Keeping you up-to-date with engaging and inspiring activities that will develop young children and encourage them to learn both at home and in the classroom
Santa needs help! Quick, Coding Critters Ranger, Scamper and Rumble to the rescue on the night before Christmas with Santa.
Poor Rudolph is tired, so the Coding Critters step in to help deliver all the Christmas presents. Read more in our fun story book, featuring the preschool coding toys, Coding Critters ™ !
When you’re little, it can be hard to talk about how you feel. Learning Resources® has teamed up with Red Ted Art to create an easy, do-able fun conversation-starter craft that helps children learn more about themselves.
Maggy, the creative whizz behind Red Ted Art has designed a printable snowman that’s a colouring page and SEL resource in one. It’s an ideal way to allow for mindfulness time and provides opportunities to discuss and express feelings. Plus, it’s a fun artsy activity to keep kids busy on a cold winter’s afternoon (and practise fine motor skills, too). “It’s wonderful to see an increased focus on SEL resources available. SEL – Social Emotional Learning – should be core to any school and home-school curriculum,” says Maggy.
To celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Moon Landing on 20 July 2019, we teamed up with Lonely Planet Kids and scouted the known world for stories about kids in space. The responses were out of this world and our friends at Lonely Planet have given us the go-ahead to share the top entries with you. If you could go on a lunar adventure, what would you do? Leave a comment at the end of this blog post and tell us about your dream space journey.
Gaurika (10) sent us a story to go along with a picture. We thought it was hilarious that the alien asked the astronauts for a visa. Check out her drawing and read the story.
When they’ve done the big Christmas present shop, many parents find they run out of steam when looking for Christmas stocking fillers. It’s snow problem mums and dads! We’ve done the hard work for you. Relax, and browse our selection of the top 10 educational stocking filler ideas for Christmas. Then simply click, order and we’ll deliver. It couldn’t be easier. (PS. They make ideal last-minute gifts, so why not stock up on a few extras?)
Here are our top 10 educational stocking fillers:
From Big Ben in London to the Corpus Chronophage in Cambridge, the UK has some of the world’s most famous and interesting clocks. We were one of the first countries to standardise time throughout a region (what we know as Greenwich Mean Time or GMT) and we’re one of several countries in the world to change the clocks according to the seasons.
Daylight saving time allows us to enjoy more daylight hours during summer and winter. In summer, we score an extra hour of light in the evenings, and in winter, sunrise arrives earlier. Clocks go forward an hour at 1am on the last Sunday in March, and back an hour at 2am on the last Sunday in October.
Animals that hibernate seem to have the right idea: Head indoors, hang up the ‘Do not disturb’ sign and catch some Z’s until Spring returns. Or do they? Several animals may seem to snooze away the long dark winter days, but that isn’t what actually happens. Here are some surprising facts about what happens to animals during hibernation. (And why humans can’t hibernate.)
Hedgehogs, bears, bats and other animals aren’t really sleeping during hibernation. As this article from Woodland Trust explains, hibernating animals enter a state of inactivity where their heart rate and breathing slows, and their body temperature and metabolism drops. The body temperature of the Artic ground squirrel can drop to below -2°C while a bat’s heart rate can drop from 400 to 11 beats per minute.
The smart elves at Learning Resources Christmas workshop have been busy! This Christmas we’re making it magical with our selection of hands-on educational toys, games and activities, stocking fillers and family games to help you find perfect Christmas gift ideas.
From coding and programming robots to sensory and creative play, it’s the most wonderful time to invest in toys that will bring hours of learning fun through hands-on play children will enjoy throughout the year. Spark curiosity, imagination and joy, and unwrap this year’s top 10.
Looking for Halloween STEM activities and trick or treat ideas for some ghoulish learning fun through hands-on play? It’s the perfect time to enjoy sticky, slimy, squishy sensory play and child-friendly mad scientist chemistry activities. Try these ideas for super (natural) learning fun. Creep it real!
This is a trick with a twist that’s ideal for Halloween tactile activities. While cooking up a packet of spaghetti, add food colouring to the water. The wackier the colour, the better so opt for shades like green, purple, brown or orange. Once cooked, drain and allow to cool. Add the cooled, cooked pasta to a bag or bowl and let little ones get stuck in.
Some children have a natural talent for numbers, while others tilt towards subjects like art. But whether your child is a future data scientist or a musician in the making, maths is all around us.
Good numeracy is vital, but many British parents are quick to confess that they don’t enjoy maths, or struggle with it. In fact, according to independent charity National Numeracy, one in four people in the UK are put off from applying for a job if it involves numbers.
Want your child to click with coding? Kids have an innate curiosity about their worlds, and learning complex concepts and skills comes naturally when done through play.
Learning to code isn’t only about programming computers. We published a blog on five reasons why it’s great for youngsters to learn coding, from encouraging them to develop if-then thinking, to boosting their self-confidence when they master this new skill.