Arts and crafts
Sticky Mosaics, available later this year, involves placing coloured, sticky foam squares on a template. The Kids' Art set features six designs, including a mermaid and a dragon and 5,000 sticky pieces. Other sets will allow the children to make Celtic-type designs or picture frames. Priced from Pounds 14.99 and available from Treasure Trove Toys.
Telephone 0870 121 7050 www.treasuretrovetoys.co.uk
Color Explosion, from Crayola, is bound to intrigue the children as its special black paper allows budding artists to create multi-coloured effects with a single marker. Drawings can be done freehand or with stencils.
Colourful, quite complex designs can be created very quickly. Packs cost Pounds 4.99 and include a 20-page black tablet spiral-bound book, three Color Reveal markers, a stencil sheet and a re-sealable storage bag.
Recommended age from six years.
Telephone 01702 208170 www.crayola.co.uk
Construction
Lego is obviously an essential construction product in any out-of-school setting, but the pieces are easy to lose, often forever. However, a special Lego storage box, measuring 23 (h) x 30(w) x 23 (d)cm should help to keep your Lego better organised. Larger pieces are kept in a bottom compartment while the small pieces are kept in separate compartments on top. Priced 14.99. Available from good toy shops or at the online Lego shop.
www.shop.lego.com
Maxamec was reviewed very favourably in Nursery Equipment when it first appeared in the UK. The Maxamec Extra Large Kit offers real challenges for school-age children. With this kit they can build large, child-sized items, such as a car, scooter or aeroplane. The kit comes with a manual showing how to build 52 different models and contains 217 parts, including connectors, panels, wheels, nuts, a steering wheel and a wrench, priced 159.
Telephone 0845 838 2506 www.gift2me.co.uk
Pixelblocks enables the children to construct models as basic or complex as they wish. The system comprises tiny, translucent cubes in a dozen different colours, which connect together horizontally or vertically to create 2D or 3D constructions. Priced from 19.99 from Treasure Trove and available in December.
Contacts as before.
Wedgits received a definite thumbs up from one one of our testers who described it as a 'very good basic starter kit'. Designed for children from 'three to 103', it proved a success even with children who have poor manipulative skills. Wedgits consists of a set of rhombus and octahedral shapes which nest, link or lock together. The Junior Set comes with a design booklet suggesting over 40 designs. Supplied with a plastic storage stand. Priced 19.99 inc VAT.
Telephone 0870 873 8989 www.wedgits.com
Music
A music pack from Asco will certainly be noisy. It contains sufficient hand-held percussion instruments for up to 30 children and is supplied in a lidded storage box. Contents include claves, castanets, Indian bells, maracas, triangle, brass cymbals, jingle stick and chime bars with beaters.
Priced 185.
Telephone 0113 2707070, www.ascoeducational.co.uk
The Latin American Music Pack from NES Arnold offers an introduction to a variety of musical instruments from Guatemala, Peru, Chile and Mexico - from basic tambourines and rainsticks to more challenging zamponas (pan pipes) and penquillos. Also included is a CD of Andean music. All the items are Fair Trade and are supplied in a plastic storage box. Priced 69.95.
Telephone 0845 1204525 www.nesarnold.co.uk
If you prefer to buy instruments separately, check out the selection from Holz Toys. Handbells cost 2.50, a wooden recorder is 5, a tambourine 7.50 or a set of bongos 37.50.
Telephone 0845 130 8697 www.holz-toys.co.uk
Games
What's in Ned's Head? got a very enthusiastic response when we tested it with Year 1 and 2 children. Our tester told us that boys, particularly those who usually didn't want to sit down and play a game, loved its gruesome aspects. Each player is dealt a card with a picture of an object.
They then have to reach inside Ned's ears or nostrils and feel around to find something matching the picture. It could be a loose screw, a rat or a fried egg! Sounds revolting, but is actually very good for promoting language as well as sensory skills. Priced 19.99
Telephone 0870 873 8989 www.happypuzzle.co.uk
Some games have lasting appeal, a fact acknowledged by a company called Gazebo Games which has recently launched a range of Retro Toys and Games.
These are all based on products originally introduced between the 1920s and the 1960s. The range includes Panic Post, a game which involves lots of running around in order to find the right post box and can be played in or out of doors (3.40); Tumbling Sticks, in which players compete to stack the sticks as high as they can before they fall (3.83); and the more familiar Beetle Game, in which the throw of the die determines how quickly each player can build a beetle on a puzzle card (4.25).
Telephone 01278 723720 www.gazebogames.co.uk
