14 amazing construction and building toys to add to your holiday list
The holiday season is around the corner, and we want to make sure you have the perfect gift for the children in your life! We have taken the guesswork out of gift giving by letting our team of play experts choose the perfect gifts for children of every age. This week we wanted to focus on the perfect blocks, marble runs, STEM building sets and more for your little aspiring architects!
Playing with blocks and other construction toys is more than just play, it is intuitive to their early development! As children build and construct, they will begin to explore beginner early learning concepts and change the way they think! Construction toys are an excellent way to develop strong problem-solving skills, spatial awareness, observe cause & effect, practice STEM inquiry and more. Constructive play is a thoughtful form of play that is, in many ways, goal oriented and inquiry driven. Children who are engaged in constructive play use materials to create something and as they play and learn they can create new structures with increasing difficulty!
The toys on this list are more than just a great gift. They all were hand-picked by our in-house play expert who picked them with the intent to inspire your children’s imaginations, help develop early learning skills, and discover their passions because at Scholar’s Choice we believe children deserve the opportunity to achieve their hopes & dreams through play!
Hape's 50-piece block set is the perfect foundation for your young builder's living room construction career. Crafted from solid maple and painted with a rainbow palette of child-safe water-based paints, Maple Blocks are designed to last through countless construction and demolition projects. For ages 12 months and up.Building with Maple Blocks promotes dexterity, problem-solving, coordination, creativity, and motor skill development. Hape's Maple Blocks are durable blocks perfect for living room construction projects. This Maple Blocks set contains 50 blocks. Made from solid Maple wood and finished with child-safe, water-based paint.
Recommended Age: 12mths+
Think your child would love this set but may need more blocks? Make sure to check out the 100pc set here
The Korko blocks are perfect for your aspiring little builder as they can truly let their imagination run wild! These are a unique set of blocks that are made of Cork which is a naturally lightweight material with high surface friction, which means Korko blocks can be put together in ways that traditional wooden blocks can only dream of. The blocks are made of traditional and unique shapes in soft neutral colours.
These blocks are eco-friendly, durable, low-noise, safe, anti-static, water resistant and antimicrobial. They were designed with play in mind for young children so every consideration was taken into their creation!
See both sets of the Korko Blocks online here
Recommended Age: 18mths +
Both fun and innovative, this construction game allows you to create original structures using natural solid wood planks and non-toxic silicone cones. Easy to handle, this educational toy will allow children to make many constructions: vertical, horizontal, twisted, combined… Indeed, Piks is a limitless fantasy game!
Thanks to Piks, they will be able to develop their attention and their concentration while having fun. In fact, this creative toy was designed based on research and alternative solutions to attention and concentration disorders and is acclaimed by early childhood professionals.
There are several possibilities for playing with Piks! Indeed, your children can build the tallest tower without dropping a piece or will be able to make figures to make other players guess.
Piks stimulate the imagination by performing figures, but also improve fine motor skills and dexterity by building an original tower!
To complete the Big Kit, it is possible to add the Piks creative card game.
Piks Big includes 64 pieces:
48 × silicone cones (non-toxic)
16 × beech planks (solid wood)
1 instruction booklet (including examples of Creative Cards)
A natural cotton bag
See both sets of Piks here
Recommended Age: 3+
It’s never too early to start developing kids’ creativity and the Techno Tiles Super Set is a great place to start! The basic shapes can turn into grand masterpieces. Simply connect the shaped tiles with the snap-on two-way and four-way connectors and watch your structures come to life. From rockets to castles, vehicles and abstract structures, Techno Tiles puts no limit on your imagination. The set includes over 400 pieces including squares, small triangles, large triangles, two-way connectors, and four-way connectors. Techno Tiles are a great tool to learn about basic geometry, construction, engineering, and architecture. This product aligns with and supports STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math standards).
Recommended Age 3+
Mini Translucent Pipe Tubes 360 Pieces
The mini translucent pipe tubes is a unique building set that allows children to explore different structures and offers them opportunities to work with new kinds of materials! The pipes easily slide together to form imaginative and whimsical structures. They also promotes perceptual and fine motor development! Add them to a light panel, your sensory bin and any kind of play.
EARLY STEM: Straight, "T", 4-way, and curved tubes invite preschoolers to design their own unique plumbing solutions. Ideal for exploring spatial relations and early engineering concepts.
Preschoolers will feel a real sense of accomplishment as they discover how to fit the tubes together. Their structures will grow more complex with twists and turns as tubes are added. Construction complete? Trace the imagined flow of water from start to finish!
Made of soft, durable, washable plastic in 6 different colors.
Recommended Age 3+
Race your marbles down the track! You child using the 100 unique pieces can make all kinds of unique tracks with countless construction possibilities! Get your friends and family together to achieve a super fast run!
