Olathe East Environmental Design
A 21st Century Program

Toys For Tots



Olathe East Environmental Design students, led by instructors Barbara Nikoo-Manesh and Lee Sappingfield, worked in groups of five, doing a firm simulation, to design and produce original educational toys for students at Harmony Early Childhood Center, in partnership with their principal and staff.

The Center has a variety of classrooms, with young students having varying obstacles. The target groups include, children in poverty, “at risk” children, deaf/hard of hearing, intense autism, language delayed children and “peer models”.

Each firm was assigned to a target group, to research the disability or development of the children within that particular classroom. They researched any obstacles the target children had to deal with. This helped them better understand what type of educational learning toy would be most beneficial to the child’s development.

Students took a field trip to Harmony Early Childhood Center to observe and identify needs of the students and research what type of educational toys the students are already using. Communication with the teachers continued after the field trip, to establish what skills the students in each particular class needed to develop, and what the students needed the most work on. The teachers were able to help students figure out what limitations the students had.

They designed toys that foster and increase intellectual or physical function, with safety as a major factor in the design process. Students researched educational toys, looking at age appropriateness and student limitations and wrote a technical paper on their target audience.

Students created design sketches, perspective drawings and orthographic drawings on CAD. A prototype model created from plastic, wood, or fabric was also produced for students at the Harmony Early Childhood Center to use to enhance their skills. Each Educational Learning Toy incorporated the Harmony Star Logo within it.