Students set up the problem and clear all unnecessary blocks into the toolbox. Having extra materials on student's workspace can become confusing and misleading. Teachers have used a variety of tools for passing out the blocks such as plastic storage freezer bags, and paper or Styrofoam vegetable trays. These hold a limited amount of blocks and are easy to pass to children. Also good to have an area with blocks available for play and free exploration.
Some teachers use plastic, inexpensive rolling carts to store the blocks.
Keep the number of children working on the counter to a maximum of four. Keep the counter away from the sandbox. The sand makes the dials stick. As with all introductory lessons, initial work with the blocks takes more time. Students need to establish the routines, and they need to explore with these materials.