Fun classic game encourages hours of creative and imaginative play! Perfect for fine motor skills and problem solving.
Recommended Age 3+
Little builders, assemble! The fan-favorite Builder set is taking imaginative play and STEAM learning to new heights with the first-ever, extendable magnetic cranes. New ideas are around every twist and turn, where your favorite toy cars and magnetic construction vehicles can assist the crew or take a spin on the easy to assemble streets.
First-ever, extendable magnetic cranes
Popular road, brick, and construction site tiles
Ignites imagination and creativity while also improving dexterity and coordination
The set inclues:
- 10 Road Squares
- 6 Classic Small Squares
- 8 Small Rectangles
- 1 Spinner
- 4 Road Quarter Circles
- 2 Extendable Cranes
Recommended Age 3+
See all the magna-tiles sets here
Straws & Connectors have been a childhood creative construction staple in family homes for decades! They are simple to use for endless hours of imaginative play! Make playhouses and forts, design buildings, engineer spacecrafts or anything your little architect can think of! It is a wonderful set that is great for children of all ages.
Recommended Age: 4+
Fantasy Fort Colorblock Panels by HearthSong
Build your own indoor or outdoor play space with Colorblock Fantasy Forts Kit! Building with the Fantasy Fort kits allows for open-ended creative construction-the possibilities for forts and play spaces are endless. Simply connect with included carton-building clips and hook & loop tape!
Made of lightweight corrugated plastic (rather than cardboard) for outdoor building, these brightly colored panels will stand out in your backyard, beckoning friends and neighbors to come join the building fun. Set includes 12 solid panels and four window panels in four bold colors
Recommended Age: 4+
This wooden marble cascade block set is the perfect heirloom toy for children who love to build and create! Not only will they love it now, but for years to come. This marble run allows for endless possiblities for open ended play but also develops crucial early learning skills such as creativity, cause & effect, experimentation and more! The pieces can always be changed and innovated to create a new track. Watch as the marbles roll
down through all the twists, turns, holes and ramps!
This educational toy is a fun way to get children into STEAM learning. The interactive learning toy will introduce children to important STEAM principles with physics basics like the connection between potential energy, momentum and the effect of gravity.Great for encouraging hand-eye coordination, planning and logical thinking.
The marble cascade block set includes blocks, a jump, a spiral funnel, a ringing bell and a sliding track for your marbles to run through!
Recommended Age: 4+
Love what you are seeing? Good news, Hape has an entire line of unique wooden marble runs that you can see here
KNEX Classics 500 Pc Building Set
Introduce your children to endless building possibilities with the K'NEX Wings & Wheels Building Set! This building set from K'NEX comes with 500 different rod and connector pieces, which can be assembled into 3D configurations.
Kids can follow instructions to create 30 different model ideas including: a Submarine, a Battleship, a Speedcycle, a Big Rig with Trailer, and much more!
Help your kids develop a better understanding of STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts, and math subjects) with easy-to-follow instructions and as they create!
Recommended Age: 7+
See our entire K'nex collection here
This unique building set will encourage unique STEM inquiry and learning as children explore open ended construction and test their skills with the challenge cards! Each stimulating card features a 2-D challenge on one side and its solution on the other. The goal is to recreate 2-D patterns into 3-D structures.
The 2-D cards show the design from different angles highlighting the front, side and overhead view and increase in difficulty from beginner to expert.
Manipulate your KEVA planks to successfully duplicate the balance, proportion, composition and geometry featured on each card. Once you think you've solved the blueprint, flip it over to check the solution—try to resist the urge to peek! As each build becomes more challenging, patience and confidence is gained through trial and error. From picnic tables and rowboats to swans and snails, you will be amazed what your brain will build!
Recommended Ages 7+
Think KEVA Buiding Planks are perfect for your child? Want to see more? Check out all their sets here
With the GraviTrax interactive track system, you can design and build your own marble runs, experimenting with gravity, magnetism, and kinetics to propel your marble to the finish. This set comes with a variety of tiles, levels, tracks, and elements, you can use to get your Gravitrax adventure started. Build your track and watch the marble fly down the run.
The open-ended building concept offers endless possibilities for track designs and discovery-based learning. Follow the instructions or design your own marble runs. Create amazing tracks and work on your emotional and social skills as you push yourself to overcome challenges and create the greatest Gravitrax of all time!
Recommended Ages 8+
Trestle Tracks Deluxe Set by Fat Brain Toys
The trestle tracks are a truly mesmerizing marble-track experience! Each set is made up of hollow stacking cubes and a variety of perfectly flat tracks. The paths cut out of each track widen almost imperceptibly from one end to the other, creating an invisible slope that propels the marbles forward.
Get creative and discover the wonders of simple engineering with Trestle Tracks. As your children play and create it will support and encourage spatial reasoning, creativity, engineering skills, problem-solving!
Recommended Ages 8+
