Our best-selling set with everything you need to get started. Unplugged, hands-on learning for computational thinking. Designed by experts at the MIT Media Lab, the Learning Beautiful Classroom Set provides tactile and playful learning for children to explore patterning, representation, abstraction, coding, and number systems. With beautiful, natural materials children can create mosaic patterns from codes, construct exponential trees, and count in binary. Includes 4 illustrated children’s books and a complete book of activity plans. No prior knowledge about computational thinking is required!

Ages 3+

Key Features

• Researched and developed at the MIT Media Lab

• Completely analog: no screens or digital tech

• Simple and beautiful, with safe and natural materials 

• Scaffolded activities that span ages 3-9

• Sensorial and playful exploration 

• Foundational building blocks for computation

• Easy and fun to get started in the classroom

• Developing dexterity, observation, and mental models through concrete learning

Included in the Classroom Set:

Binary Tree : Playful and fun building activity in which children sort and assemble a colorful tree that grows exponentially. Provides opportunity for collaborative play, and simple construction. 3+

Small Pixel Boards (x2),with design cards and marbles: Children create black and white patterns by following simple codes on this 4x4 wooden grid. Children develop creativity through designing their own patterns that they can share as codes of 1s and 0s. Great for dexterity and focus. 

Medium Pixel Board, with design cards and marbles: The Medium Pixel Board is an 8x8 grid and a natural progression from the Small Pixel Board. With more marbles, this material grows in complexity as children create patterns from codes of 1s and 0s. 

Large Pixel Board, with design cards and marbles: This Pixel Board is huge! With so many marbles, the possible patterns have even detail. Excellent material for collaborative play, and opportunity for longer periods of focus. Children continue to create and design patterns using simple codes of 1s and 0s. 

Binary Towers:Children love filling these towers with wooden balls, so that they are completely full, or completely empty. Great for counting and sensorial play, and for the older ones, learning about base-two counting. 

Binary Cards: Like a decimal to binary calculator. Simple flip cards go back and forth, with engaging sounds. Discover the binary numbers for a quantity of etched dots. 

Pixel Board Playbook:A simple and colorful explanation of how computers create images using numbers. Simple and accessible for all ages.

Binary Tree Playbook: Learn how binary trees grow! This beautiful children’s book visually explains concepts such as linear and exponential growth and how binary trees create their structure.

Binary Towers Playbook: How do computers count? Learn how computers use a different method to represent quantities, using just 0s and 1s. This playbook is fun and easy to read for beginning readers.

Binary Cards Playbook: Colorful, illustrated children’s book that explains how ONs and OFFs can represent codes. Learn how a sequence of ONs and OFFs can convey a message.

Computational 3-Part Cards: Beautifully-illustrated computational cards that build vocabulary represented in the set. 

The Classroom Handbook: Easy-to-follow handbook written by educators. Step-by-step guidance with images for activities for each of the materials that span ages 3-9. This handbook is intended to explain the big ideas behind the materials, so that children can playfully explore them as educators can adapt them effectively for their own unique learning environment. 

Weight + Dimensions

Approximately 27 lbs. 

Ships in one box: ~ 24 x 18 x 10 inches