Skip to main content

Magnatile Madness!


If your children are anything like ours, they LOVE to build! We have a new product that has the children spending hours, visiting and revisiting their creations..... Magnatiles! (Magnatiles are made by Valtech, and can be purchased through our educational toy store).

The children will build with anything and everything, but what is especially appealing about these tiles is that there are small magnets inside of them which allows you to build some great structures that would be much more difficult to build without the magnetic force.

I know these are relatively new to our place, but it has been nearly impossible to keep them put away :). I'm sure they are soon going to rank up with the Legos and Megablocks that we have literally thousands of photos of! I will continue to update the photo gallery below with our creations.

Some of the younger children, one in particular has been working only with the squares. She keeps lining them up to make larger squares or rectangles on the floor, making a paved path.

Many of the other children have been working to build houses and apartments for their "aliens." We have had entire city skylines in the playroom, integrating a variety of other toys and puppets into the mix.















Some of the children have figured out how to build boxes and pyramids. They have been working on spatial concepts and have found out that by putting together some triangles, they have been able to make squares, and that sometimes, you need to turn the triangles to make them fit together.

Right now, we have been exploring them with whatever direction the children take. In a few weeks, we plan to make a light table. It will be interesting to see how their play and structures will evolve with the added element of light and color exploration.

For more information about our educational toy sales, contact Amy (aahola@charter.net)

UPDATE: WE ARE NO LONGER SELLING MAGNATILES- BUT YOU CAN ORDER THEM HERE:

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Easter Egg Caterpillars!

OOOPS! This post has moved, please click on the photo to be redirected!

My friend died

 I learned a hell of a lot from Dan Hodgins.  He was mentor, a friend, and a "bone shaker" for many of us in the field of Early Childhood Education. He was and will always be a champion for children, and protector of childhood.   I have so many great memories of time spent with him, it just doesn't seem like we had enough time. Dan died this past Saturday.  Interestingly enough, Dan and I talked about death quite a bit. It is one of those topics that isn't talked about all that much in our field, but is super important. All living things eat, all living things poop, and all living things die.  Dan and I recorded a podcast for awhile called "Shaking Bones." Dan was always shaking bones, even before I met him. To say I was honored to be asked to be his co-host would be putting it lightly. I loved recording with him. He was never afraid to touch on topics that were a bit edgy, or issues that sometimes weren't talked about much at all.  We even...

A Few Ideas With Marker Caps (As Promised)

Yesterday, I hope I convinced you not to throw away your markers that "don't work." Today, I will share with you a few ideas for what to do with all of the caps. The possibilities are nearly endless, but here are a few of our recent creations: 1) A Leprechaun/Fairy Ladder/Rope Ladder: 2) #1 if not permanently secured can also double as a rope bridge: 3) #1/#2 can also be made into a train track for your homemade trains :). (No photo available) 4) You can use them as beads for a necklace: 5) You could make them into a wind chime. (No photo available). 6. You can use them as small manipulatives to count, sort, and make patterns with. (No photo available). 7) You could use them as playing pieces in your own homemade board game. (No photo available). 8) You could put them on a wire and glue them in place to make a twirling whirly-gig. 9) You could top them with a lid from a milk jug to make tiny tables or toadstools. 10) You could make them...