Excellerations® Nature & Beach Blocks Set of 36

Description

The Excellerations Nature & Beach Blocks bring the outdoors inside with 36 lightweight yet sturdy building blocks featuring vibrant photographs of natural elements. Each 6″ x 3″ x 3″ block showcases real images of pebbles, grass, water, sand, and sky, creating authentic visual connections to the natural world.

This thoughtfully designed set includes six pebble blocks, six grass blocks, six water blocks, six sand blocks, and twelve sky blocks. The laminated construction ensures these blocks can withstand regular use while remaining light enough for young children to stack and arrange safely. Some assembly is required, and clear instructions are included to get you started.

Beyond simple stacking, these blocks encourage children to engineer their own environments, developing crucial STEM skills through play. The realistic photography helps children make connections between their constructed scenes and the natural world around them, supporting both scientific observation and creative expression.

How Homeschoolers Can Use This Product

Educational Benefits

These nature blocks serve multiple educational purposes in your homeschool. They naturally integrate STEM concepts as children experiment with balance, weight distribution, and structural engineering. The realistic nature imagery supports science lessons about ecosystems, habitats, and natural environments. Fine and gross motor skills develop as children grasp, stack, and arrange the blocks, while spatial reasoning improves through three-dimensional construction challenges.

Problem-solving skills emerge organically as children figure out how to create stable structures and achieve their creative visions. The open-ended nature of block play encourages independent thinking and decision-making, building confidence alongside construction skills.

Cross-Curricular Activities

Science Connections: Use the blocks to build different habitats and discuss what animals might live in each environment. Create weather scenes using the sky blocks to illustrate different atmospheric conditions. Build food chains by stacking blocks to show different ecosystem levels.

Language Arts Integration: Encourage storytelling by having children build a scene first, then narrate adventures that might happen in their created world. Use the blocks as story prompts for creative writing exercises. Practice descriptive vocabulary by having children explain their constructions using specific nature-related terms.

Geography and Social Studies: Build different landforms and discuss how people live in various environments. Create simple maps using the different terrain blocks. Explore how natural resources (represented by the different block types) impact human settlement patterns.

Practical Learning Extensions

Start simple with younger children by sorting blocks by type or color, then progress to pattern-making and basic stacking. As skills develop, introduce engineering challenges like building the tallest stable tower or creating a specific landscape scene.

For group activities, assign different children different block types and challenge them to work together to create a collaborative environment. This builds communication skills and teaches compromise and planning.

Use the blocks alongside other learning materials by incorporating them into unit studies about specific biomes, seasons, or geographical regions. They work particularly well with nature field guides, allowing children to build what they observe outdoors.

Age-Appropriate Adaptations

Preschoolers (ages 3-5) can focus on sorting, simple stacking, and imaginative play. Elementary students (ages 6-11) can tackle more complex engineering challenges and use the blocks for science demonstrations. Older children can incorporate mathematical concepts like ratios and proportions when designing specific landscapes or calculating structural requirements.

The durability of these blocks means they’ll grow with your family, serving different educational purposes as children develop. Their versatile nature makes them valuable for multi-level teaching when you have children of different ages learning together.

Storage and Organization Tips

Consider creating a dedicated building space where constructions can remain undisturbed for extended play sessions. Store blocks in clear containers sorted by type to make cleanup easier and help children practice classification skills. The lightweight design makes these blocks ideal for bringing outside for nature-inspired building activities.

The realistic photography makes these blocks particularly engaging for children who are drawn to nature and outdoor exploration, providing a bridge between indoor learning and outdoor discovery.