Learning Resources Word Construction, Spelling Activity Kit, Classroom Game, 36 Pieces, Ages 5+

Why are v, w, and x missing?

Got this to help my Yr1 kid with spellings. I was sorely disappointed to find they don't contain all 26 letters and therefore cannot make certain words - eg JAM (no J), FOX (no X)... They may be letters not used as often but you can still make some words from them. The bolts are also extremely difficult to put on and off - I almost trapped my fingers in several times trying to put them on. Kids are meant to be able to do this on their own???! In saying that, I do still find it useful to help with spellings though at it engages the child, is interactive and is more fun than just sitting down and writing the words out on a piece of paper. There can be a LOT of improvement though.

My 5 year old son was very disappointed! The minute he opened the box, he wanted to construct his own name Jacob, but he couldn't find it. He doesn't want to play with this toy anymore. Letters j, w, z are missing. Out of 30 nuts at least 2 nuts should have those letters.

I bought this product through Scholastic and was very excited to use it. However, the holes for the coloured pieces are too small and won't fit on the screw! I'll be returning it.

WE love the word construction, my son is using it to build 3-4 letter words, my only down point in that there is letters missing, there isn't a "w" or a "j', will have been nice to have those letters on the bolt.

Learning Resources Word Construction makes spelling and word building a lot of fun! It's definitely a unique and different option than what I've seen out there. The nuts and bolts approach is clever and it's appealing not to just boys but girls too. I would like to mention that the age recommendation is for children ages five and up but even younger children can benefit from this learning tool. My son is is three and half and he's been using these like a pro spelling consonant vowel sight words that we've been practicing this school year. This set comes with thirty printed nuts, six bolts, a helpful activity guide, and a plastic tub for easy clean up and storage. I like that the set provides enough pieces that more than one child can use it easily. The nuts come in the colors orange, blue, green, and purple. The colors are vibrant and the pieces aren't too big or too small making these easy for kids to handle. Each nut has a little lip on the inside which needs to be lined up with a part on each bolt to slide it into place. Once in place, the nuts twist easily on the bolt to make a variety of different letter and word combinations. There was no trouble or frustration whatsoever for my kids to figure out how to begin building words. The green bolts feature vowels and the letter y while the remaining colors feature a variety of consonants . Note that not every consonant is included in the set. It's not a huge deal but something to take into consideration. Each bolt can hold up to four nuts. My kids have been spelling all sorts of two, three, and four letter words! I've used this set for them to practice sight words as well as to reinforce my 1st graders spelling lists for each week. They've also asked to play with these throughout the day aside from our schooling time! After testing them myself and offering them for use with my kids, I've come to the conclusion that it's totally hands-on learning at its finest. This set will get much use and I think it's a great way to reinforce spelling, phonics, & word building aside from pencil and paper. Highest of recommendations!

Learning Resources has become a big part of our home this year with our daughter starting preschool, learning word recognition, and so much more. Learning Resources allows us to keep the fun and learning going at home not just at school. Our 4 year old is full of energy and motivation to learn new things and get down to business when she receives a new Learning Resources toy. What i love most about Learning Resources is they have allowed children to continue to enjoy themselves while learning. She never gets bored and thoroughly enjoys sitting and trying out these new tasks. Learning Resources sent us their new Word Constructionnofollow set. It involved putting together words in a creative "construction" themed way. She learned quite a few new words and had many questions and kept her mind going figuring out new words to create. This is definitely a new favorite to add to our list.

The Word Construction set from Learning Resources is geared for kids ages 5+ but my littler kids loved playing with these as well. Here's what we liked about this Word Construction set... The colors are vibrant and we liked how the vowels were all green The nuts & bolts design really was intriguing to my kids The storage tub was large and could fit all of the materials easily so the kids could clean up quickly! Once the nuts were on the bolts they were easy to turn so that kids could read several different words The materials were really durable and my 18 month old dumped them out again and again and everything stayed intact! The nuts and bolts were large, perfect for little hands to manipulate! Here's what we'd change about this set... We'd love all alphabet letters to be included. There were a few missing when we tried to spell some of our favorite words. We'd love the nuts & bolts pieces to be a little bit easier to manipulate. Even I had a hard time getting the pieces onto the bolts the first few times until I discovered the little grooves and taught the kids how they worked. Disclosure: I was given a free set from Learning Resources in exchange for an honest review.

