GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) — It’s not always easy to find a gift that will keep kids entertained and learning, but Andy Losik has put together another great list of options for this holiday season.
He’s a STEM teacher for Hamilton Community Schools and invited News 8 into his classroom to see his STEM-related toy recommendations in action.
His first suggestion is a set of 800 straw pieces with plastic connectors, available on Amazon for between $15 and $25.
“You’ve got the construction elements that way,” he said. “Biggest thing for me on so many of these things are the social interactions and multiple kids deciding how they’re going to approach and build one thing together.”
The kids in his class used a set to build a tower that reached from the table all the way to the ceiling.
Another option is a classic: the Hot Wheels track.
“You don’t have to buy the whole theme set. You can get 15 feet of Hot Wheels track online for $15, put a couple of those together and then just turn the imagination loose,” Losik said. “There are amazing physics lessons are being learned every time you play with Hot Wheels cars. Even trying to figure out why the Batmobile might be so much faster than the van, you have velocity and friction and all of that.”
A popular toy that teaches kids how to code is the Pyxel robot dog, priced at less than $80.
“Robotics is something that a lot of kids get into, and the thing about this (is) it’s super cute and it’s fun and does some silly stuff. The girls that were playing with him today, they did the remote control for few minutes, but then they got into the coding and they had a whole dance party going on there and they realized they could make it do a lot more that way,” Losik explained.
An option from Fat Brain Toys helps kids create their own art with a little help. It’s clay that is not very sticky, so you can take it apart and reuse it, and it comes with instructional videos for various animals.
“The fine motor development is really great, and when they’re watching the tutorial, just being able to follow direction,” Losik said.
Legos are another classic toy, but what’s special about the option Losik uses in his classroom is that they’re not Legos.
“If you search for Lego-compatible bricks, you can get kits with 1,500 of them for the price of what 500 normal Legos would cost,” he said.
He also uses base plates that have magnets on the back so he can display the kids’ creations in various ways.
Losik has talked before about one of his favorite tools he has in his STEM classroom, which is the ZipSnip cardboard cutter.
“Those are super safe — I even let my first graders use them — and they cut so much better than scissors,” Losik said.
The kids in his room used them to cut out cardboard Christmas trees and decorate them.
“We just put bunch of random scraps out there for today, and now my room is decorated with all these, these great ornaments,” Losik said.
Jenga is a well-known game for family fun night, and Losik has a version of that the kids use in his classroom called Timber Planks, also from Fat Brain Toys.
“These are amazing because I can use those with the 4-year-olds that come in young fives and we use them all the way up to fourth grade. They’re actually working on their gross motor and their fine motor skills. … They’re learning balance and symmetry. And it’s just a very, very engaging toy activity,” he said.
Finally, Losik always recommends a book to inspire kids and parents alike. This year, he chose “Fail-a-bration” by Brad and Kristi Montague.
“It’s a fun look at how we can celebrate our failures and that is really the heart of the mindset that has always been part of STEM,” Losik said. “When that tower of timber planks falls down, or the Hot Wheels car doesn’t jump quite right, or it jumps in amazingly disastrous ways, then we can all have a laugh and realize that this is a place to make mistakes.”
Losik’s complete STEM toy guide can be found on his blog, All Good Days.
