The holiday season always brings out the emotions, and this year is full of "all the feels" as the moms on Instagram say. December 20 will wrap up 30 years in the classroom and I will be tucking away the Legos and the building materials for the last time once the kids leave for their long-awaited holiday breaks. I am taking the winter to enjoy some adventures with family and then will embark on whatever is next in education and STEM. I am only 52 and truly feel like I am going out on the top of my game. Enough about me though. You're in the Christmas crunch and came here for great gift ideas so let's get on with the list.
As a bit of a tribute to the stuff my students learn from every day, and to kind of recap all of the years that I have been doing the list, this is going to be an all-star edition featuring mainly items I have highlighted before with a few rookies entering the mix at the end.
Here's your starting lineup.
1. Lego-compatible bricks and baseplates $10-$25.
It is hard to imagine a world without Lego, but in 2003 the iconic company almost went bust. Luckily some crafty licensing deals not only saved the company but then gave the world fun character-themed sets like Star Wars, Harry Potter, and even the sets of Friends and Seinfeld. Those sets are great, but really fosters creativity and engineering in kids are tubs of un-themed Legos with no instruction books.
I am always a skeptic of buying off-brand, but I am sold on the generic Lego-compatible bricks and sets now being sold on Amazon. 500 Lego-brand bricks sell for $25 on Amazon. That same $25 buys 1500 generic bricks and without focusing on the tiny "LEGO" stamped on the "real ones", it's virtually impossible to tell them from the off-brand. Most come in convenient storage tubs as well.
All of the above holds true when shopping for baseplates and the savings can even be greater. At one point this year you could get ten 10"x10" generic baseplates for the price of 1 Lego-brand baseplate. There are lots of neat color variations and even some that have roadways and bodies of water printed on them. My favorite variation in the classroom are the ones with magnetic backing. For a fun accent in a kid's room or playroom, check out the ones with adhesive backing and easily create a Lego wall.
2. MakeDo cardboard construction tools $8-$88
There's a reason the cardboard box is in the toy hall of fame and that is due to its versatility to become absolutely anything. Now mix in some safe to use saws and hole-punches with heavy-duty fasteners, your kids can create everything from costumes to cat condos to forts so cozy you might not see them much until it is time to go back to school.
Everything we have ever bought from MakeDo in STEM has been super durable as we continue through year 8 of the program, those tools and screws remain in like-new condition. There are starter kits at under $10 to get you going. I personally would buy a couple of screwdrivers so it can be a fun building event with another friend and one of the 180 piece boxes of screws.
3. Worx ZipSnip cordless electric scissors $30.99 While we are on the subject of doing amazing things with cardboard boxes, I would be negligent in my duties if I did not include this magically safe and versatile cutter. We use these with students in first grade and above. The MakeDo tools include a cardboard saw rated for 3 years and up, and it's a whole lot safer than your kids cutting cardboard with a steak knife, but it can get noisy. The ZipSnip hums along through cardboard, posterboard, and construction paper. These will cut a lot of other household nuisances at Christmastime like the bulky plastic packaging and those twisties that hold toys in place inside that bulky plastic packaging.
4. Pyxel: A Coder's Best Friend robotic dog $76.49 Batting in the cleanup spot is the fun tech gift of this year's list. There are a lot of great robots out there for kids like Spheros, Ozobots, and the Tello drone. All have appeared on my lists but in most cases are over $100. At just over $75, Pyxel allows for fun imaginative play while still allowing for some pretty high end coding experiences. Educational Insights has loaded this critter up with some really silly antics like a dance routine, tail chasing, and lifting its leg to pee. It all adds to fun and opens kids up to a world of coding with a very entry level learning curve. For the money
5. Fat Brain Toys timber planks
6. Straws and connectors building sets
7. Hot Wheels track
8. Hey Clay
9. Fail-a-bration
The rest of the squad
glue guns
Entina Tina 2 3D printer
Teeter Popper
KiwiCo
Save big money at Menards - $5 bin
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