How do My Family Builders figures help children explore diverse families?

My Family Builders magnetic wooden figures come in four skin tones with interchangeable heads, bodies, and legs, so children can build single-parent homes, blended families, two-mom or two-dad families, multigenerational households, and any other family they know or imagine. The 48-piece set includes both adult and child figures and supports thousands of mix-and-match combinations.

What makes My Family Builders different from other educational toys?

My Family Builders is the only magnetic wooden figure set designed around modular construction of human characters. Heads, bodies, and legs are interchangeable across four skin tones, so children build the people themselves rather than choosing from a fixed cast. This approach supports empathy through play, an approach grounded in social-emotional learning and recognized by the Parents' Choice Gold Award.

What ages are My Family Builders figures designed for?

My Family Builders figures are designed for ages 1 and up. The blocks are sized for small hands and the magnetic connection is firm enough for toddlers. The 16-piece Friends Set features children only and is the simplest starting point for the youngest users. The 32-piece and 48-piece sets include both adult and child figures and work well for preschool, kindergarten, and lower elementary classrooms.

Are My Family Builders figures safe for classroom use?

Yes. All My Family Builders figures are certified to ASTM, CPSIA, and EN71 safety standards. The magnets are fully enclosed in solid wood, the paint is non-toxic and water-based, and the pieces meet small-parts safety requirements for ages 1 and up.

How does My Family Builders support social-emotional learning?

The figures give children a hands-on way to explore family, friendship, and identity through play. Children build characters that reflect their own family and discover characters that look different from them. The 48-piece set includes 25 activity cards in English, French, and Spanish that guide conversations about empathy, belonging, and self-recognition during circle time or small-group activities.

What's included in the 48-piece classroom set?

The 48-piece classroom set contains wooden magnetic heads, torsos, and legs in four skin tones with both adult and child figures, plus 25 activity cards in English, French, and Spanish. The pieces support thousands of mix-and-match combinations and are designed for guided classroom activities, dramatic play centers, and structured social-emotional learning discussions.

Is My Family Builders used in real classrooms?

Yes. My Family Builders is used in Head Start classrooms, NAEYC-accredited early learning centers, and child care networks across the United States, including programs at Bright Horizons, Primrose, Goddard, and the YMCA. University early childhood education programs at the Erikson Institute, Penn State, and Northeastern have used the figures in classroom and research contexts.

How are magnetic wooden figures different from traditional dollhouse families?

Traditional dollhouse families come pre-grouped: one mother, one father, two children, usually one ethnicity. Magnetic wooden figures with interchangeable parts let children build any family they imagine: single-parent, two-mom or two-dad, blended, multiracial, or multigenerational. My Family Builders is designed around this flexibility, with four skin tones and modular construction in every set.

Magnetic Wooden Friends Set · Free Classroom Activity Guide

Free educator resource · Ages 3+ · Preschool and Pre-K

The Classroom Activity Guide for the My Family Builders 16-piece magnetic wooden Friends Set, children-only figures in four skin tones, gives teachers seven ready-to-lead activities, each aligned to a named goal from the Head Start Early Learning Outcomes Framework (HSELOF). Nothing to prepare, nothing to print: every activity runs on the set alone, takes 10 to 20 minutes, and is written to be led straight from the page.

Download the guide (free PDF, 13 pages)

Written for teachers of ages 3 to 5+. Program staff, home educators, and families will find it just as useful. Works with the 16-piece magnetic wooden Friends set.

What the guide covers

The seven activities run in an escalating arc: solo building and identity first, then group belonging, feelings, observation and deduction, and finally working out a conflict. Because the figures have neutral faces, emotion work is authored by the child: the guide never tells children what a friend feels; it gives them the words to decide for themselves. Across all seven activities, the outcome the set builds toward is empathy: noticing differences, talking about them comfortably, and imagining how a friend feels.

