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Kids seem to be naturally drawn to blocks, building towers out of anything handy that can stack. Whether you’re a parent or a teacher, there are tons of ways to transform your block area into a place full of learning opportunities for science, math, reading and more.
The Up! ebook is chock-full of more than 30 ideas for building, stacking, launching, looking up, creating structures and learning all the way.
(I’m a contributor and all links are affiliate links, by the way.)
What You’ll Find in the Up! Ebook
This book has a great variety of activities from moms and teachers who are passionate about learning through play. All the activities have been specially selected to provide you with lots of ideas your kids will love across the spectrum of art, science, math, language arts and sensory activities. And they’ve all been tested by kids.
More specifically, you’ll find:
- Ideas to set up and develop block play
- Activities that use blocks for math lessons, with number games, measuring activities and shape-building challenges
- Construction play invitations with sensory elements and imaginary play, to develop language, spelling and storytelling, and to promote cooperation and collaboration
- Art projects on the theme of Up! including Caulder-inspired kinetic mobiles and upright weaving
- Prompts that encourage creative thinking and innovation: exploring the possibilities of rocks, ice, marshmallows, customizing blocks with new designs, and using huge cardboard boxes that can build structures bigger than you are
- Science projects that invite your child to think about all the other things that go Up! including homemade rockets, airplanes, parachutes, pulleys and constellations
In addition there are 100 printable pages including shape challenge cards, build challenge cards and world architecture prints to inspire your child’s creations.
The book takes building beyond blocks to include stacking sponges, building with giant cardboard boxes, piling stones, making ice towers and more.
More traditional blocks are used to make letter towers, learn sight words and more, and blocks get dressed up with washi tape, world landmarks and other ways. 
Who This Book is For
The target for these activities is children from the ages of 4 to 10, but there are plenty of activities that younger and older kids will enjoy as well.
The book is a great resource for parents and teachers. Whether you want to set up an educational play activity for your kids on a rainy day, plan an Up! inspired play day or revamp your block area at school to fill it with fun, educational activities, this book is for you.
I know we have a lot of different kinds of blocks and have played with them a lot of different ways through the years, but there are ideas here I haven’t tried or thought about that I’m excited to try with the girl.
Here’s a deeper look at the book and some of the activities involved:
My Contribution
The girl and I did a piece about cairns, structures made out of rocks. I told her a bit about how cairns have been used through history and we made out own rock stacks.
If you haven’t played with rocks lately this is definitely something you’ll want to try because it’s oddly soothing, and a bit of a challenge to get rocks to balance on each other to make a tall stack.
Buy Your Copy of the Up! Ebook
This is an ebook only and is available for $14.99.
The Up! ebook is published and sold by Cathy James at NurtureStore.co.uk. Please direct any customer service queries regarding purchases of the ebook to support@nurturestore.co.uk or refer to the NurtureStore FAQ.
The Up! ebook is protected under copyright © 2016. All rights reserved.
Further Reading
If you’re looking for more learning activities for kids, check out ABCs and 123s.
Also check out my trash tower building challenge and my tips for building an upcycled construction/tinkering box for kids.
If you check it out I’d love to hear what you think!
