Our school provided one set of blocks for our 4 kindergarten classes. One set for 4 classes. That means that we rotate who has the blocks each month, so there will be 3 months of no block center. I think that we should have a block center all the time, so I decided to DIY my own set. After making the small DIY projects for our math and literacy centers, I took on another project!

My awesome SO (and hand model) came to my rescue for the power tool stuff and he cut up a whole bunch of different sized blocks for me, and we sanded them together. Binge watch a funny TV show on Netflix to pass the time (the Office? Community?) and sand away.

Once all the pieces have been sanded and washed, you can use a combination of rubbing alcohol and food coloring and paint the blocks with a Q-tip. This will give the blocks a slight color but you will still be able to see the grain of the wood.

For the blue, green and orange blocks we did two coats of the paint and the red blocks only needed one coat.

This is a messy project, and you will want to make sure you have a well-ventilated room or do it outside (the rubbing alcohol smell is STRONG!).

I love how these turned out and I can’t wait to keep adding different blocks to our building center to see what students create!