Elf on the Shelf

Learning Resources Posted On Dec 15, 2014 | Seasonal Fun

We are joining in the Elf on the Shelf fun again this year! The Elf of the Shelf tradition started over in America and is quickly becoming popular here in the UK. The Elf on the Shelf pack includes a special scout elf sent from the North Pole to help Father Christmas manage his naughty and nice lists. When a family adopts an elf and gives it a name, the scout elf receives its Christmas magic and can fly to the North Pole each night to tell Father Christmas and the elves about all of the day’s adventures. Each morning, the elf returns to its family and perches in a different place to watch the fun. Children love to wake up and race around the house looking for their scout elf each morning.

Jane is back with her Learning Resources family for Christmas. She is saying hello to some of the friends she met last year, and introducing herself to the many new people that have joined the company in 2014.

We’ve had a very good year this year, and have seen the company grow a lot! We have taken on 9 new members of staff and we’re set to continue the trend into 2015. Jane has enjoyed meeting the new people, especially Jo who we like to refer to as our ‘in-house education expert’.

Jane has had a lot of fun already, she has been to LA with Dennis to visit the Educational Insights offices. While she was there, Dennis treated her to some new accessories. What a classy elf we have now!

Our little elf also joined Sammy at a very festive Holkham Hall at the weekend. While they were there she listened to a lovely choir, saw some Victorian Christmas cooking and visited the deer. Jane’s favourite festive room within the hall was the tree room!

Just yesterday Jane helped John to decorate the Christmas tree of the Learning Resources offices. Do you think she did a good job? Our tree was kindly donated by Sam in our accounts department.

Do you have an elf visiting your home, work or school this year? We’d love to know what they’ve been up to. Keep track of Jane the elf’s activities and the Learning Resources festive spirit on our Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/LearningResourcesUK.

Until next time…

Laura

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2016 Award Winners

Throughout 2016, multiple judges have put our toys and games to the test! We are delighted to have received several prestigious accolades that have recognised our toys for their quality, durability, educational benefits and fun factor. Discover what toys have scooped awards this year below.Â

Code & Goâ„¢ Robot Mouse Activity Set

Awards

Â DescriptionThe Code & Goâ„¢ Robot Mouse Activity Set is part ofÂ Learning Resourcesâ€™ STEM range and provides a basic introduction to coding and programming. Â This fun set challenges players to programme Colby the Mouse to navigate through a custom built maze and find a block of cheese! Designed for children aged five and above, it supports the development of a variety of skills such as problem solving, critical thinking, communication skills, programming and self-correction.Â Judges Commentsâ€œChildren wanted â€˜just one more goâ€™ with this - a sign of a great purchase.â€ â€“ Toy Talk Awards â€œThe STEM Robot Mouse Activity Set would encourage children to build hands-on coding skills in a fun and enjoyable way. It was very easy to construct and represented excellent value for money!â€ â€“ ERA AwardsÂ

Plot Blocksâ„¢ Story Building Activity Set

Awards

Â DescriptionImagination has no limits with Plot Blocksâ„¢! By combining a multitude of different settings, characters, objects and actions, children create a truly unique story with just the roll of 6 cubes. The set includes 18 picture cubes (six each of who, what and how), six double sided setting mats and four transparent setting mats for children to create their very own story setting. Pick a setting, roll two of each cube and let the endless stories begin!Â Judges Commentsâ€œChildren of all ages enjoyed playing with the Plot Blocks. The bright colours of the blocks are great for the young children whilst the older children enjoyed the variety of setting cards. The cubes are of a good size and the game is easily stored in the box. I think it is fantastic that the game encourages creativity.â€ â€“ Primary Teacher Update Awards

Â

GeoSafariÂ® Jr. My First Telescope

Â Award

DescriptionGive little ones a kick-start into beginning astronomy with this real working telescope! Built specifically for growing minds, the comfy two-eye goggle piece and nose cut-out guides keep your childâ€™s eyes focused on exactly the right spot. The telescope is focus free: no adjustment needed! The 10x magnification provides fantastic views of the moon, while keeping the field of vision wide, which is essential for young childrenâ€™s understanding of magnified views.Judges Commentsâ€œA fascinating starting point for small children to enjoy viewing the night skyâ€ â€“ Right Start AwardsÂ

Snap-n-LearnÂ® Rhyming Pups

Award

DescriptionColourful puppy friends snap together and pull apart to make a variety of rhyming words. Great for reinforcing fine motor skills, the set includes ten heads and ten tails that can be mixed and matched to make over 55 rhyming words. Start by matching colours and identifying letters, then move on to building three letter words and rhyming.Â Judges Commentsâ€œA simple education resource which was engaging and did its job well. The children enjoyed the idea of pups and made the activities fun particularly as they pretended to be pups and one point. Some could blend the words together fairly quickly and others needed practice but all improved after just a few play sessions. A very useful resource for children just beginning to blend words together , but familiar with letter sounds which encourages literacy, communication and language skills.â€ â€“ Practical Preschool Awards

