Learning Expressions

Blog: My-Wonderful-Teacher Essay Contest

Earlier this year, Learning Express launched the My-Wonderful-Teacher Essay Contest, open to kids in grades K – 8. We asked them to describe what makes their teacher extra-special and wonderful. The entries are in, and while we won’t know who the winners are until next month, we thought we’d share a few of them with you.

Three winners (one from each age group) will be selected by a panel of teachers based on their writing, grammar, originality, and creativity. Thanks to the generosity of the sponsor, Educational Insights, they will each win a $200 shopping spree to Learning Express and a Classroom Jeopardy set for their teacher.

Here are some excerpts from the K – 2nd graders. I hope you enjoy them as much as I did!

My teacher is the best teacher in Hillsborough County. Her name is Rosemary Fowler![…] What makes Mrs. Fowler so wonderful, is she encourages me to read more books. Just by having her as a teacher, I’m on the fourth Harry Potter book, and I’m going to third grade! Also I got more Accelerated Reader (AR) points this year than last year. (You get AR points by reading books.) Last year I had 73 AR points, but in Mrs. Fowler’s class, I had 272 points. And guess what? My whole class made the AR picnic. We’re the first class in the history of our school to do that!
(Alexcis, 2nd Grade)

My teacher is the best teacher because he plays the guitar. His name is Mr. Sechelski. His problem of the days are pretty hard. Close to the end of the year he does battle of the books. When people in my class ask him how old he is he says he is as old as dirt. There is this thing called the stick in my class. [A picture of "the stick" is below!] If you are good all week you get a prize. I have gotten a lot of prizes this year! He gives guitar lessons. I wish I could have him next year but I am going to [ ] Elementary School. This is why my teacher is so wonderful!
(Matthew, 1st Grade)

My teacher is Mrs. Wagner. She is nice. She only yells when it’s time to yell. She sets up centers for us to learn. My favorite is the art table. We made boxes for our books we read. I love Mrs. Wagner.
(Ryan, Kindergarten)

My 2nd grade teacher’s name was Millicent Fisher. One thing I really liked about Mrs. Fisher was that whenever another teacher entered the room Mrs. Fisher did funny dances and said: “Let’s have a party!!!” I thought it was hilarious when she did that because most teachers don’t have such a great sense of humor.
For our science units Mrs. Fisher let us do really cool stuff like raising butterflies for our life cycles unit, going to a gravel pit for our rocks and minerals unit, and making instruments out of household items for our sound unit. It’s really fun studying stuff with Mrs. Fisher because for almost every science unit you go on a field trip somewhere. It makes you really interested in learning about science because you don’t know where you’re going to go next and it makes you feel really excited knowing that you’re probably going to go somewhere.
(Laura, 2nd Grade)

Mrs. Zimmer is an extra-special teacher! First, she always comes to school with a smile and positive attitude. Next, she is very passionate and takes her time explaining new things in a fun way. Last, she makes reading and writing fun by asking questions and cheering me on to do my best. In conclusion, Mrs. Zimmer is an extra-special teacher.
(Taylor, Kindergarten)

In my class our teacher has a jar that she puts marbles in every time we do something good. When the jar is full, we get a party! Keep reading to learn more about my teacher. One time we had our own candy store in our classroom to help us learn about money. My teacher is the best because she reads us funny stories and she has two kids. She often tells us stories about them too. My teacher almost never yells at us. Instead she just asks us to be quiet. Her name is Mrs. Huffman. Mrs. Huffman always helps us when we have questions and listens to our stories. That is why my teacher is the best!
(Hannah, 2nd Grade)

My teacher is wonderful. She taught me how to read gigantic words. She took me on very fun field trips too. She did really cool experiments with me. We made a lot of projects. When my tooth was loose she pulled it out with a paper towel. Her name is Mrs. White.
(Peyton, Kindergarten)

 

Thanks for reading!

BLOG: Learning Express Kids Speak Up

This year marks the twenty-fourth anniversary of Learning Express. In 1987 Sharon, our Founder and CEO, opened her first store, and in 1990 the first franchise location was purchased. What that means is that an entire generation of kids has grown up in the Learning Express family.

