I’m a fan of having books everywhere. In my house, I have them in the living room, bedroom, and bathroom. In the classroom, they are in the library, art room, and student’s desks. I also put them in our centers or work stations. Today, I bring you books perfect for adding to your block play area. From toddlers to preschoolers to kindergarteners theres a place for blocks and books.
Adding Books to the Block Play Area
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Dreaming Up: A Celebration of Building by Christy Hale is one of my favorites for adding to the block area. The left side of each picture spread uses mixed-media collage to showcase children building with different play materials. The right side of each picture spread showcases a photograph of an iconic building. For example, a pillow fort is paired with Frank Gehry’s Bilbao Guggenheim.
Balance, count, estimate and more in Crash! Boom! A Math Tale by Robie H. Harris. Elephant has a box of blocks and is ready to build. This book begs to be placed in the block area.
When I Build With Blocks by Niki Alling is specifically about the block area so yes, add this one too.
Kids will be inspired to build roads with blocks and add road signs in Caution! Road Signs Ahead by Toni Buzzeo.
Houses and Homes by Anne Morris is a simple photographic journey of houses and homes around the world. Limited text provides lots of opportunities to study the pictures.
Building Stories by Isabel Hill shows us how architectural details can give clues to what goes on inside a building.
Building materials can change from season to season. Enjoy the seasonal materials in Fort-Building Time by Megan Wagner Lloyd. Also, check out Building Books by Megan Wagner Lloyd too.
Jonathan Bean shares the story of his family building their house in Building Our House.
The Little Red Fort by Brenda Maier is a variation of the traditional story. Ruby wants to build a fort but her three brothers don’t want to help with the planning or building. However, when it comes time to play in the fort, the brothers come up with a creative way to add to the fort.
I even have a whole Book Dive for The Little Red Fort for you to enjoy with the kids.—>Little Red Fort Book Dive
Add a little math and reading to the block area with Billions of Bricks by Kurt Cyrus.
Chris Van Dusen brings us three building books- If I Built a Car, If I Built a House, and If I Built a School. They are all full of creative builds.
Bear Builds a House by Maxwell Eaton, III is text heavy so it’s not the best read aloud pick for our youngest children. However, the illustrations will inspire our littlest ones in the block area. Bear needs to plan and build the perfect house for herself. There’s lots that goes into building a house and this book looks at the process in a detailed and entertaining way with lots of diagrams and labels to enjoy.
I could totally see students bringing in their teddy bears and building houses for them after enjoying this book.
We know that students love to act familar stories. The Three Little Pigs lends itself nicely to the block area. You can also enjoy these variations of The Three Little Pigs too.
Speaking of building, boxes are one of the ultimate building materials. In fact, I have a whole book list dedicated to boxes.—>Books About Boxes
And, Fun-A-Day has an amazing printable book full of structures to add to your block area.—>Structure Book
Printable Book List of Books for Block Play
Grab a printable copy of the list of book above. Just click the purple print button below.
Happy reading and builidng.
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