Build & Spin Ocean WondersÂ

Award

DescriptionA new spin on learning for the youngest of engineers! Hands-on construction and colourful underwater pals provide a fun way to build fine motor skills. Big, chunky play pieces fit easily onto large gears, providing endless mix-and match play. This friendly set encourages creativity and allows children to explore cause and effect, Set includes board, eight large gears, seven sea creatures and a chunky handle.Â Judges Commentsâ€œGreat toy, fun looking, nice bright colours and well madeâ€ â€“ Bizzie Baby Awardsâ€œI really liked this product and so did mason as has never stopped playing with it, very bright colours which is attractive to younger kids.â€ â€“ Bizzie Baby Awards

All About Me Family Counters Activity Cards

Award

DescriptionThis illustrated set of 21 double sided activity cards teach patterns and sequences, sorting, grouping, early arithmetic, size recognition and positional awareness. The set also includes a 1-20 number line. Â The wipe-clean cards can be used individually by the child or supported by a teacher. Activity guide included with even more activity ideas to use with the cards. The cards are designed to be used with our All About Me Family Countersâ„¢ Â (sold separately).Â

STEM Simple Machines

Award

DescriptionIntroduce and explore six simple machines as you make amazing discoveries, design solutions for real-world problems and conduct your own investigations. This colourful set includes a lever board, wedge, pulley with role and hook, card with four removable wheels, Archimedes screw, four barrel weights and ten double sided activity cards to build early engineering and problem solving skills.Â

Teaching Tac-Tiles

Award

DescriptionTactile learning is a bag full of fun with Teaching Tac-Tilesâ„¢! Colourful, engaging pieces with rich textures (smooth, bumpy, ridged and rough) engage a childâ€™s senses and strengthen fine motor skills. Children aged three and above learn shape identification while building vocabulary and early maths skills. Includes 20 pieces in five shapes and four textures plus 10 activity cards.#LoveLearning

Learning Resources | Posted on Jul 25, 2014

We're growing up green

Here at Learning Resources we do our best to reuse and recycle, we know itâ€™s important to take care of the world around us and keep it clean for the generations of little learners that are inheriting it from us!

We are proud distributors of over 20 Green Toysâ„¢ products, the 100% recycled alternative to traditional plastic toys! Let me tell you what makes Green Toys great:

All products are made from 100% recycled plastic and other environmentally friendly materials.
Even the packaging is fully recyclable and easy to open (with no twist ties!)
All Green Toys products contain no traceable amount of Phthalates, BPA or PVC.
No external coatings or paints are used on the products.
All Green Toys vehicles have no metal axles, so the toys can be recycled too!
Green Toys kitchen sets are all dishwasher safe!

The Green Toysâ„¢ Tugboat is good for the earth and for the youngsters who play there! It’s a very popular product, and many parents have told me that they use it to wash their children’s hair in the bath! The tugboat is suitable for play from just 6 months. We’re not the only people who think the Green Toysâ„¢ Tugboat is great, it was voted as one of the best eco toys by The Independent!

My personal favourite is the Green Toysâ„¢ Tractor! Living in the rural county of Norfolk, we see a lot of tractors out and about, and this little recyclable one is great! With its chunky tyres and detachable trailer little farmers can really let their imaginations grow!

Recycling can be linked to the Early Years Foundation Stage, including Understanding of the World, Expressive Art and Design and Problem Solving, Reasoning and Numeracy. There are many activities that can be done at home and in the classroom to get little minds inspired by recycling and the environment. Here are some ideas that Jo, our ‘Educational Expert’ used during her time in the classroom:

Go for an 'environment’ walk around your school or local area. Talk about the importance of recycling and putting rubbish in a bin on the animals in our environment.
If you are lucky enough to have an allotment/ vegetable patch at your school you could begin composting left over fruit skins and cores from snack time whilst teaching children the benefits of doing so. You could also set up a recycling station within the classroom for other items such as paper and plastics. You could have weekly 'recycling monitors’ as children love taking ownership and feeling like they are doing an important job.

For smaller spaces, our Now You See It, Now You Don’t See-Through Compost Container is a great visual composting resource!

Have some fun and create recycled junk models. Use unwanted cartons, paper, boxes, clothes etc to make all kinds of crazy models!
Make a recycling collage! Let their imaginations run wild about the picture they are going to create or link it to your current topic!
Michael Recycle & Litterbug Doug books. Read the books, discuss and then children could make a poster all about recycling and looking after our world.

For some 3D shape development, encourage the children to sort the recycling into different 3D shapes! This allows for real-life problem solving.
Recycling treasure hunt! Hide lots of things around the classroom/ playground that could be recycled. Provide the children with recycling containers labelled plastic, cardboard, paper and fabric then let them hunt and sort!
Musical recycling! Have hoops around the room containing objects that need to be recycled plus the 4 recycling containers ( plastic, cardboard, paper and fabric). When the music stops children have to grab an item to be recycled, correctly place it in the correct recycling container and be the first to sit down!

Parents, do you recycle? Let me know what recycling you and your family do at home. For more information on recycling, visit the Recycle Now website; recyclenow.com.

Until next time…

Laura

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