Late last year I saw these little red bricks being played with at Hedge Cottage. The bricks looked fabulous. They are like real bricks just smaller, what a wonderful way to introduce building and construction to a young child!

Our house and many houses in our neighbourhood are made of red brick, as are many fences and driveways. The little bricks are available with mortar to build permanent structures. As I was using them with my preschooler, I didn't want to use the mortar and our construction is temporary.  

Initially, I presented the bricks in a basket. To renew interest and to show him a little more about the bricks I printed some inspirational, provocation type images. I collated the images and presented a smaller number of bricks on a tray.

I printed the images to show different patterns and different ways the bricks can be used. 

If we had a construction corner we could put the images on the wall. When I introduce a new toy or re-introduce a toy in a new way, I might sit and play alongside my child for a while. We made these two (pictured above) construction elements together. 

Then I stepped back to allow him to build by himself. 

He remembered that we had these longer construction pieces and asked for them to make a roof. 

We started patterning again together and again once he had some momentum I stepped back.  

Wow, I love this work! A little patterning, spatial awareness, geometric reasoning and fine motor skill development.  

The power of the images. This image, I think is of a fire pit, inspired some circular building! ❤️

We are using various Teifoc Construction Bricks (UK here). Guidecraft have a similar brick set (AU here). 

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