Playfoam Class Pack Review - Theresa's Reviews - www.theresasreviews.comEducational Insights Playfoam Class Pack Review theresa June 23, 2015 Uncategorized 15 Comments Playing is one of the most valuable experiences kids can have. With the goal of designing some educational lessons, I received the Playfoam class pack from Educational Insights. During my experience, I wanted to thoroughly examine the texture and the consistency of the material, while trying out lesson ideas. Investing in classroom supplies can quickly eat away at a teacher’s yearly budget. Since I’m a teacher as well as a parent to two kids under age six, I evaluated the Playfoam for how it would work for different age groups in the classroom. Educational Insights Playfoam Classroom Set Review My first idea was to create landforms. To model different landforms, I created them on a paper plate and I walked my kids through each step. I explained that the green was the land and the blue was the water. Then I showed that you can use the foam to create a reservoir. Carefully, I created a border of green and I filled the inside with blue. As my older daughter Samantha began to understand what the landform looked like, I explained that a reservoir is a body of water, similar to a lake or a pond. She was able to construct her knowledge of what a reservoir is, using not only language but also a hands-on experience. Another landform we focused on was an island. Samantha was familiar with what islands look like from television. She knew some of the types of trees and animals you might find on an island, but she didn’t yet know the difference between an island and a peninsula. First I demonstrated what a peninsula looks like with the foam. Since our state has a peninsula, knowing what a peninsula is would be valuable. Next, I took some of the land away and added water to show what an island would be. Determining the difference between an island and a peninsula was a little hard for Samantha because peninsula was a new word. To help reteach the vocabulary, I had Samantha create an island with the foam. It was at this point that I started to notice how hard it was to separate the colors after you build with the foam. Some of the water that she built had green in it. I explained that there might be many little islands. She seemed satisfied with this explanation. To continue making meaning from the experience, I asked Samantha to build a reservoir. I reviewed what a reservoir is. She already seemed familiar with the meaning. Quickly she got to work creating a large body of water enclosed by land on all sides. Working intently on an education activity indoors was a huge success. Both of my kids were enjoying the experience. Even though my younger daughter Georgiana was a little young for the material, she did well with it as long as she was supervised. I handed her some blue and green foam. She went to work building a river. The creation looked really nice, which made her happy. While building landforms, I realized more and more how creating items with specific colors could be tricky in a classroom setting. The river had some green in it. Mixing the colors didn’t bother my kids much, but they are too young to care a lot about what the end result is with a foam-building project. Older kids who are working hard on a project might be upset that a landform doesn’t look right. Also, separating the colors when it’s time to put the foam away could be a hassle for teachers. I decided to try a new activity geared more towards early learners. I asked Samantha to carve the first letter of her first name into her foam. Creating letters with the foam worked well. Samantha said that it was hard work, but she ended up creating a very nice looking letter S. The activity used tactile learning to help teach phonics. At age five, Samantha knows her letters well, so this is a neat way for her to teach the letters to her younger sister. With an interest in using the foam to create three dimensional projects, I started building with it. I discovered that it could be rolled into a ball. When Samantha threw the ball, it didn’t fall apart. The material stuck together really well. Together, we built a snowman with the foam. The texture of the material was really neat. When I decided to switch colors to let the kids try something new, cleaning the old colors off of the paper plate was simple. There was no sticky residue. All the foam left was a little bit of color. As a parent, I much preferred playing with the foam to playing with clay or dough, which both leave residue that’s hard to clean, gets under kids’ nails, and sticks to anything.My younger daughter Georgiana was super excited to be a part of activities with her older sister. On a hot summer’s day, playing with colorful foam was an awesome way to keep my kids busy and happy without sacrificing their ability to grow with educational opportunities. Instead of showing them a cartoon or reading another book, I gave them a neat opportunity to build and create something. Both of my kids really enjoyed getting to choose the color of their next creation. With technology being such a push for kids, more and more kids are only learning to create using software. Using the Playfoam was a neat reminder that kids need to actually experience what it is to build something in three dimensions using their hands. Building objects can even be a way to reinforce kids’ understanding of how to build with technology later in life. Creating a project in three dimensions using foam