Every year the Learning Express home office offers a scholarship opportunity to the college-bound children of our storeowners. This year, the applicants had to answer the question:

If you could choose one person (famous or not)
to be a spokesperson for Learning Express,
who would it be, and why?

For this week’s blog, I thought I’d share a few of the answers. I hope you enjoy them as much as I did!

When I think of Learning Express Toys, the first word that comes to mind is—fun. When one first walks into any of the stores, you get a whimsical, joyous feeling that can easily brighten anyone’s mood, no matter what age. If I were to decide on a spokesperson for Learning Express, I would choose one who could perfectly express youthful character. I believe that my ten year old sister, Maddie, would be an excellent choice for a Learning Express spokesperson. […] Maddie is crazy about the scene at Learning Express. Every weekend she is determined to go down to our store in Rye, slap on an apron, and get busy investigating the store. […] She loves the idea of helping customers pick out the best toy, as well as testing out each and every one. She’s a natural when it comes to product knowledge. […] For a representative of a toy store, one needs an individual who is lively, energetic, charismatic, trendy and young. With that said, look no further, my sister Maddie would be the ideal representative for Learning Express Toys.
(Annie, Rye NY)

 

I have the clearest memory of myself waiting anxiously on my living room couch for my personal invitation to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. It was irrelevant that I had shown no predisposition to magic or that Harry Potter was a complete, albeit brilliant, work of fiction. I was 11, and like my beloved Harry, I would be going to Hogwarts. […] However, my failure at becoming a witch is not the topic of discussion here, but rather the ability of one character to ignite the imaginations of all generations, whether 10 or 100. As the magic and adventure of literature sparks the imagination and excites the mind, so do educational toys. I am aware that Learning Express cannot actually use Harry Potter as their spokesperson—doing so would [result in] a lawsuit of the gravest nature. My point is that childhood is nothing short of magic. Only as a child can one’s imagination take you to outer space, forbidden forests, and magic castles, all within the safe confines of your home. And with the help of a few good props (toys) and a book or two, a child’s adventure can be transformed from the mundane to the epic.
(Cali, Teaneck NJ)

 

The measure of any good teacher, whether human or inanimate, is the ability to relate their material in a way that is understandable to the learner. […] Given that Learning Express is a company devoted to the goal of providing children with constructive toys, it would be most fitting that the best spokesperson for Learning Express should be a well-spoken individual who embodies these same virtues of fun, community, and learning. One such individual who truly understand our youth as the key to the future is my older brother, Gray. […] Blessed with plentiful childhood learning opportunities that many do not receive, my brother has now made it his profession to give others the same chances. Just as he finds a way to teach his pupils in his daily life, I have faith, based on my firsthand knowledge of his character, that Gray could teach the greater community about Learning Express and the educational virtues that it embodies. I believe that Gray would make a great spokesperson of “Learning through Fun” because he would not just be saying it: he wholeheartedly believes in it and works for it every day.
(Zach, Newton MA)

 

If I could choose one person to be a spokesperson for Learning Express, I would choose a young, unknown child actor. […] Over time, the spokesperson, or spokeschild, will become synonymous with the company and influence an entire generation of children to become Learning Express children and fall in love with the store that fosters their creative sense of wonder.
(Michael, Wayland MA)

 

If I could recommend any one person to be a spokesperson for Learning Express, I would choose former First Lady Laura Bush. Before her term, she was an elementary school teacher, then a librarian up until her marriage to former President George W. Bush in 1977. As First Lady of Texas she implemented the initiative Take Time for Kids, an awareness campaign to education parents and caregivers on parenting, along with several literacy campaigns. As First Lady of the United States, she continued fighting to promote literacy and also pulled together programs to aid early child development. Learning Express puts forth their best effort into improving children’s childhoods through educational play which allows them to grow into strong, successful young adults. I feel like Laura Bush would be a perfect choice because of her dedication to the enrichment of children’s lives, especially in the educational field. Her goals and those of Learning Express are very similar in a way that people can appreciate.
(Rachel, Exton PA)

 

Thanks for reading!

