Take a peek into your Brick Box, add a big dollop of imagination from your little explorer and whoosh, you have landed in Number Valley. A group of wild and weird places where numbers have been scattered far and wide. The train needs your help and creative power to retrieve them all and set them in order!
Hi play mates! I’m Emma, a mother of three and a play culture researcher. The LEGO Group asked me to play around with a couple of sets to make up some new games, so myself and my little builder, Scout, combined the LEGO® DUPLO® Number Train – Learn to Count with a trusty Brick Box to create a game we call Number Valley Quest.
I love seeing kids build on stories and layer new ideas. When you combine sets together, play expands, getting richer and more thrilling. The mission in this game is to build imaginary worlds, hide numbers in them and take the train to collect them! Here’s a few steps so you can play, too...
Use the Brick Box to build a few different sections of Number Valley. Encourage your kid to make any kingdom their imagination takes them to. There are some fun special pieces in the Brick Box which are good imagination sparks… what creative stories do the baguette, flowers or window make them dream up?
Add the number bricks from the train set into the different sections of Number Valley. You could do this by introducing a story such as, “Ooooh look, a storm has come and scattered these numbers across the valley… let’s take the train to find them all!” Or your child might like it if you hide the numbers in their sections, whatever works, go with the play flow. Remember, there’s no right or wrong in play!
Once your Number Valley is assembled, spread out the different sections to make a route for the train to visit and then build your train.
Take the train to each terrain, retrieve the numbers and add them to the train. Don’t forget those classic choo-chooooo noises and whatever other sounds you can make up at each part!
Even if you’re low energy, silly noises and letting go can help shift our mood and connect us to play more, so give it a go, no one’s looking! You could also act out little adventures using the characters to help find and collect the number blocks once you arrive at each section.
Once the train has collected all the numbers and visited all of Number Valley, you could extend the activity by putting them in numerical order together (a fun way to sneak in some counting practice!).
If you want more challenges, try dropping the numbers back off in order, or just the even ones. You could also treat the numbers found at each section as a sum and get your explorer to add them together before being loaded onto the carriage.
Feel free to bring in whatever is around you, too. Shoeboxes make great tunnels, cushions big lakes and books good obstacles to work around.
Ready? Enjoy your Number Valley Quest! Then hop over to Emma’s Train to Plane Adventure, where she combines the LEGO DUPLO Number Train – Learn to Count with the First Time at the Airport set.
Written and created by Emma Worrollo, Play Culture Specialist & Family Creator
