The Wooden Workbench - Testimonials

Nicola Fleury – Kidz R Us Proprieter

The workbench proved to be a valuable resource, which was used to its full potential both indoors and outdoors. The children (from age 2 years to five years of mixed gender, ethnicity and ability) all became involved in numerous activities surrounding the workbench. The younger children enjoyed sawing and hammering, transporting the tools to different areas within the setting, using them purposefully and encouraging lots of interaction and communication. The children recognised sounds, shapes and colours and new vocabulary was introduced that the children were encouraged to repeat and recall.

The preschool age range, again of mixed gender, ability and ethnicity, were really engaged in Pretend Play, using the tools in the correct way. Lots of important skills were encouraged such as turn-taking and sharing. Both fine motor and gross motor skills were evident throughout play. Staff asked lots of questions, encouraging thinking, enabling children to reflect on what they were doing, thereby promoting new vocabulary and also allowing the children to adopt roles and characters to further extend their play. The children discussed job roles such as "Bob the builder" and what they were going to make and build.

The workbench provided plenty of scope for learning such as: problem solving, reasoning and numeracy with a focus on quantities and size. Children used the screws and bolts demonstrating different ways to connect them, thereby promoting co-ordination. The tools allowed the children to discuss different ways of holding the tools, as well as sharing the new resources and taking turns. Children used the ruler purposefully and were prompted to find items of a similar size and colour; this also proved to be very encouraging as the dynamics of the group were extremely diverse. They were not limited in any way; in fact the resource was a great help in supporting and extending language and discussion. The children's age range was varied as were the needs of the individual children, some children have English as a second language so this was an extremely satisfactory activity for inclusion and participation.


The Heys Primary School
Anne Cullen – Learning Mentor

The wooden workbench was bought as a continuous provision activity in the construction area for the children to use both with and without adult supervision. It was instantly attractive to many of the children due to the lifelike appearance of the workbench and the tools that came with it.
Many of the children recognised the tools from home and were able to describe what they had seen the different tools being used for. It provoked a long discussion about health and safety issues and how things that could be dangerous should be used safely within a classroom environment. The children drew themselves wearing safety equipment and designed their own goggles to wear whilst using the bench.

The tools themselves were highly attractive to small hands, smooth, well-made, durable and ideally finished for busy little fingers. During a math’s topic about shape, the tools and attachments were used as a comparison with other objects around the classroom - the right angle proved particularly valuable in shape sorting activities!

In terms of construction, it allowed the children to explore a range of options, which would otherwise be unavailable to them, using the tools involved. Some of the children then adapted these techniques when making their own models out of different materials. The skills developed here were transferrable when it came to using other construction toys like brio. In terms of creative role play, the workbench formed part of a garage, a carpenters shop and "grandads shed" - appealing to both boys and girls - future cabinet makers and mechanics perhaps!

The work belt proved particularly popular, one of the boys even offered to mend a teacher’s car when he had a flat tyre!

NES Arnold is a leading supplier of early years resources offering a wide range of educational supplies across all areas of the curriculum and the EYFS.