections between written and spoken words.
They get to apply what they have learned about to different activities and see them in action.
Plus, interacting with bricks and building materials is wonderful fine motor skill practice. Handling different kinds of materials lets children use their hands in different ways. You can support their physical development through EYFS construction as they work out how to build things carefully. Depending on their material, they may have to use more or less pressure and rotate objects to fit.
Construction play in early years involves lots of different hand movements such as taking apart, putting together, fixing, moulding, stacking, sticking and sorting. Their small hand muscles including fingers will start to develop, which is important for many other uses. For example, they’ll find self-care like brushing their own teeth, fastening buttons or tying their shoelaces much easier. This is as well as drawing, colouring and handwriting skills that can be used in nurseries and school-work when the time comes.
Playing with a range of different building materials can help children build confidence as well as independent learning. The freedom to get creative as they like with construction play in early years helps to form the decision-making process. With a child’s active involvement, it means the information they obtain is first-hand. Allowing children to decide what they want to make and how they want to achieve this, means they’ll be able to retain what they’ve learned much easier than if they were instructed. Decision -making and independent thinking can be a great skill for work they complete alongside practitioners in future classes.
This also lets little ones work together! They can pick an EYFS construction project to build as a team and have fun with their friends. Children get to practise communication and social skills like teamwork, sharing and problem-solving.
Construction play in early years activities are perfect for bonding together, as they are all working towards one common goal. It gives children the chance to offer up their own opinions and solutions, and learn the values of their own and other's opinions. This is a brilliant boost to their Personal, Social and Emotional Development goals while they explore shapes and have fun.
Construction signs for early years settings are great for helping children get into character. They provide fun props to engage with for extended sessions in your construction zone. This is a great way to encourage children to try different approaches and engage with extension activities. These will help them deepen their understanding of foundation concepts in maths and more.
Using construction play in early years settings can also encourage children to experiment with different materials. You can regularly change the types of materials you make available in your construction area.
You can find new and exciting ways to engage construction play in early years with a few simple changes like this. This can help steer children towards particular topics or outcomes depending on what you feel is most relevant or enriching. For example, if you want to teach children about counting, an interlocking cubes challenge would be perfect!
In terms of construction play in early years and babies, they’ll be more likely to enjoy the exploration of material through more sensory play like touching and feeling, rather than actual building.
Two years old and up, they’ll probably gain the most benefits from transporting materials. They might want to carry them or wheel them around.
Three and four years old is the age where construction play in early years can be taken to stacking and bridging. They might want to build walls or other simple models.
Ages five to six, they’ll be likely to be able to start forming patterns or recreating builds that they’ve seen. For example, they might want to build a shed or even a mini hotel like ones they’ve seen before.
It's a wonderful way to keep learning feeling fresh and exciting with small changes. You'll find lots more great construction play in early years resources in this collection.
You can also get lots of great resources to enhance your construction area provision. This handy guide will help you plan and design your EYFS construction area in a way that is suitable for your little ones.
You might want to take a look at the video below, which tells children about loads of different construction tools and vehicles. There are ladders, cement mixers, tractors, bricks, and much more! The repetition and letter associations with each word, work with children's memory retention, so they can remember all the main objects used within construction off by heart!
