Creative and Fun Ideas for Building Blocks You Can Implement Right Now!

Why Should Kids Play with Building Blocks? Top Benefits of Block Play

As mentioned above, kids’ building blocks aren’t just a fun activity, however, there are also several benefits of building blocks are critical for kids to be successful in school and later in life.

• Increased attention span
• Teaches and improves collaboration, like taking turns, sharing, and listening skills
• Improves gross & fine motor skills
• Boosts visual perceptual skills, including eye coordination and shape recognition
• Boosts spatial skills/awareness

Now, let’s take a look at the block options available to children nowadays and the incredibly imaginative and creative ideas we have for them!

1. Building Blocks for Toddlers and Preschoolers

Toddlers and preschoolers need building blocks that they can grasp, stack, and knock down safely, blocks that will boost their motor skills and spatial reasoning. Such as:

Oversized soft building blocks: Large EVA foam blocks for kids are big and soft enough to boost gross motor skills and spatial skills.

Our suggested idea to have unlimited fun:

• Color Sorting Towers: Ask your child to build towers using only one color per tower. This promotes color recognition and sorting skills.
• Tallest Tower Challenge: Challenge kids to build the tallest structure they can. This teaches balance, gravity, and trial-and-error learning.
• Sensory Pathways: Lay the blocks on the floor and guide your toddler to step or crawl along the “path.” This improves balance and gross motor development.
• Knock-Down Fun: Let them stack blocks and knock them over with a soft ball. It introduces basic physics and cause-and-effect play.

2. Building Blocks for Preschoolers and Early Elementary

Kids are continuing to develop their fine motor skills. Theme-based blocks featuring a variety of colours, shapes, and specialized pieces are perfect for increasingly imaginative and complex creations. Themed sets offer better activities for preschoolers than classic building blocks or toys like teddy bears.

Our theme based building blocks are perfect for them

With blocks of many colors and shapes, themed sets inspire creative storytelling and themed adventures.

• Build Your Own Town: Ask kids to build stores, houses, roads, and parks with blocks. Then roleplay daily activities in the town.
• Color + Shape Hunt: Call out a color and shape combination (“Find a red cylinder!”) and have your child locate and use it in their structure.
• Collaborative Creation: In group settings, kids can each build a section of a story-based setting—like a jungle or outer space base—and then connect them.
• Learning Letters & Numbers: Use blocks to build alphabet letters or numbers and practice basic spelling or math.

Animal Building Blocks: These building blocks can build specific animals and animal habitats like a farm, zoo, or ranch, promoting imaginative play and complementing theme-based play. Through animal building blocks, kids will also get the opportunity to collaborate, exercise, boost their problem-solving skills, and self-esteem. Learn more.

Animal blocks open the door to imaginative, nature-based learning through play.

• Build a Zoo or Safari Park: Kids can build enclosures for each animal, adding imaginative stories about animal care or feeding.
• Animal Habitat Match-Up: Have kids match each animal block to its appropriate habitat (e.g., elephant in the savanna, fish in the pond).
• Story Time Play: Use the blocks during story time to act out animal-themed books or invent your own tales.
• Sorting by Traits: Group blocks by number of legs, types of animals (farm vs. wild), or by size to promote classification skills.

3. Building Blocks for Kids in Elementary & Beyond

Construction sets or, builders space: These special building block sets offer more sophisticated building challenges. They feature wall-to-wall and floor-to-ceiling panels that kids will love to build on. The numerous block pieces of various colors and shapes allow kids to explore their imagination to the fullest extent and build whatever they imagine, from buildings to an entire city, vehicles, animals, a zoo, and more. 

The Builders Space kits take construction to the next level—perfect for problem-solving and spatial awareness.

• Design & Build a City: Assign kids roles like architects, builders, or city planners. Have them work together to create a functioning block city.
• STEM Challenge: Can they build a bridge that holds a toy car? A tunnel that stays upright? This encourages experimentation and engineering thinking.
• Off-the-Wall Builds: With vertical wall panels, kids can build up as well as out. Try making letters, shapes, or simple machines like levers and pulleys.
• Block Blueprints: Show a design (or draw a “blueprint”) and challenge kids to replicate it. This introduces the basics of following plans and spatial orientation.

Rock and Roller Building Blocks: Kids need to exercise their bodies and minds more can also benefit greatly from the rocking, rolling, spinning, and climbing fun offered by rock & roller building blocks.

These sets combine physical play with building, great for active learners.

• Obstacle Course: Build a course where kids can roll, rock, balance, or crawl through. It promotes strength, coordination, and sequencing.
• Balance + Build Race: Have kids build and then balance on their structure—see who can do it fastest or without it toppling.
• Movement Stories: Encourage kids to create movement-based stories using the blocks as props. (e.g., “climb the mountain,” “roll through the cave”).

Building block playground: The playground features numerous big blocks ranging from tunnels to blocks for jumping, tumbling, and climbing. Create the perfect fun playground to offer fun play while still boosting strength, coordination, confidence, and more.

• Themed Park Creation: Let kids create a “pirate island,” “space station,” or “jungle gym” with large play blocks.
• Group Games: Use blocks as stations for relay games—“jump over,” “crawl under,” “stack and go.”
• Build & Perform: After constructing a setting, encourage kids to put on a short play or skit using the space they built.
• Creative Fitness Circuits: Rotate through block-based fitness stations: jumping over tunnels, crawling through arches, climbing walls.

Final Thoughts: Ideas for Building Blocks for Children

Building blocks unlock endless creative possibilities. From imaginative play to hands-on learning, the right ideas can turn every play session into a fun, educational adventure. Start building, start imagining!

Checkout Bright Day Big Blocks catalogue of building blocks for kids to turn these ideas to life, or click here to find out more, including getting custom building blocks, simple patterns, and more.

Bright Day invented big blocks – big, foam and fun, kid-size – soft and friendly – super durable and certified safe.  Bright Day Big Blocks collaborates with schools and play centers worldwide to create the best block play ideas, then designs the blocks and blocks sets, manufactures each block to the highest quality standard, and distributes their big blocks to just about every country in the world, helping children play, wherever they play.

Call: +1-818-914-6541 or email: contact@brightdaybigblocks.com. You can also see the childrens’ block play ideas in action on Instagram and Facebook.