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Welcome to another edition of our e newsletter. We are celebrating World Play day this Saturday and invite you to come along. Read more about this fun event below. We are also doing a toy library survey so please take the time to have your say.

Lots of new toys are also hitting the shelving, four of our favourites are highlighted in this newsletter.

We are here to help so please ask us for toy recommendations, guidance on child development or just enjoy a friendly chat.

Brodie, Jane and Gabie

This Saturday 28th May is World Play day, a special day in the calendar which promotes and celebrates children’s right to play.

The International Toy Library Association (ITLA) introduced World Play Day at its Annual Conference in 1999. The Association was formally established on May 28 in 1987, so the recurring date was chosen in recognition of that. This year, the day’s theme is ‘Rediscover Play - Recover Through Play.’

We invite you to a come and try play day event in the Unley Town Hall 11am-2pm.

We will be providing a fun, interactive environment for families with children of all ages to experience. There will be a variety of stations with toys that focus on different developmental skills, and lots of new toys we’ve recently added to the collection for you to come and try.

We would love to see you there!

We are running a survey to ask all our members some questions about how they use the toy library so we can ensure we are best meeting your needs. The survey will be open from 27th May – 17th June.

Access the survey online or grab a paper copy in the toy library to have your say.

By completing the survey you can go into the draw to win your next year membership for free.

We have been busy adding new toys to the collection and want to highlight some of our favourites.  

We have two new Aboriginal baby dolls joining the collection. These lifelike dolls give children the opportunity to play with dolls that represent the diversity of skin tones and facial features in the Aboriginal community.

Developmental Benefits: Pretend play with dolls will help children develop language and social skills.

We are adding four new sets of Connetix magnetic tiles. Adults and children alike will delight in the limitless open-ended STEAM learning opportunities. Each set comes with an ideas booklet to get you started. 

Developmental Benefits: Fine motor skills, eye hand coordination and creativity.

Fit the large hollow shapes into their matching slots. Fit the squishy silicone plugs into their matching hollow shapes. Or, fit the plugs right over the shapes sticking out of the base.

Each shape in the base has a unique texture design and each plug has a handle to match. It’s all the fun of lids and containers but with a unique twist of tactile fascination!

Developmental Benefits: Fine motor development and matching.

A fantastic, unique shape-exploration experience created by Fat Brain Toys!

The six chunky shape blocks are each designed with fascinating textures that are sure to thrill the fingers. There's a cube, a diamond, a sphere, a triangle, a flower, and the happy Fat Brain logo.

But the best part? As kids push the shapes through the elastic bands of the cube, curiosity is sparked and young minds can't help but explore, experiment, and discover.

Developmental Benefits: Fine motor skills, sensory development.

Follow Unley Libraries on Instagram to be the first to see new toys as they hit the shelves.

Visit our website!

Here you will find our Party Hire toys and videos focusing on our toys and their developmental attributes, with more to come soon.

Just a reminder to please clean the toys you have borrowed before you return them so they are ready for the next family to enjoy. This is a requirement for all Toy Library members from Toys Libraries Australia and a condition of your Unley Toy Library membership. This is also vital in the current COVID climate. There is a cleaning guidelines sheet available in the toy library or you can read this at https://www.toylibraries.org.au/cleaning-toys  A cleaning fee applies if staff need to clean the toy.

Remember to count and check all pieces are correct before playing. If you notice a missing piece when you get home please give us a call on 8372 5174 within 48 hours so we can record that it was missing at the time of borrowing. We check and count all toys on return and will follow up any missing pieces. Please ensure all packaging (containers, lids, netting) and tag labels are also returned.