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Busy Builders Fire Station
Sound the siren and grab your gear as you get ready to save the day in Busy Builders: Fire Station. Young firefighters can open up this three-dimensional interactive kit and go inside a busy fire station, where they will learn how rescue teams prepare to fight fires and save people from danger. The fact book introduces kids to the daily routines—and a variety of emergencies—of a firefighting crew using cute illustrations and simple text. Once children have read the book, they can spend hours with the foldout fire station, complete with model pieces for a fire truck, helicopter, and firefighters.
Includes:
32-page fact book
3-D fire station
46 model pieces
Includes:
32-page fact book
3-D fire station
46 model pieces
- GenresChildrens
32 pages, Hardcover
Published August 11, 2016
About the author
Chris Oxlade
903 books15 followersChris Oxlade is the best-selling author of more than 150 non-fiction books, most of them explaining complex scientific ideas and modern technology to young readers in readable text.
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
June 22, 2017
Fire fighters are always heroes and people to which children look up to and admire. Engaging in the imaginative play activities of a fire fighter by putting together the fire house, road around it, and vehicle will surely provide hours of fun for boys and girls alike.
These sets remind me of my childhood when we played with "paper dolls." We had stiff paper dolls that had the ability to stand alone. They were not real durable, but they were fun and we had hours of fun playing with them.
The Busy Builders sets have lots of "bells 'n whistles" that make this modern-day paper construction set come alive for the kids. Educational. Fun. Packed with imaginative play tools and sure to please. The whole product is "playable" - the box unfolds into the "house" or building with streets on both sides and curved pieces of street that connect. The figures have stand-up features. Once the set is removed from the box and "constructed," it can not fit back into the box without completely taking it apart. To extend the life of the set one will need to provide storage. It would be fun to have all three sets to play with and have a "city" so-to-speak.
Playing with the three sets - Construction Site, Fire Station, and Airport together will provide a family of children wonderful interactive play time together imagining how a city functions. I recommend
DISCLOSURE: I was provided complimentary product/book to facilitate this review. Opinions are my own and I was not compensated.
These sets remind me of my childhood when we played with "paper dolls." We had stiff paper dolls that had the ability to stand alone. They were not real durable, but they were fun and we had hours of fun playing with them.
The Busy Builders sets have lots of "bells 'n whistles" that make this modern-day paper construction set come alive for the kids. Educational. Fun. Packed with imaginative play tools and sure to please. The whole product is "playable" - the box unfolds into the "house" or building with streets on both sides and curved pieces of street that connect. The figures have stand-up features. Once the set is removed from the box and "constructed," it can not fit back into the box without completely taking it apart. To extend the life of the set one will need to provide storage. It would be fun to have all three sets to play with and have a "city" so-to-speak.
Playing with the three sets - Construction Site, Fire Station, and Airport together will provide a family of children wonderful interactive play time together imagining how a city functions. I recommend
DISCLOSURE: I was provided complimentary product/book to facilitate this review. Opinions are my own and I was not compensated.
October 2, 2017
These Busy Builder books are more than just a book, but a way for children to interact, learn and play while reading. Each book includes a fact book, a 3-D building, and 48 model pieces. Think legos but instead cardboard pieces that build everything from firetrucks to the pole for firefighters to slide down. These kits are full of fun and will keep kids busy for hours. They are easily transportable as everything fits inside the box (if the things they build are taken apart) and it closes with a velcro.
The book is a heavy paperback that fits right inside the box. Each page details different equipment including the vehicles and buildings on the site that are necessary. The tools, employees, and tasks needed to get the job done are explained.
Then kids can take it to the next level and build what they just read. By opening the box, they can set the scene with roads and a fire station that they are building.
Multiple pieces are included to build vehicles and other necessary parts to play and act out the scene. In the fire station kit, the kids will learn what life is like inside the fire station, all the various fire trucks, and equipment involved in helping in emergencies. Helicopters, fire trucks, and the fire station pole are included in the fun of building.
When your child is done playing, everything can be taken apart and placed back inside the box for storage or travel. I think these kits are awesome and would make excellent gifts for preschool-aged kids through second grade. The words in the books would be too hard for the preschool and kindergartners to read themselves, but the pictures would help them figure out the steps to build and play.
These are a nice size and since they are made like a book, they would fit nicely on a bookshelf for storage. They are very sturdy and would hold up to numerous occasions of playing and travel. I wish our boys would have had something like this when they were younger. I think these are a must-give for Christmas!
The book is a heavy paperback that fits right inside the box. Each page details different equipment including the vehicles and buildings on the site that are necessary. The tools, employees, and tasks needed to get the job done are explained.
Then kids can take it to the next level and build what they just read. By opening the box, they can set the scene with roads and a fire station that they are building.