as a material taught my girls spatial reasoning skills. My daughters learned that rolling the foam too thin could make it fall apart, but that they could make it stick together to build big objects if they made thick pieces that were packed together tightly. Another way to use the foam in an educational way for early learners is to roll it. My kids called this creating caterpillars. Rolling small bits of foam into long pieces helps kids gain fine motor skills. The activity worked the same muscles my kids would need to build in order to learn to hold a pencil. Making caterpillars was fun for my kids too. Both of my daughters were impressed with the foam and they plan on playing with it throughout the summer. The foam came in a lot more colors than just the blue, green, purple and pink that we played with in our pictures. I also received yellow, orange, a lighter shade of green, and a beige-orange color. In total, there were eight colors. The box held two blocks of each color, making a total of 16 blocks. There was plenty of foam for an entire classroom to use. In over a year as a product reviewer, I’ve played with a lot of toys from Educational Insights. One thing I love about the company is that each item seems incredibly fun to kids while also having an educational value. Whether you’re looking into the playfoam for your own kids or for your classroom, I would recommend it because the quality was good. Playing with the foam led our family to have fun experiences that would transfer well to the classroom too. Disclosure I received a free item to help inform my writing. Related 15 Responses Tammileetips June 24, 2015 I have not seen this foam before!! What a great sensory play this would be for preschoolers and elementary aged kids. I love that you incorporated learning about reservoirs into the kids play, it seems like kids always learn better while they are playing and doing something they like. Reply Melody June 25, 2015 I remember playing with these when I was younger. They were so fun and not messy at all. It’s great that you were able to get a geography lesson out of them. Reply rochkirstin June 25, 2015 Creating landforms with hands-on experience is a great way to hone kids’ creativity and improve their artistic skills. I also like that they are taught on how to determine between the island and peninsula because even adults often get confused on the difference. This is an enjoyable project to keep them busy. Reply Jeanine June 25, 2015 Oh the memories. I remember playing with this type of foam when I was a kid! Can you believe I’ve never gotten it for my kiddos? This looks great, and like I need to grab some for my little ones. They’d have such fun making little animals or characters. I completely forgot about this stuff until this post, thanks for the memories! Reply Stephanie of The TipToe Fairy June 25, 2015 This is such a fascinating way to teach geography. My son recently was learning landforms, and this would have been amazingly helpful. I would have never thought of using foam play, and my kids just love that stuff. Reply Kerri June 25, 2015 I am a teacher and I think that this foam is awesome. I had never heard of it before. It looks like it would be great for my second graders to use during our science and social studies units. You could make land and water with the blue and green. We also study germs and at the end of the unit the kids create their own germs. Ohh, this has so many possibilities. Reply theresa June 25, 2015 I know, I just wish all the colors didn’t start blending so much! Germs is a neat idea… Reply Heather Wone June 26, 2015 This looks like so much fun, my children would absolutely love it! We are already a month into summer vacation and the kids are getting bored with the same old stuff every day, I will defiantly have to look into getting them some of this, thank you for sharing! Reply Jaime Nicole June 26, 2015 Oh my goodness, that’s too much cuteness for one posting! The playfoam looks like so much fun and I love that it can be made into 3-D sculpture too (great snowman). We need to get some of this for our summertime fun! Reply Jess Benoit June 29, 2015 This is so neat! I want to say that my kids had a sample of this playfoam before. Being a homeschooling mom, I am always looking for new ideas and this is a neat one for teaching landforms….thanks for sharing. 🙂 Reply Carrie Chance June 30, 2015 My daughter and my daycare kiddos absolutely love playfoam. And, admittedly, I have quite a bit of fun with it too. It keeps them bus for quite a while Reply Christine - The Choosy Mommy June 30, 2015 I used to LOVE to play with this stuff. I am not a playdough fan (texture issues I guess) but I never had a problem with the play foam. Will have to find some to give to my daughter! <3 Christine, The Choosy Mommy, http://www.choosykids.blogspot.com Reply BellaVidaLetty June 30, 2015 What a fun product. My kids would have a blast with this. Reply Jaclyn Anne July 2, 2015 Using the playfoam to create landforms was a great idea. I can see how much your girls enjoyed it – and they really did a fantastic job! Reply The Best Sixth Birthday! (& Giveaway) - Theresa's Reviews April 1, 2016 […] past summer, Samantha helped me sample a class pack of Playfoam. The class pack is huge and provided a lot of fun, but I keep it stored away so it doesn’t […] Reply Leave a Reply Cancel Reply Your email address will not be published.CommentName* Email* Website Notify me of follow-up comments by email. Notify me of new posts by email.
