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The Best STEM Kits That Engage, Entertain, and Educate at Home and in the Classroom

With the new school year approaching, there is always a rush to fill your homeschool room or classroom with quality sets and games which will inspire hours of play and learning over the coming academic year and beyond. But which ones are solid choices and why? We’ve been lucky enough to test out a huge range of Learning Resources® products over the past couple of years, some purchased and some gifted to us. Here’s a summary of some of our favorites for inspiring STEM play and learning.

 

Creative Color Cubes™ Activity Set

Wooden cubes must be one of the most all-time classic building materials. Simple but so very open-ended. Learning Resources have put a fun twist on this classic by coloring the cubes and pairing them up with a series of challenge cards. One of my favorite ways to use these colored wooden cubes is to simply put them out with some animals or cars. It’s amazing what wonderful creations children can make from two basic supplies!

When I use these in my preschool classroom, I also love to set them up with the challenge cards. The cards include making shapes, making patterns, and building challenges such as a giraffe and key. I always like to have paper and markers nearby to encourage the children to make their challenge cards.

There are so many skills being worked on when playing with the Creative Color Cubes. Children are manipulating small cubes, developing their fine motor skills, and being exposed to numeracy concepts such as counting and pattern making. There is also plenty of sorting happening.

Mental Blox® Critical Thinking Game

Still focusing on building with blocks, but now we are challenging children by using different shapes to build with. Throw in different colors and patterns on the large plastic Mental Blox as well, and you have higher-order thinking happening. I was a little skeptical at the versatility of this game, but both my own four-year-old and seven-year-old enjoy it. Some of the shapes are quite challenging to balance, adding a really fun problem-solving element to the play.

A nice addition to this game is that the challenge cards have additional questions and directions on them. For example, once the structure has been built, the card might ask you to rearrange the blocks as if the structure has been rotated counterclockwise 90 degrees. There are also critical thinking questions such as “what do these shapes have in common?” on some of the cards. It gives the set a great extension option for older children.

Geometric Shapes Building Set

I always like to have a setup available in my classroom which requires good engineering and fine motor skills, but that is smaller. Something which encourages lots of planning and thinking whilst being hands-on. I find this Geometric Shapes Building Set to achieve precisely that. The pieces are small but durable and not too delicate. There are many open-ended ways to use the pieces, and often children enjoy just building long lines or 2-D shapes, and that's great. There is also the option for them to step things up a notch and build 3-D shapes, which they always find fascinating.

This building product isn’t perhaps as intuitive as some of our other favorites, but I think that’s a good thing. It challenges children to plan their builds and problem solve when the shape perhaps doesn’t quite look right. Sometimes it takes children a few attempts before they achieve the building success they are aiming for, but that’s not a bad thing at all. I like to encourage taking children outside of their comfort zone in terms of their play. Just be sure to guide them and be there for plenty of positive reinforcement when needed.

Penguins on Ice™ Math Activity Set

This set is a fantastic option if you want a product to help focus on numeracy development. The set comes with ten plastic ice bars that each hold ten of the 100 colorful plastic penguins. There is an activity guide included with many great suggestions. Our most popular way to use this set is pretty simple, but it naturally leads to lots of math and collaborative play. Children love joining the ice bars together and trying to fill them with as many penguins as possible. Sometimes they will sort them by color too. This encourages grouping by tens and lots of 1:1 correspondence work.

In the past, I have also seen children stacking the penguins for some engineering fun as well. Adding a dice is a great idea, as it further builds opportunities to work on number recognition and counting. We like to play a game where we roll the dice and race to fill up the ice bar. You can connect multiple ice bars to make the game more challenging for older children.

Gears! Gears! Gears!® Super Building Set

If you are looking for more of a play-based STEM set, then this is the one! My kids are mesmerized by the small gears and come up with some awe-inspiring creations. The sturdy pieces snap together to enable magical movement to happen. I always love my children’s facial expressions when they test out their large gear chains and see that they work perfectly. It is really neat that you can build flat and vertical creations, perfect for challenging little engineers!

Sometimes I like to limit the number of pieces I put out in my classroom as this can help make the engineering task seem more attainable for younger students. As they build, you can add in more gears to keep the creativity flowing. The whole time children play with the gears, they are working their fine motor skills hard, and as the creations grow in size, gross motor skills also start to be required.

We hope this has given you more insight into some of Learning Resources’ fantastic STEM products. All of these options grow with the child and offer a wide variety of skill development opportunities. Happy playing and learning!

 

Writer’s Bio

Lucy Baker is a Mom of two (4 & 7 years old) passionate about creative play and hands-on learning. She firmly believes in providing children with the opportunity to learn through play and being part of their play journey as a parent. See more of her creative play ideas and process art projects on Instagram @findthelittlemind, and over on her blog, Find the Little Mind.