Multiple pieces are included to build vehicles and other necessary parts to play and act out the scene. In the fire station kit, the kids will learn what life is like inside the fire station, all the various fire trucks, and equipment involved in helping in emergencies. Helicopters, fire trucks, and the fire station pole are included in the fun of building.
When your child is done playing, everything can be taken apart and placed back inside the box for storage or travel. I think these kits are awesome and would make excellent gifts for preschool-aged kids through second grade. The words in the books would be too hard for the preschool and kindergartners to read themselves, but the pictures would help them figure out the steps to build and play.
These are a nice size and since they are made like a book, they would fit nicely on a bookshelf for storage. They are very sturdy and would hold up to numerous occasions of playing and travel. I wish our boys would have had something like this when they were younger. I think these are a must-give for Christmas!
July 16, 2017
My kids loved putting these together. My son said they are fun as legos. The had a lot of fun and were able to do it independent of adult help. They are 9 and 10 years old. My younger son said that this would be hard for those that are younger and cannot read, but with an adult's help it should be just fine. They loved watching the sets come together and enjoyed all the aspects of the build and play. They also enjoyed the small book that came with the set. They stated that kids will be sad when the adult makes them put them away because they will have to be completely disassembled to fit back in the box it came in. A few of the pieces were loose when placed together, which caused a few small issues for keeping the pieces standing. There were a few minor issues, but overall, the kids thought these sets were really fun and a great way to work your mind through building and free play.
July 23, 2017
If you have a kid or know a kid who is obsessed with fire trucks this kit is perfect. This fun in a box playset has pieces that fit together like a big puzzle. There is a fire station, truck, helicopter and even people for more interactive fun. If your readers are interested in all the facts about being a firefighter there is a book with lots of colorful illustrations that show kids how it’s done. Parents and caregivers will appreciate the concept of kids learning independence and being able to use their imaginations.
November 25, 2017
Over the summer, I received review copies of three Busy Builders sets from Silver Dolphin Books: Construction Site, Fire Station, and Airport. Miss Muffet and I had a lot of fun building and playing with each one, and I shared photos on Instagram, but now, with holiday gift-giving on the horizon, I'm finally getting around to writing a proper review.
Each of these sets is contained in a box which opens up, with a flap on either side, to become the central building of each playset: the firehouse, the airport, and a school for the construction workers to build. Puzzle pieces snap onto the flaps to make a road going around each building, and there are various other cardboard pieces which punch out and are used to build vehicles, people, etc. A book is also part of each set. These colorfully illustrated volumes provide lots of facts and vocabulary associated with each setting, as well as the instructions for putting together all of the models.
Because my daughter has only just turned four, she couldn't do much of the actual building herself. She was able to put the stands on the people, and to put together small accessories like fire hydrants and traffic cones, but the larger tasks of putting together the firetruck, airplanes, and diggers were left to me. If she were six or seven years old, however, I think she could have put together everything herself, as all of the instructions are clearly illustrated and all that is required is snapping cardboard pieces together in the correct order.
The books are surprisingly full of information, despite being only 32 pages, a good chunk of which is devoted to building instructions. There isn't much of a narrative to any of them; rather, they illustrate the vehicles, equipment, and buildings pertaining to the fire station, airport, and construction site, label each item and provide short blurbs to explain how they are used by the various workers. Miss Muffet was not yet reading when we first received these, but she still spent a good long time poring over each book and even making up stories about the characters in each illustration. The books also helped inform her play, as she had very little knowledge of construction, firefighting, or airports prior to playing with these sets.
Unfortunately, as much as these kits really enriched Miss Muffet's first lesson about community helpers, there were some problems with the playsets. For one thing, the boxes which serve as the buildings for each set are weakly attached to the flaps that fold out from them, which makes it easy for them to come apart. One of our sets arrived with the box already completely detached, and I had to glue it back together. This was easily accomplished with plain Elmer's white glue, and the set was still perfectly usable after the fact, but it was disappointing to start out with a broken set.
The puzzle pieces that make up the roads also don't fit together perfectly, especially on a carpeted floor, so that was frustrating for both me and my daughter, as pieces kept popping out of place whenever we pretended to drive a vehicle over them. This problem seemed to be most pronounced in the fire station set and least troublesome in the airport, but none of the three had pieces that were a perfect fit. We ran into similar difficulties with some of the stands for the people and with certain pieces of the airport aircraft and the fire station's helicopter. In cases where a piece was too loose, it would fall off whenever the model was moved. In other cases, the pieces were such a tight fit that they wound up bending or tearing slightly on their edges when I tried to put them in place. Again, these were not problems that interfered heavily with our enjoyment of the sets, but it was frustrating to continually have to pick up wheels or a tail from the floor every time Miss Muffet pretended to fly a plane across the sky.
