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Ideas for Tinkertoys

Tinkertoys are interconnectable wooden toys beloved for the many structures, designs and characters you can create from a 2-inch wood spool with holes drilled along the side every 45 degrees and through the center and various wooden sticks of different lengths. First sold in 1913 as the Tinkertoy Construction Set, the brand has gone on to include various versions, including plastic ones. You can use these or similar tinkertoys to make unusual creations, teach lessons to students and improve workplace camaraderie.

Tinkertoy Tree
- As a seasonal decoration, the tinkertoy tree is a festive addition to a real or artificial Christmas tree. It's composed of a full set of tinkertoys, foil and a small pot, mug or crock pot. You can start by placing eight equally sized rods in the center wheel. Then you make the rows of "branches" from increasingly lengthy rods and place a central rod between every layer of branches. You build the tree with the largest rods on top and work down to the smallest on the bottom. Lay the base in the container (pot, mug or crock), and top it with the foil star, adding any other desired decorations.
Tinkertoy Walker
- Schematics are available online for a tinkertoy walker, a 3-D walking model "that is, as far as we know, the first passive walker that cannot stand." The supplies needed are a king-size tinkertoys kit.
Educational Tool
- Tinkertoys have also been used as an assessment tool for educators seeking to gain understanding of how children with learning disabilities and ADHD are grasping topics of instruction. Linda Hacker of LD Online says she uses the various types of tinkertoys, along with Legos and pipe cleaners, to serve as elements of a paragraph. She has special needs students use these items to construct a diagram of a paragraph and then explain what each tinkertoy represents. Another instructor known as Lady Lit uses them to model essays, with the wooden circles representing the topic and the holes in the wooden circles representing their main ideas and the thin pieces branching out to other body paragraphs. Other educational benefits of tinkertoys have been how they can teach students about geometric shapes and concepts, how they involve problem-solving skills during construction and how they aid processing and planning skills. They can also aid general creativity through trial and error and complement lessons on spacial awareness.
Team-Building
- Tinkertoys can be used in team-building exercises among students working on projects or co-workers in an office environment. People are split into teams to explore the causes of communication breakdowns. Two members of the team leave the room while the rest of the team assembles a structure out of tinkertoys. There are three levels of this exercise requiring participants to communicate in three different ways.

Construction Toys