Imagination Playground 3D Builder
Open play promotes creativity; touch features may frustrate.
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Imagination Playground 3D Builder
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A Lot or a Little?
The parents' guide to what's in this app.
What Parents Need to Know
Parents need to know that Imagination Playground 3D Builder is a virtual building tool that encourages creative, unstructured free play. As with the real-life blocks, kids select various pieces and drag them into an open space, connecting them as they wish. There are some limitations of the touch features, and using them can be a bit tricky, especially for younger kids.
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What’s It About?
IMAGINATION PLAYGROUND 3-D BUILDER is all about open play and creativity. Kids start by tapping the "Let's Build" button, and a brief tutorial describes the different game features. To build, kids drag pieces one at a time into an open space. They can rotate the pieces horizontally and vertically, take screenshots of their creations, and tap the Gravity mode icon to observe "real life" physical properties of the blocks, like a ball rolling down a ramp.
Is It Any Good?
Kids creating from their imaginations limited only by the available blocks is great for budding engineers; however, the touch features have some issues. Once blocks are dragged into the open space, they can be rearranged only by tapping to select them and then dragging them. Little fingers might have trouble placing the blocks exactly where they want them. Also blocks can't be freely rotated: The icons only allow kids to rotate them in 90-degree increments. Though relatively small, these limitations might make it hard to realize what a kid envisioned, which will be frustrating. More blocks that don't exist in the real world and the ability to resize and manipulate all blocks more freely would make this touch-screen version of these beloved blocks almost as much fun as the real thing.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about ways to use the blocks to model real-life structures such as bridges and roller coasters.
Have kids sketch structures on paper and then recreate them using the app.
Get kids outside and building with real-world objects, either bought or found.
App Details
- Devices: iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad
- Subjects: Science: engineering, gravity, Hobbies: building
- Skills: Creativity: imagination, making new creations, Tech Skills: digital creation, using and applying technology
- Pricing structure: Free
- Release date: April 3, 2015
- Category: Education
- Publisher: Imagination Playground, LLC
- Version: 1.0.1
- Minimum software requirements: iOS 4.3 or later
- Last updated: February 15, 2020
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For kids who love building and engineering
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