Toy Review: Design & Drill® by Educational Insights

Radical rotation! This week we’re diving into the details with the Design & Drill line of toys. And better yet, we’re giving one Design & Drill Take-Along Tool Kit away for FREE! (See below for details.) Design & Drill was created by Educational Insights, the sponsor of this week’s first-ever Teachers Tournament on Jeopardy!® (watch the show on weeknights from now until May 13). Keep reading to see how the Design & Drill products shake out in my 3F’s of toy quality—form, function and fun!

Form

There are currently three different tool sets in the Design & Drill line, which vary in size and number of parts. We’ll be focusing on the Take-Along Tool Kit and the Power Tool Workshop, which are most commonly carried at Learning Express toy stores. Both of these kits come in fabulous cases. They’re sturdy, travel-friendly, and store all of the individual pieces. A convenient handle makes it even more fun to carry around.

At the heart of the Design & Drill action is the activity board—a white platform with a grid of holes. This acts as the blank canvas for our budding engineers. Each set also comes with chunky, colorful bolts (most are “classic” style, but some kits also have the “zany fun” style), which fit into the holes on the board. Add a real working power tool and interchangeable drill bits into the mix and you’ve got yourself a drilling dervish!

Each power tool requires three AA batteries and (rather ironically) a screwdriver to open the battery compartment. Parents will have to help with that part, but then the kids can take over, drilling the bolts into the activity board to follow the patterns in the Activity Book or creating their own designs.

Here are some sketches by the Riley Wilkinson, the Creative Director at Educational Insights, showing the development of the concept!

 

 

Function

Design & Drill is best suited to preschoolers, starting at age 3. I can attest to the fact that the drilling action is very real, including the great sound the power tool makes. And there is NO doubt about when the bolt is locked into place, thanks to the delightful “cha-chunk” you hear when it can’t go in any farther. I found that even if I held the power tool at a slightly skewed angle the bolt still went it just fine, and the tools all have forward and reverse settings so removing the bolts was also very straightforward.

This is a great way for kids to practice counting, and sorting colors and shapes. Fine motor skills will also get a workout. Open-ended play with the Design & Drill is great, and there’s also the option of following the patterns in the Activity Book. The book suggests that some kids might find it helpful to say the pictured pattern aloud as they work. (“Green, green, orange. Yellow, green, green,” etc.)

I think that when kids have completed a Design & Drill design there will probably be an excited “Hey Mom, look what I did!” moment. I admit that I was quite pleased with myself after completing a flower design, and was quite disappointed that no one was home to show off to.

Overall, this is an incredibly well made line of toys with no flaws in functionality. Watch the video to see it in action!

 

Fun

This is one of those unique toys that feels “real.” You can’t get much more fun than that. Just think about the popularity of products like the Easy Bake Oven. Why did everyone have one? Because it really worked! And the same goes for the Design & Drill. You really are drilling. And better yet, it combines the mechanical with the creative. Experimenting with all the different patterns, shapes, and colors is a great outlet for the future architects and engineers of the world.

I think this is a product that most people will think of for a boy, especially one who likes to be a good helper with home improvement projects, but I think you’ll find that the sisters won’t sit by and watch. The more the merrier I say!

Thanks for reading, and don’t miss your chance to win the free Design & Drill Take-Along Tool Kit giveaway below!

 

Thanks to Educational Insights, we have a FREE Design & Drill Take-Along Tool Kit to give away this week! Leave a comment on this post with your first name, your email address (so we can contact you if you’re the lucky winner), and the job you wanted as a kid. Entries will be accepted now through Wednesday, May 11. A random winner will be selected and announced Thursday, May 12. Thanks for playing along!
Giveaway not available in stores. NO PURCHASE NECESSARY TO WIN. A $29.99 value.

