Exploring Pattern Blocks and Pattern Block Puzzles
Promoting Spatial Reasoning in the Early Years
Exploring Pattern Blocks and Pattern Block Puzzles
Christina Sales, Seong Bock Hong, and Jill M. Uhlenberg
“ Teacher, teacher, two reds make a yellow!”
“ Mya, I need one of those green triangles.”
“ Look! I made this one all red. I did it! I did it! I can do this!”
“ Teacher, did you know there is a trapezoid on the ceiling of the cafeteria?”
These are examples of comments heard at a table covered with pattern blocks and pattern block puzzles as 4-year-old children busily solved the problems presented. As they played, children were learning about angles and areas of geometric shapes— part of spatial reasoning.
Spatial reasoning is crucial to our daily lives. Adults employ it when parking a car, planning a garden, or playing pool and checkers. Architects, machinists, carpenters, heavy machine operators, surgeons, and football players require it to accomplish their tasks. Children need spatial reasoning as they learn to walk, run, catch a ball, determine how high to lift their legs to climb stairs, or when to stop to avoid a tricycle or bicycle crash. However, even though spatial reasoning plays such a basic role in our lives, it is generally neglected in our children’ s educational curriculum( Clements et al. 2011; NASEM 2021; Clements et al. 2022). This is particularly true in preschool( Verdine et al. 2017).
As researchers, we( the authors) share an interest in constructivist education. Christina and Seong( the first and second authors) have known each other for over 25 years through the annual Association for Constructivist Teaching conferences. Christina and Jill( the third author) have been colleagues at the same university for more than 20 years. In this article, we describe the relationship between spatial reasoning and geometry and how pattern block puzzles help children develop the thinking needed to become better mathematicians, artists, and problem solvers. Our writing is rooted in our observations and research of children playing with pattern block puzzles, including a study conducted by Christina of young children’ s geometric knowledge. While our research was with preschoolers, our undergraduate students have successfully shared pattern blocks and pattern block puzzles with children in preschool through the early primary grades. The strategies outlined here can be adapted in any early childhood setting to foster children’ s development in spatial reasoning.
The Relationship Between Spatial Reasoning and Geometry
The ability to use information about objects and spaces to create mental images and move them about in our minds is often referred to as spatial reasoning
76 Young Children
Summer 2025