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The Best STEM Kits That Engage, Entertain, and Educate at Home and in the Classroom

With the new school year approaching, there is always a rush to fill your homeschool room or classroom with quality sets and games which will inspire hours of play and learning over the coming academic year and beyond. But which ones are solid choices and why? We’ve been lucky enough to test out a huge range of Learning Resources® products over the past couple of years, some purchased and some gifted to us. Here’s a summary of some of our favorites for inspiring STEM play and learning.

 

Creative Color Cubes™ Activity Set

Wooden cubes must be one of the most all-time classic building materials. Simple but so very open-ended. Learning Resources have put a fun twist on this classic by coloring the cubes and pairing them up with a series of challenge cards. One of my favorite ways to use these colored wooden cubes is to simply put them out with some animals or cars. It’s amazing what wonderful creations children can make from two basic supplies!

When I use these in my preschool classroom, I also love to set them up with the challenge cards. The cards include making shapes, making patterns, and building challenges such as a giraffe and key. I always like to have paper and markers nearby to encourage the children to make their challenge cards.

There are so many skills being worked on when playing with the Creative Color Cubes. Children are manipulating small cubes, developing their fine motor skills, and being exposed to numeracy concepts such as counting and pattern making. There is also plenty of sorting happening.

Mental Blox® Critical Thinking Game

Still focusing on building with blocks, but now we are challenging children by using different shapes to build with. Throw in different colors and patterns on the large plastic Mental Blox as well, and you have higher-order thinking happening. I was a little skeptical at the versatility of this game, but both my own four-year-old and seven-year-old enjoy it. Some of the shapes are quite challenging to balance, adding a really fun problem-solving element to the play.

A nice addition to this game is that the challenge cards have additional questions and directions on them. For example, once the structure has been built, the card might ask you to rearrange the blocks as if the structure has been rotated counterclockwise 90 degrees. There are also critical thinking questions such as “what do these shapes have in common?” on some of the cards. It gives the set a great extension option for older children.

Geometric Shapes Building Set

I always like to have a setup available in my classroom which requires good engineering and fine motor skills, but that is smaller. Something which encourages lots of planning and thinking whilst being hands-on. I find this Geometric Shapes Building Set to achieve precisely that. The pieces are small but durable and not too delicate. There are many open-ended ways to use the pieces, and often children enjoy just building long lines or 2-D shapes, and that's great. There is also the option for them to step things up a notch and build 3-D shapes, which they always find fascinating.

This building product isn’t perhaps as intuitive as some of our other favorites, but I think that’s a good thing. It challenges children to plan their builds and problem solve when the shape perhaps doesn’t quite look right. Sometimes it takes children a few attempts before they achieve the building success they are aiming for, but that’s not a bad thing at all. I like to encourage taking children outside of their comfort zone in terms of their play. Just be sure to guide them and be there for plenty of positive reinforcement when needed.

Penguins on Ice™ Math Activity Set

This set is a fantastic option if you want a product to help focus on numeracy development. The set comes with ten plastic ice bars that each hold ten of the 100 colorful plastic penguins. There is an activity guide included with many great suggestions. Our most popular way to use this set is pretty simple, but it naturally leads to lots of math and collaborative play. Children love joining the ice bars together and trying to fill them with as many penguins as possible. Sometimes they will sort them by color too. This encourages grouping by tens and lots of 1:1 correspondence work.

In the past, I have also seen children stacking the penguins for some engineering fun as well. Adding a dice is a great idea, as it further builds opportunities to work on number recognition and counting. We like to play a game where we roll the dice and race to fill up the ice bar. You can connect multiple ice bars to make the game more challenging for older children.

Gears! Gears! Gears!® Super Building Set

If you are looking for more of a play-based STEM set, then this is the one! My kids are mesmerized by the small gears and come up with some awe-inspiring creations. The sturdy pieces snap together to enable magical movement to happen. I always love my children’s facial expressions when they test out their large gear chains and see that they work perfectly. It is really neat that you can build flat and vertical creations, perfect for challenging little engineers!

Sometimes I like to limit the number of pieces I put out in my classroom as this can help make the engineering task seem more attainable for younger students. As they build, you can add in more gears to keep the creativity flowing. The whole time children play with the gears, they are working their fine motor skills hard, and as the creations grow in size, gross motor skills also start to be required.

We hope this has given you more insight into some of Learning Resources’ fantastic STEM products. All of these options grow with the child and offer a wide variety of skill development opportunities. Happy playing and learning!

 

Writer’s Bio

Lucy Baker is a Mom of two (4 & 7 years old) passionate about creative play and hands-on learning. She firmly believes in providing children with the opportunity to learn through play and being part of their play journey as a parent. See more of her creative play ideas and process art projects on Instagram @findthelittlemind, and over on her blog, Find the Little Mind.

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