Blog: Playtime with Puzzles | The Traditional Toy Trend

Learning can, and should, be fun. I’ve said it time after time, and I’ll say it again because that’s our philosophy at Learning Express Toys. We focus on filling our shelves with products that foster learning through play. So this week we’re dedicating the blog to a toy that embodies that idea—PUZZLES.

What do puzzles teach us?

We learn a lot of things from puzzles. For little ones, it’s all about building hand-eye coordination, shape recognition (which is an important step toward reading skills), and reasoning abilities. But that’s just on the surface level.

Without getting too far into the technical details, here’s a basic explanation of why puzzles are good for us: The human mind has two separate hemispheres or “lobes,” called the right and left brain, respectively. Each deals with different functions. The right brain handles emotions and performs tasks holistically (as a whole, without breaking it into parts). The left brain functions in a linear fashion. When you are able to use both sides of the brain, and harness all of that mind power at once, you’re at your best. Putting together a jigsaw puzzle requires all of that cognition simultaneously. Studies have shown that there is continuous activity involving all the cells and parts of the brain during puzzle-play. And what’s the point of that? The more you stimulate and trigger that functionality, the more efficient it becomes. And better yet? Your brain likes it! It releases dopamine, which makes us feel good and regenerates our neurons. Cool, huh?

For kids, this is especially important. The brain develops when cells communicate with each other and make connections. Puzzles trigger those connections. Side Note: You know the saying “she’s got a brain like a sponge”? Preschoolers really do! By the time a child reaches the age of three, they have twice the number of connections within their brains than the average adult. But let’s not leave the adults out in the cold here. Puzzles work for us too. Challenging crossword puzzles, for example, require an important brain function called “fluency,” which we need to keep in shape.

Why are puzzles fun?

Because you accomplish something tangible. Finishing the puzzle is the best part. It’s something kids can point to and say, “Look what I did!” Puzzles can also be a sociable activity. Putting one together as a family is a great way to spend an afternoon, and if you choose the right selection it’s something kids of all ages can participate in. As if that wasn’t enough, there’s that dopamine release I mentioned earlier. Puzzle-play quite simply makes you feel happy.

The Traditional Toy Trend

Puzzles are, for all intents and purposes, a fairly basic and traditional toy. There are no bells and whistles. We’re drawn to them for their unique ability to challenge our concentration and exercise that particular part of our brain function, but I think there’s also some nostalgia that contributes to the appeal. We want our kids to play with what we played with, before the age of screen technology. We want to give them quality toys that help shape who they’ll become. We want them to learn the simple pleasure of sitting down and putting together the pieces.

Happy puzzling!

 

Toy Review: NINJAGO from LEGO!

On this week’s blog we’ll take you behind-the-scenes of LEGO, one of the top toy vendors in the world, and explore how the brand new Ninjago product line shakes out according to my 3Fs of toy quality! Enjoy!

A Brief History

A while back, the concept development team over at LEGO began to notice how much ninja-inspired media content was popping up in the market. They hopped on a plane and took an inspirational trip to Tokyo, Japan to study ninja culture, talk with LEGO fans and story experts, and peruse museums. They came back with some great ideas, which were eventually turned into a new ninja-inspired play theme that we now know as Ninjago.

The name “Ninjago” has its own little story as well. The folks at LEGO knew they wanted something that was ownable, actionable, and didn’t need to be translated. They had an American storywriter on the team who came up with it. He had created the original story outline about five ninjas, and “go” in Japanese means five. So the “Ninja 5,” or “Ninjago,” was born.

Form

Ninjago is based on the story of two brothers—Sensei Wu and Lord Garmaddon—sons of the great “Spin-jitzu” master who created the tradition a very long time ago. Spinjitzu is an art form where ninjas move so fast their actions turn into a tornado. Cool, huh? To protect the realm of Ninjago from his evil brother (who has created a skeleton army), Sensei Wu recruits four new ninjas and trains them in Spinjitzu.

