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Unit Block
A unit block is a type of standardized wooden toy block for children. Known also as standard unit blocks or kindergarten blocks, these building blocks are common in preschools and some kindergarten classrooms in the United States. Sizes A unit block is 5.5 inches long, 2.75 inches wide, and 1.375 inches thick, giving the dimensions a 1:2:4 ratio. Larger pieces include the double (11 inches long) and quadruple (22 inches long) sizes. Smaller sizes are made in various fractions of the standard unit. History The unit block principle was popularized by educator Caroline Pratt in the early 1900s. Pratt based her blocks on a similar but larger-scale block system designed by educator Patty Hill, a follower of Friedrich Fröbel, the originator of kindergarten education. Fröbel's series of 20 age-calibrated educational "gifts" had included a set of eight blocks, sized ½ by 1 by 2 inches, or a 1:2:4 ratio, which could be formed into a cube. She founded the City ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Unit Block Wagon
Unit may refer to: Arts and entertainment * UNIT, a fictional military organization in the science fiction television series ''Doctor Who'' * Unit of action, a discrete piece of action (or beat) in a theatrical presentation Music * ''Unit'' (album), 1997 album by the Australian band Regurgitator * The Units, a synthpunk band Television * ''The Unit'', an American television series * '' The Unit: Idol Rebooting Project'', South Korean reality TV survival show Business * Stock keeping unit, a discrete inventory management construct * Strategic business unit, a profit center which focuses on product offering and market segment * Unit of account, a monetary unit of measurement * Unit coin, a small coin or medallion (usually military), bearing an organization's insignia or emblem * Work unit, the name given to a place of employment in the People's Republic of China Science and technology Science and medicine * Unit, a vessel or section of a chemical plant * Blood unit, a measureme ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Maple
''Acer'' () is a genus of trees and shrubs commonly known as maples. The genus is placed in the family Sapindaceae.Stevens, P. F. (2001 onwards). Angiosperm Phylogeny Website. Version 9, June 2008 [and more or less continuously updated since]. http://www.mobot.org/MOBOT/research/APweb/. There are approximately 132 species, most of which are native to Asia, with a number also appearing in Europe, northern Africa, and North America. Only one species, ''Acer laurinum'', extends to the Southern Hemisphere.Gibbs, D. & Chen, Y. (2009The Red List of Maples Botanic Gardens Conservation International (BGCI) The type species of the genus is the sycamore maple, ''Acer pseudoplatanus'', the most common maple species in Europe.van Gelderen, C. J. & van Gelderen, D. M. (1999). ''Maples for Gardens: A Color Encyclopedia'' Maples usually have easily recognizable palmate leaves (''Acer negundo'' is an exception) and distinctive samara (fruit), winged fruits. The closest relatives of the maples ar ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Educational Toys
Educational toys (sometimes also called "instructive toys") are objects of play, generally designed for children, which are expected to stimulate learning. They are often intended to meet an educational purpose such as helping a child develop a particular skill or teaching a child about a particular subject. They often simplify, miniaturize, or even model activities and objects used by adults. Although children are constantly interacting with and learning about the world, many of the objects they interact with and learn from are not toys. Toys are generally considered to be specifically built for children's use. A child might play with and learn from a rock or a stick, but it would not be considered an educational toy because 1) it is a natural object, not a designed one, and 2) it has no expected educational purpose. The difference lies in perception or reality of the toy's intention and value. An educational toy is expected to educate. It is expected to instruct, promot ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Construction Toys
Construction is a general term meaning the art and science to form objects, systems, or organizations,"Construction" def. 1.a. 1.b. and 1.c. ''Oxford English Dictionary'' Second Edition on CD-ROM (v. 4.0) Oxford University Press 2009 and comes from Latin ''constructio'' (from ''com-'' "together" and ''struere'' "to pile up") and Old French ''construction''. To construct is the verb: the act of building, and the noun is construction: how something is built, the nature of its structure. In its most widely used context, construction covers the processes involved in delivering buildings, infrastructure, industrial facilities and associated activities through to the end of their life. It typically starts with planning, financing, and design, and continues until the asset is built and ready for use; construction also covers repairs and maintenance work, any works to expand, extend and improve the asset, and its eventual demolition, dismantling or decommissioning. The construction ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Montessori Sensorial Materials
Montessori sensorial materials are materials used in the Montessori classroom to help a child develop and refine their five senses. Use of these materials constitutes the next level of difficulty after those of practical life. Like many other materials in the Montessori classroom, sensorial materials have what is called "control of error", meaning that the child not only works with the material, but has a way to check their work rather than seeking out the teacher if they have a question on whether or not they did it right. This is done to help promote independence and problem solving on the part of the child. Cylinder blocks The cylinder blocks are ten wooden cylinders of various dimensions that can be removed from a fitted container block using a knobbed handle. To remove the cylinders, the child tends to naturally use the same three-finger grip used to hold pencils. Several activities can be done with the cylinder blocks. The main activity involves removing the cylinders f ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Froebel Gifts
