Tomorrow’s Block Party at KCES Will Emphasize the Importance of Imaginative Play

The fifth annual Knox Elementary School Block Party will be held this Thursday!

It will be held from 5 p.m. until 6 p.m. in the KCES Gymnasium and this year’s theme is “We’re Building up Some Fun.”

This free opportunity is geared toward Starke County families with children ranging from new born babies to Kindergarteners. Event goers should enter through door #5.

A light meal will be offered and the event will feature organized play stations with helpful instructional topics for parents. Highly qualified preschool teachers and staff will be available at each station to work with parents and their children.

According to school officials, research shows that children learn and develop math, science, literacy, social and physical skills by engaging in block play, which is a form of imaginative play.

Researchers note that adults will often undervalue the effect of imaginative play but it happens to be an important component of early childhood development. Imaginative play has been shown to improve cognitive development, language learning, and social and emotional skills in kids.

Early childhood experts for the National Association for the Education of Young Children add that kids learn problem solving, use of imagination, self-expression, continuity and permanence, creativity, self-esteem, and social and emotional growth by consistently playing with blocks.

They mentioned that interactive block play by young children, along with support of their families, may lead them to be future scientists, architects and engineers.