Each of the four Ninjas has an element and a particular strength: Zane is the Ice Ninja, and his skill is stealth; Cole is the Ninja of Earth, known for his defense skills; Jay is the Ninja of Lightning and he’s good with speed; and Kai is the Ninja of Fire who has the strongest attack. Also worthy of note on the “good guy” team (known as “The Heroes”) is Nya, the sister of Kai. She’s not a ninja, but she brings the strength of intuition to the group and is battle-ready with her double daggers. And then of course, there is the great master, Sensei Wu, who is balanced in all the elements and chooses Wisdom as his primary weapon.

Can you see how easy it is to get completely caught up in this? I know I did. Historical Japanese culture is fascinating, and this is a great gateway into that world. To read more about the characters, including the “bad guy” Skeleton Army, visit www.ninjago.com.

Function

LEGO has a reputation as the best construction toy on the market, and there’s a reason. Their line is a well honed collection of products with incredibly high standards of quality and innovation. When it comes to the function of the Ninjago line, everything does exactly what it’s supposed to.

It’s been a while since I’ve put together any LEGO models, and I was happy to discover that the small pieces are now divided into numbered bags, which coincide with the order of the instructions. I found this very helpful. The instructions are all pictures (no text), but it’s pretty straightforward, especially for kids who are already familiar with building these types of kits.

The game play component also works well. The use of the battle cards is a familiar concept (seen in things like Pokémon and YuGiOh) but the physical action of the spinning battle adds a lot more excitement and moment-to-moment anticipation, and requires some dexterity.

All in all for Ninjago, the strength of the execution matches the strength of the concept.

 

 Fun

The genius behind Ninjago is that it incorporates three different play patterns— imagination, construction, and competition—into one concept. That means three times the fun. It also means that it opens up the playing field to kids who have never really gotten into LEGO before, but who are attracted to some component of the theme. At Learning Express we are always on the lookout for toys that help kids build their skills through play, and this is a great example of something that will appeal to a broad range and then cross-pollinate. So, for example, a kid who is good at games will be working on construction skills as part of the battle set up. And someone who already likes construction might begin conceptualizing the lives of the characters and exploring different aspects of historical Japanese culture. Here’s how I break it down:

 

IMAGINATION

The storyline behind Ninjago is compelling. The characters are well developed and it taps into the classic good vs. evil battle, which is both classic and irresistible. That being said, there’s a lot of room for imaginative play. I think of it like a creative writing prompt. Someone hands you the foundation of an idea and you have the freedom to just run with it.

 

CONSTRUCTION

Beyond the spinners, there is a whole collection of Ninjago models that are great for individual play or setting the scene for a battle. Each of the models has a suggested storyline, but it’s very open-ended, which ties in nicely with the imagination component. For example, the Skull Motorbike model comes with this description: 

Chopov is escaping with the Nunchucks of Lightning and Sensei Wu has sent Jay to stop him. Can he use his new-found skills to avoid the bike’s Ninja swat defense and retrieve the Nunchucks?

Or the Garmadon’s Dark Fortress reads:

Samukai has taken three of the golden weapons back to Garmadon's underworld fortress, and it's up to Kai and Nya to get them back. But before they battle their evil Skeleton enemies, they need to get past the castle's defenses, including flick-firing missiles and a huge spider. Let the battle between good and evil commence!

LEGO is the go-to toy for kids who like construction, and Ninjago is no different. Putting together these models is entertaining, challenging, and satisfying.

 

COMPETITION

Now it’s time to add the character figures and their spinners into the mix. (Don’t miss the video above to see what they look like in action.) The game is simple, but there’s a lot of fun to be had. Here are the basic instructions for play:

1. Choose a Ninjago character, three weapons, and four battle cards.
2. Put a weapon in your character’s hand, and place your character into your spinner.
3. Players say, “Ninja GO!” then spin their characters towards each other.
4. When a character falls, the character still standing wins. The winner takes one weapon held by the losing character.
5. Play cards at any time during the battle. Each card can only be played once. After you finish playing, return any weapons you won to the players they belong to.

Sensei Wu can count on me, that’s for sure. Head down to your local Learning Express for Ninjago and other LEGO products.

Ninja-GO!