I took my 5 yr old grandson to a class given by someone from the San Jose Quilt Museum. She gave simple instructions that directed the kids to "build" their quilt block on paper, joining each part as they went. She was very good and my grandson "built" a house (others "built" trees and even figures, etc.). No material, just an exercise on paper.
Later we found fabric that matched the 5 colors my little guy had used and we put it into a block as in putting a puzzle together, one piece at a time (think "log cabin"). I did the sewing on the machine, but he had done the original and helped with the colors.
Since then we have built a huge tree together and it ended up being the central backdrop for a grade school rendition of "a midsummer's night dream".