One child turned a block over and over in both hands.
An adult put one against another. “It's getting longer.”
That child picked one up and had a go at putting it on the end.
“Listen — they go together with a click.”
An adult built the blocks up around where that child was sitting. “Now it's your house.”
And that child pushed them over.
Longer. Higher. Down again.
One child took a triangle in each hand and went off to the corner by the shelves.
The two triangles went together, and came apart, and went together again, and there was a smile each time.
Then one in each hand again, running round the room, laughing.
An adult called. A look, and then more running. An adult called again, and this time a stop, and a look back.
A hand held out — shall we come and do the caterpillar posting?
That child came over for the hand.
“This one?”
And moved the block in the right hand across to the left, and posted the caterpillar with the hand that was free.
“Shall we put the blocks down?”
They went down on the floor. That child looked at them for a moment, then took hold of the board and carried on.
They started putting magnets up on the whiteboard.
“Can we have more magnets?”
So letters came out, and they said the names of them as they went up.
Then one of them fetched something else off the shelves — a little house — and held it against the board.
“Is this magnetic too?”
After that they were going round the room with things, trying each one against the board to find out. The blocks came over as well.
The shapes went flat onto the magnetic board first.
“This is a triangle, isn't it?”
“This one's massive.”
Then an adult stood some of them up into a box. “This way it stands up.”
“It's a house, look.”
And that went round the room — everybody's flat shapes started standing up.
Some went tall, into towers. “Will you help me?”
One child worked only in squares. “This is a house.” And counted the square holes in it, one at a time.
Another joined squares into a long line. “This is a bus. Look.”
And pulled it along.
“I'm going to make a magnet robot.”
“I like the robots you make with the push-together blocks.”
So one worked in magnets and one worked in the other kind, side by side.
Squares joined up: “This is the body.” A round one on top: “This is the head.”
“My robot's got long legs.”
The magnet robot wobbled, and that child pushed it back together.
“They just stick, because they're magnets.”
A nod from the other one. “You have to press mine to make them join.”
Then both robots stood up on the floor.
“Ours are really good, aren't they?”
A cube-shaped block became a telephone.
Then a new set came out, in all shapes.
They put them together and stacked them.
An adult gathered the triangles into a circle, and that was a pizza.
Two round ones, joined: a pair of glasses.
One child built something like a water cooler and pressed the button on it.
“What have you made?”
“Coffee. Coffee.”
“How much is a coffee?”
A laugh — and then a toy cup with fruit in it, held out to be eaten.
After that there were water coolers and juice machines all round the room.
The blocks went out in a long line, and then up.
An adult built a car park out of them and showed how it worked.
So they built car parks too, and rolled the cars into the empty spaces.
And over the top of the blocks as well.
Swimming pools, mostly.
The blue blocks were the water, and the little figures went in.
“This makes me think of when my family went to the pool!”
“I went on the water slide”