The Froebel gifts (german: Fröbelgaben) are educational play materials for young children, originally designed by Friedrich Fröbel for the first kindergarten at Bad Blankenburg. Playing with Froebel gifts, singing, dancing, and growing plants were each important aspects of this child-centered approach to education. The series was later extended from the original six to at least ten sets of gifts. Description The ''Sunday Papers'' () published by Fröbel between 1838–1840 explained the meaning and described the use of each of his six initial "play gifts" (): "The active and creative, living and life producing being of each person, reveals itself in the creative instinct of the child. All human education is bound up in the quiet and conscientious nurture of this instinct of activity; and in the ability of the child, true to this instinct, to be active." Between May 1837 and 1850, the Froebel gifts were made in Bad Blankenburg in the principality of Schwarzburg Rudolstadt, by ma ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rubberwood
Rubberwood is a light-colored medium-density tropical hardwood obtained from the Pará rubber tree (''Hevea brasiliensis''), usually from trees grown in rubber plantations. Rubberwood is commonly advertised as an "environmentally friendly" wood, as it makes use of plantation trees that have already served a useful function. Other names Rubberwood is also known as plantation hardwood, or "Hevea" for the genus that the tree belongs to. In 2002, the Malaysian Ministry of Primary Industries marketed it under the name "Malaysian Oak". History Although it had been used on a small scale before, its use for furniture making has become much more common in the late 20th and early 21st century with the development of chemical treatments to protect the wood against fungal and insect attacks. There are extensive rubber plantations with mature trees, especially in southeast Asia; the earlier practice was to burn the tree at the end of its latex-producing cycle. Currently, rubber plantation ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Beech
Beech (''Fagus'') is a genus of deciduous trees in the family Fagaceae, native to temperate Europe, Asia, and North America. Recent classifications recognize 10 to 13 species in two distinct subgenera, ''Engleriana'' and ''Fagus''. The ''Engleriana'' subgenus is found only in East Asia, distinctive for its low branches, often made up of several major trunks with yellowish bark. The better known ''Fagus'' subgenus beeches are high-branching with tall, stout trunks and smooth silver-grey bark. The European beech ('' Fagus sylvatica'') is the most commonly cultivated. Beeches are monoecious, bearing both male and female flowers on the same plant. The small flowers are unisexual, the female flowers borne in pairs, the male flowers wind-pollinating catkins. They are produced in spring shortly after the new leaves appear. The fruit of the beech tree, known as beechnuts or mast, is found in small burrs that drop from the tree in autumn. They are small, roughly triangular, and edib ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Birch
A birch is a thin-leaved deciduous hardwood tree of the genus ''Betula'' (), in the family Betulaceae, which also includes alders, hazels, and hornbeams. It is closely related to the beech- oak family Fagaceae. The genus ''Betula'' contains 30 to 60 known taxa of which 11 are on the IUCN 2011 Red List of Threatened Species. They are a typically rather short-lived pioneer species widespread in the Northern Hemisphere, particularly in northern areas of temperate climates and in boreal climates. Description Birch species are generally small to medium-sized trees or shrubs, mostly of northern temperate and boreal climates. The simple leaves are alternate, singly or doubly serrate, feather-veined, petiolate and stipulate. They often appear in pairs, but these pairs are really borne on spur-like, two-leaved, lateral branchlets. The fruit is a small samara, although the wings may be obscure in some species. They differ from the alders (''Alnus'', another genus in t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Childcraft (toy Manufacturer)
''Childcraft'' is a multi-volume illustrated anthology for children, which originated in 1934. Origin and description The ''Childcraft'' series was originally created in 1934 by W. F. Quarrie & Company, then publishers of the ''World Book'' encyclopedia. The series' title was ''Childcraft – The How and Why Library.'' ''Childcraft'' was created as a sort of encyclopedia for young children. With simple texts and illustrations, the volumes were designed to make learning fun. Each volume addressed different subjects, including literature — such as short stories and poetry, including fairy tales and nursery rhymes — as well as mathematics and the sciences. Starting out as seven volumes in the late 1930s, the series was re-issued in a new edition every few years, sometimes incorporating new volumes and re-arranging existing ones. It grew to 15 volumes in the 1950s, and remained there, though further changes were made in later editions. The ''Childcraft'' set also added a separ ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Toy Block
Toy blocks (also building bricks, building blocks, or simply blocks) are wooden, plastic, or foam pieces of various shapes (cube, cylinder, arch etc.) and colors that are used as construction toys. Sometimes, toy blocks depict letters of the alphabet. History There are mentions of blocks or "dice" with letters inscribed on them used as entertaining educational tools in the works of English writer and inventor Hugh Plat (his 1594 book The ''Jewel House of Art and Nature'') and English philosopher John Locke (his 1693 essay ''Thoughts Concerning Education''). Plat described them as "the child using to play much with them, and being always told what letter chanceth, will soon gain his Alphabet" and Locke noted "Thus Children may be cozen’d into a Knowledge of the Letters; be taught to read, without perceiving it to be anything but a Sport". University of Pennsylvania professor of Urbanism Witold Rybczynski has found that the earliest mention of building bricks for children appe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
City And Country School
The City and Country School is a progressive independent pre-school and elementary school for children aged 2–14 that is located in the Greenwich Village section of New York City. Founding City and Country School was founded by Caroline Pratt in 1914. Originally named the Play School, it occupied a three-room apartment at the corner of 4th and 12th Streets. Soon after, Lucy Sprague Mitchell joined Pratt, and offered financial and teaching support that allowed for larger quarters on MacDougal Alley. Mitchell and colleague Harriet Johnson founded the Bureau of Educational Experiments (BEE) with the purpose of documenting the developmental and learning processes of children in order to gain accurate information about the methods of progressive schools and the abilities and needs of children. The laboratory schools for BEE observation were a nursery school, overseen by Johnson, and the Play School (its name was changed to City and Country School in 1921). As the school grew, Ci ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