Tammileetips June 24, 2015 I have not seen this foam before!! What a great sensory play this would be for preschoolers and elementary aged kids. I love that you incorporated learning about reservoirs into the kids play, it seems like kids always learn better while they are playing and doing something they like. Reply
Melody June 25, 2015 I remember playing with these when I was younger. They were so fun and not messy at all. It’s great that you were able to get a geography lesson out of them. Reply
rochkirstin June 25, 2015 Creating landforms with hands-on experience is a great way to hone kids’ creativity and improve their artistic skills. I also like that they are taught on how to determine between the island and peninsula because even adults often get confused on the difference. This is an enjoyable project to keep them busy. Reply
Jeanine June 25, 2015 Oh the memories. I remember playing with this type of foam when I was a kid! Can you believe I’ve never gotten it for my kiddos? This looks great, and like I need to grab some for my little ones. They’d have such fun making little animals or characters. I completely forgot about this stuff until this post, thanks for the memories! Reply
Stephanie of The TipToe Fairy June 25, 2015 This is such a fascinating way to teach geography. My son recently was learning landforms, and this would have been amazingly helpful. I would have never thought of using foam play, and my kids just love that stuff. Reply
Kerri June 25, 2015 I am a teacher and I think that this foam is awesome. I had never heard of it before. It looks like it would be great for my second graders to use during our science and social studies units. You could make land and water with the blue and green. We also study germs and at the end of the unit the kids create their own germs. Ohh, this has so many possibilities. Reply
theresa June 25, 2015 I know, I just wish all the colors didn’t start blending so much! Germs is a neat idea… Reply
Heather Wone June 26, 2015 This looks like so much fun, my children would absolutely love it! We are already a month into summer vacation and the kids are getting bored with the same old stuff every day, I will defiantly have to look into getting them some of this, thank you for sharing! Reply
Jaime Nicole June 26, 2015 Oh my goodness, that’s too much cuteness for one posting! The playfoam looks like so much fun and I love that it can be made into 3-D sculpture too (great snowman). We need to get some of this for our summertime fun! Reply
Jess Benoit June 29, 2015 This is so neat! I want to say that my kids had a sample of this playfoam before. Being a homeschooling mom, I am always looking for new ideas and this is a neat one for teaching landforms….thanks for sharing. 🙂 Reply
Carrie Chance June 30, 2015 My daughter and my daycare kiddos absolutely love playfoam. And, admittedly, I have quite a bit of fun with it too. It keeps them bus for quite a while Reply
Christine - The Choosy Mommy June 30, 2015 I used to LOVE to play with this stuff. I am not a playdough fan (texture issues I guess) but I never had a problem with the play foam. Will have to find some to give to my daughter! <3 Christine, The Choosy Mommy, http://www.choosykids.blogspot.com Reply
Jaclyn Anne July 2, 2015 Using the playfoam to create landforms was a great idea. I can see how much your girls enjoyed it – and they really did a fantastic job! Reply
The Best Sixth Birthday! (& Giveaway) - Theresa's Reviews April 1, 2016 […] past summer, Samantha helped me sample a class pack of Playfoam. The class pack is huge and provided a lot of fun, but I keep it stored away so it doesn’t […] Reply