Kool Beginnings Curriculum –
Build It

Our Kool Beginnings Curriculum (KBC) ‘Build It’ covers the idea of constructive play, which includes functional, manipulative, and symbolic play. This involves kids exploring and using objects or materials to build or create something.

Constructive play is often viewed as a transition from functional and manipulative play to symbolic play and involves the creation of objects and play environments with materials such as sand, clay, blocks, boxes and natural objects.

As infants, children go through a stage of what’s called functional play before they’re ready to construct. This means they’ve felt materials, understood different sizes, had some experience of what prevents them falling, found ways that certain resources work well or not and otherwise explored them with their various senses.

As children explore and manipulate the materials and objects around them, using their senses for investigation and discovery, or their play schemas to explore through cause and effect, they increase their confidence and capacity to create intentionally. This phase helps children to prepare for constructing which requires more purposeful movements and hands-on learning, where children are posing questions, testing ideas and making decisions whilst experimenting with a variety of learning materials.