My students love the time of the school day that we do small group centers. I am always on the look out for fun activities that my students can do during this time to practice important literacy and reading skills. My students loved the Learning Resources Word Construction set, especially the boys. They were excited to be using tools to build different words. My students have really taken off now with their letter recognition and sound knowledge. They loved that with this activity that they could make and read words by themselves. They did not need help. In my class, I put picture cards into the activity so they could sound out and make the different words with the nuts. After, they sounded out the word, I had them spin and turn the nuts on the bolts to read the different real and nonsense words that the letters made. Children need to be able to read and blend simple words regardless if they are a real word or not. This activity really help them with both of these skills. I liked how big the nuts and bolts are in this set. They are easy for my students to manipulate. I also really like the font they used for the letters. Some other activities use fonts that my students are not familiar with, but this one was easy for them to recognize the letters. I liked how colorful the different pieces are as well. My only complaint is the students sometimes struggled with getting the nuts off of the bolts. You have to twist and pull the nuts to get them off the bolt. Sometimes they could get stuck and it was even hard for me. My students are always asking for the Learning Resources Word Construction to use in centers. My students and I both love it! It would be great to have for children to practice important literacy skills. I received this from Learning Resources for my review.

The Word Construction is made up of large plastic nuts and bolts. The nuts have different letters on them and screw onto the bolts. You can start with the first letter and add up to 4 letters to make words. The nuts are colorful making it fun to make patters, same colors, or different. There are 6 bolts and 30 nuts. Each nut has 6 letters on them. Each bolt has either consonants or vowels. The vowels are all on green and the consonants are either purple, blue, or orange. I really like that there are multiple ways to make words. At first the nuts were hard to get on, but then I realized there is a little notch that needs to be in the right spot. Then once the nut is on the bolt you can twist it around to line up the letters the way you want. The little notch makes it so the nut does not just fall off. This took some practice for my son, but he got it. The pieces are chunky and perfect for little hands. The pieces are well made and look like they will last a while. As we worked on some of my son's spelling words we noticed that some letters are missing. I was disappointed that there are some letters over and over like s and we could not find the letter j, v, w, x, or z. This made it hard when he had the words jump and zoo as spelling words. I'm not sure why they would leave out these letters. I know that the ones I see on the different colored nuts more then once are very common letters, but the other letters are needed too. I'd love to see them add some bolts with the other letters. Overall we really like word construction and will continue to use it for spelling practice as we can. I received these in order to provide an honest review on my blog. You can read more here: http://www.arizonamamablog.com/2014/03/learning-resources-word-construction.html#hjZM4ukZDPxzYJ2Y.99 All thoughts and opinions are my own and not influenced.

A great hands on activity for kindergarteners. Great tool to reinforce cvc words. However; it needs a little directions on how to slide the nuts onto the bolt. You need to line up the grooves for it to go onto the bolt easily. It took time to figure out how to use it. Now it is an amazing hands on activity. I love it and so do my kids!

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Thank you Learning Resources for providing me with Word Construction, free of charge, for review on my blog Ahh~Mazing Reviews. These are my own honest opinions. I'm always looking for fun, educational toys for my son, and Learning Resources is my favorite place to find them! They have such a wide variety of educational toys for all ages. They recently sent us their Word Construction toy for review, and this is by far one of the best toys we have gotten from them! Word Construction is a set of plastic nuts and bolts. The nuts have letters all the way around them and you can put them on the bolts to make all kinds of combinations of words! My son is learning to read, so this is a great toy for him right now. Together we made up so many words! You can set up one word on a bolt, and then turn the nuts to make other words. My son has so much fun coming up with words for me to help him spell. He can even spell some of them on his own! The Word Construction nuts and bolts are a good size for little hands, and pretty easy for little kids to put together. It did take my son a little while to get the hang of having to put the nut on the bolt in one certain way to slide it on, and then turn it to make the word. They are designed so they don't fall off, so they have to be put on in just the right way. However, after I helped him with it a few times he got the hang of it! This toy is very well made and durable, which is perfect for my wild, destructive child. That is one thing I love about Learning Resources toys - I don't have to worry about my son breaking them. All our Learning Resources toys have held up really well!