The final problem I encountered was with storage. While the sets are self-contained and all of the pieces can be stored in the buildings/boxes, this is only the case if you take each set entirely apart between uses. I was not prepared to reassemble every single model every time my daughter wanted to play with them. Instead, I wound up storing all of the assembled vehicles in a wooden tray which I could take down from a shelf upon request. For an older child, though, it might be appealing to build the sets over and over again, in which case storage would be very easy, as the boxes with everything tucked inside can fit easily onto a bookshelf.
Though these kits are not likely to last as long as something made of plastic or wood, they are a nice inexpensive way to engage kids who are interested in cars and trucks, community helpers, model-building, and who are desperate to know every little detail about how people do their work, and the tools they use to do it. While my daughter was able to enjoy these as a preschooler with plenty of adult supervision, they would probably be best for a slightly older child who could work on them independently and feel a sense of pride in having built the models himself, and who can be careful enough with the delicate cardboard to help the sets last a while. Though my favorite of the three is the fire station - it was the easiest to assemble, and had a good mix of people and vehicles - any of these would make a great gift for an elementary-aged child, and Miss Muffet and I recommend them.
Each of these sets is contained in a box which opens up, with a flap on either side, to become the central building of each playset: the firehouse, the airport, and a school for the construction workers to build. Puzzle pieces snap onto the flaps to make a road going around each building, and there are various other cardboard pieces which punch out and are used to build vehicles, people, etc. A book is also part of each set. These colorfully illustrated volumes provide lots of facts and vocabulary associated with each setting, as well as the instructions for putting together all of the models.
Because my daughter has only just turned four, she couldn't do much of the actual building herself. She was able to put the stands on the people, and to put together small accessories like fire hydrants and traffic cones, but the larger tasks of putting together the firetruck, airplanes, and diggers were left to me. If she were six or seven years old, however, I think she could have put together everything herself, as all of the instructions are clearly illustrated and all that is required is snapping cardboard pieces together in the correct order.
The books are surprisingly full of information, despite being only 32 pages, a good chunk of which is devoted to building instructions. There isn't much of a narrative to any of them; rather, they illustrate the vehicles, equipment, and buildings pertaining to the fire station, airport, and construction site, label each item and provide short blurbs to explain how they are used by the various workers. Miss Muffet was not yet reading when we first received these, but she still spent a good long time poring over each book and even making up stories about the characters in each illustration. The books also helped inform her play, as she had very little knowledge of construction, firefighting, or airports prior to playing with these sets.
Unfortunately, as much as these kits really enriched Miss Muffet's first lesson about community helpers, there were some problems with the playsets. For one thing, the boxes which serve as the buildings for each set are weakly attached to the flaps that fold out from them, which makes it easy for them to come apart. One of our sets arrived with the box already completely detached, and I had to glue it back together. This was easily accomplished with plain Elmer's white glue, and the set was still perfectly usable after the fact, but it was disappointing to start out with a broken set.
The puzzle pieces that make up the roads also don't fit together perfectly, especially on a carpeted floor, so that was frustrating for both me and my daughter, as pieces kept popping out of place whenever we pretended to drive a vehicle over them. This problem seemed to be most pronounced in the fire station set and least troublesome in the airport, but none of the three had pieces that were a perfect fit. We ran into similar difficulties with some of the stands for the people and with certain pieces of the airport aircraft and the fire station's helicopter. In cases where a piece was too loose, it would fall off whenever the model was moved. In other cases, the pieces were such a tight fit that they wound up bending or tearing slightly on their edges when I tried to put them in place. Again, these were not problems that interfered heavily with our enjoyment of the sets, but it was frustrating to continually have to pick up wheels or a tail from the floor every time Miss Muffet pretended to fly a plane across the sky.
The final problem I encountered was with storage. While the sets are self-contained and all of the pieces can be stored in the buildings/boxes, this is only the case if you take each set entirely apart between uses. I was not prepared to reassemble every single model every time my daughter wanted to play with them. Instead, I wound up storing all of the assembled vehicles in a wooden tray which I could take down from a shelf upon request. For an older child, though, it might be appealing to build the sets over and over again, in which case storage would be very easy, as the boxes with everything tucked inside can fit easily onto a bookshelf.
Though these kits are not likely to last as long as something made of plastic or wood, they are a nice inexpensive way to engage kids who are interested in cars and trucks, community helpers, model-building, and who are desperate to know every little detail about how people do their work, and the tools they use to do it. While my daughter was able to enjoy these as a preschooler with plenty of adult supervision, they would probably be best for a slightly older child who could work on them independently and feel a sense of pride in having built the models himself, and who can be careful enough with the delicate cardboard to help the sets last a while. Though my favorite of the three is the fire station - it was the easiest to assemble, and had a good mix of people and vehicles - any of these would make a great gift for an elementary-aged child, and Miss Muffet and I recommend them.
March 17, 2017
Pretty length for a four year. However, it was very detailed on what is in a fire truck.
June 28, 2017
My kids love this! My review can be found here: http://agoodreid.blogspot.com/2017/06...
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews