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Top 5 Back-to-School Essentials for Teachers
- EI Editor Posted On Aug 10, 2021 | Back to School
After what definitely goes down as the weirdest school year ever, we’re all looking forward to heading back for a fresh new start. And the Experts in Play are here to help make that happen, providing the educational tools, toys, and games that make teachers’ lives easier and engage and excite their students! Check out our back to school teacher must-haves below and parents remember, these items make great teacher appreciation gifts any time of year!
Light Filters
Start the year off right with a calmer, cooler, more soothing classroom environment! Classroom Light Filters eliminate the harsh glare and flicker of LED lights, reducing stress, tension, and headaches and improving focus and concentration for all. Available in a variety of sizes, patterns, and colors, Light Filters are designed to fit standard classroom ceiling lights, attaching easily and securely to the light frame with magnets.
Hot Dots
Take a break from worksheets (and save your copy allotment) with reusable Hot Dots Independent Learning Workbooks! Perfect for independent learning time and centers, students simply review the question on one of dozens of grade-level, subject-specific questions and press the interactive Hot Dots pen to any answer dot for an immediate visual response—green for correct responses, red for incorrect. Students are empowered to practice and learn, building academic confidence, all on their own!
Playfoam Pluffle
Step up your sensory bins, calming corners, and rainy day offerings with totally tactile Playfoam Pluffle! Students can’t get enough of this mesmerizing, mixable, can’t resistable, feel-good fluffy stuff, and, even better, Pluffle never dries out, so you never have to buy more! Find five fun ways to use Playfoam in the classroom here.
Sentence Building Dominoes
Put kids in control with the hands-on fun of Sentence Building Dominoes! This set features 114 double-sided, color-coded dominoes featuring nouns, pronouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, conjunctions, prepositions, and punctuation marks so students can practice assembling everything from simple to complex sentences, all on their own! Perfect for centers, this set stores easily in the included container.
GeoSafari® Jr. Kidscope®
Set up the best science center in school with the GeoSafari® Jr. Kidscope®! The perfect classroom microscope, the kid-tough Kidscope offers lower, kid-friendly, 3x magnification (so they know what they’re looking at); 15 slides with 60 awesome images; and a guide with over 200 facts describing each image. A great way to introduce STEM learning—and provide hands-on, confidence-building experience with a real scientific tool!
Find the teacher resources, classroom tools, educational toys, and games you need to engage your students and rock this year at EducationalInsights.com. Have an amazing Back to School season!
Holiday Gifts for 7- and 8-Year-Olds That Build Self-Confidence
Your elementary-aged kiddo is growing by leaps and bounds! These years are some of the most exciting in your child’s development, as they’re making noticeable advances in language development, social emotional development, and the mastery of academic concepts.
One of the biggest factors impacting your child’s happiness, health, and success is self-confidence. Confident kids are better equipped to deal with frustration, failure, and peer pressure, and to overcome challenges that come their way. You can help boost your kiddo’s self-confidence by choosing holiday gifts that nurture your child’s sense of self-worth. As the holidays approach, the Experts in Play are sharing some of their favorite, confidence-building holiday toys for 7- and 8-year-olds, including:
Artie Max – Build your child’s confidence, encourage creativity, and introduce the wonderful world of coding with this year’s must-have holiday gift! Artie Max, teaches kids to code amazing works of art in five different coding languages, beginning simply and building on what kids learn to tackle more advanced languages. Perfect for who love robots, computers, video games, art, and creating, Artie Max features crystal-clear, step-by-step instructions to engage kids in the wonderful world of coding while building STEM confidence.
Dice of Fury – Build math skills—and math confidence—with this furiously fast, whole-family dice game! Flip a challenge card and all players start rolling (and re-rolling), placing their die in their die holder one by one until they match the card. Players add, subtract, think even and odd, and complete mental math challenges as they play, building math confidence and creating a solid math skills foundation.
Circuit Explorer Deluxe Base Space Station – Help build your space-loving child’s focus and attention with a circuit building construction set they can assemble themselves! Kids follow a series of symbols to assemble the pieces and connect various circuits, activating lights, movement, and sound. When complete, the pieces are perfect for space-themed, imagination-building pretend play.
Kanoodle – Encourage problem solving and critical thinking skills, increase your child’s attention span, and provide opportunities for success with this best-selling, brain-twisting puzzle game. Place the pieces shown in the challenge book, then use your noggin to fit the rest. There are hundreds of possible combinations, but only one completes the puzzle correctly. With 200 challenges to complete, Kanoodle will keep your 7- or 8-year-old engaged all season long.
BrainBolt® Game – It takes focus and attentiveness to remember the order of the flashing light sequence and follow along without breaking the pattern in this mind-melding light-up memory game perfect for holidays at home or holiday travel! With both solo and two-player modes, kids can challenge friends and family to see who can remember the longest sequence.
Nancy B's Science Club Microscope and Activity Journal – Take hands-on exploration to the next level this holiday season! This kid-friendly microscope and activity journal set provides experience with a real, scientific tool and builds scientific confidence that transfers to the classroom. With a 400x zoom microscope, 26-piece scientific tool set, and 22-page activity journal, kids will be building STEM skills that last for years to come.
Nancy B’s Science Club® MoonScope™ & Sky Gazer's Activity Journal – Broaden your budding astronomer’s scope and build their scientific confidence with this 90x magnification stargazing MoonScope and 22 page activity journal packed with engaging activities. Specifically designed to get kids outside to explore the world and stay curious, this MoonScope will make an out-of-this world holiday gift for the special space-lover in your life.
Confidence is one of the biggest gifts a care giver can give a child. This holiday season, choose gifts that do double duty, delighting your big kids AND building the self-esteem and confidence they need to grow and thrive.
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9 Must-Have Stocking Stuffers Approved by Santa Himself
Old St. Nick gives two mittened thumbs up to these curiosity-sparking, brain-teasing, creativity-inspiring toys and games perfect for stuffing those stockings!1. Keep those kiddos busy all winter break with a set of four different Special Edition Playfoam® Jumbo Pods! Including glow in the dark, sparkle, mermaidy, and unicornish colors, this set has plenty of Playfoam for squishy, squashy sculptors to create whatever their holiday hearts desire. Plus, non-toxic Playfoam won’t stick to carpet or clothes, so you can say so long to slime forever. For ages 3+. $5.99 for a set of four on Amazon!
2. Fill Christmas day with hours of pretend play, thanks to Playfoam® Pals™! Choose from a variety of themes – each pack is filled with a pod of squishy, squashy Playfoam and a hidden Pal. Kids dig it out, then use the Playfoam to build the perfect props for playtime. For ages 5+. 2-packs $7.99-11.99 on Amazon.
3. Creative Christmas cuties can make a merry masterpiece with Color by Playfoam®! Choose a unicorn or a dragon, then use the included tool to squish the Playfoam into each section of the canvas. Show off your creation, then scoop it out and start all over again – Playfoam never dries out so kids can create again and again. For ages 5+. $7.86 on Amazon.
4. Overstimulated much? Calm the Christmas day crazies with Playfoam® Pluffle™, the mesmerizing, mixable, can’t resistible, feel-good fluffy stuff that never dries out! Flip it over and watch it flow, scoop some up and see it slither, or use it as a base in your festive sensory bin. For ages 5+. 2-packs $15.99 on Amazon.
5. It’s a bird! It’s a plane! It’s Santa, flying back to the North Pole! With GeoSafari® Jr. Kidnoculars®, the only binoculars designed specifically for kids, little explorers can scope out all kinds of things! Kidnoculars offer focus-free, 2x magnification, enlarged eyepieces and foolproof placement goggles, and a breakaway neck strap for frustration-free, holiday break backyard exploration. For ages 3+. $14.18 on Amazon.
6. Fruitcake-fueled brains can put their strategic thinking skills to the test with Kanoodle®, the noodle-knotting solitaire game featuring 200 2-D and 3-D puzzles. Start by placing the pieces shown in the puzzle book, then use your smarts to pace the remaining pieces and solve the puzzle. Small enough for a stocking, this solo-play game will also give Mama a few minutes to herself ????. For ages 7+. $8.39 on Amazon.
7. A topsy-turvy twist on traditional Kanoodle®, Kanoodle® Flip features flipping puzzle pieces! Players set the matching block shape on the starting space indicated, then flip the block to the finishing line in as few moves as possible. Jingle bell bonus: your kids will be building strategic thinking and problem-solving skills as they try to beat their own best scores. For ages 7+. $14.99 on Amazon.
8. If your kiddo has mastered classic Kanoodle, Christmas is the perfect time to up their outer space game with Kanoodle® Cosmic! Players place the pieces shown in the puzzle book, then fill the empty spaces with the remaining pieces, including six asymmetrical shapes that fit four different ways! Two hundred puzzle challenges will keep kids coming back for more. For ages 7+. $12.99 on Amazon.
9. Light up Christmas night with BrainBolt™, the ultimate memory test! Kids take turns memorizing the light sequence shown, then following along as long as they can without breaking the pattern. For ages 7+. $21.99 on Amazon.
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