The seven activities at a glance

#	Activity	Ages	Players	Time	Aligned primarily to	In plain words
1	Build a Friend	3+	1 or more	10 to 15 min	P-ATL 13	Invent a friend, name them, tell their story
2	Mix-Up Friends	3+	1 or more	10 to 15 min	P-ATL 12	Silly outfit swaps; clothes change, the friend stays the same
3	The Friend Group	4+	2 to 4	10 to 15 min	P-SE 4	Build all four friends together, taking turns
4	A Friend Feels	3+	1 or more	10 to 15 min	P-SE 6	Decide how a friend feels today and tell why
5	Who Changed?	4+	2 or more	10 to 20 min	P-ATL 8	Study the friends, spot the secret change
6	Guess My Friend	4 to 5+	2	10 to 20 min	P-LC 6	Yes and no questions to name the chosen friend
7	Friends Work It Out	5+	2 or more	15 to 20 min	P-SE 5	One piece, two friends who want it, a fair solution the children choose

HSELOF alignment: which goal each activity develops

The activities in this guide are aligned to the Head Start Early Learning Outcomes Framework: Ages Birth to Five, published by the Office of Head Start, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Each activity names the goal it most directly supports so the activities fit into the planning a program already does. The seven activities carry cited goals across four ELOF domain families: Social and Emotional Development; Approaches to Learning; Language and Communication; and Perceptual, Motor, and Physical Development.

Activity	Primary HSELOF goal	Also supports	What it develops
1. Build a Friend	P-ATL 13 · Child uses imagination in play and interactions with others.	P-SE 9, P-LC 5, P-PMP 3	The child invents a person with materials and narrates them as a distinct friend, then a second one head-swap away.
2. Mix-Up Friends	P-ATL 12 · Child expresses creativity in thinking and communication.	P-ATL 9, P-PMP 3	Creative recombination of outfits, landing identity constancy: clothes change, the friend stays the same person.
3. The Friend Group	P-SE 4 · Child engages in cooperative play with other children.	P-SE 3	A coordinated joint build under a real four-body limit: shared goal, planning, and turn-taking.
4. A Friend Feels	P-SE 6 · Child expresses a broad range of emotions and recognizes these emotions in self and others.	P-LC 5, P-ATL 13	Choosing, naming, and explaining a feeling the child authors, because the neutral face leaves the emotion open.
5. Who Changed?	P-ATL 8 · Child holds information in mind and manipulates it to perform tasks.	P-ATL 6, P-LC 5	Genuine working memory: holding the lineup in mind, spotting the concealed change, and rebuilding a friend from memory.
6. Guess My Friend	P-LC 6 · Child understands and uses a wide variety of words for a variety of purposes.	P-LC 3, P-SE 3	Descriptive attribute vocabulary, question formation, and yes and no deduction in sustained paired play.
7. Friends Work It Out	P-SE 5 · Child uses basic problem-solving skills to resolve conflicts with other children.	P-ATL 4, P-SE 8	Real scarcity conflicts resolved by solutions the children choose: sharing, taking turns, trading, and compromising.

HSELOF goals cited in this guide

Goal text quoted in full from the Head Start Early Learning Outcomes Framework: Ages Birth to Five, Preschooler sub-framework, headstart.gov. Accessed July 2, 2026.

P-SE 3 · Child engages in and maintains positive interactions and relationships with other children.
P-SE 4 · Child engages in cooperative play with other children.
P-SE 5 · Child uses basic problem-solving skills to resolve conflicts with other children.
P-SE 6 · Child expresses a broad range of emotions and recognizes these emotions in self and others.
P-SE 8 · Child manages emotions with increasing independence.
P-SE 9 · Child recognizes self as a unique individual having own abilities, characteristics, emotions, and interests.
P-ATL 4 · Child manages actions, words, and behavior with increasing independence.
P-ATL 6 · Child maintains focus and sustains attention with minimal adult support.
P-ATL 8 · Child holds information in mind and manipulates it to perform tasks.
P-ATL 9 · Child demonstrates flexibility in thinking and behavior.
P-ATL 12 · Child expresses creativity in thinking and communication.
P-ATL 13 · Child uses imagination in play and interactions with others.
P-LC 3 · Child varies the amount of information provided to meet the demands of the situation.
P-LC 5 · Child expresses self in increasingly long, detailed, and sophisticated ways.
P-LC 6 · Child understands and uses a wide variety of words for a variety of purposes.
P-PMP 3 · Child demonstrates increasing control, strength, and coordination of small muscles.

Educator review edition. You are reading an educator review edition. We are sharing it before final publication, and the next edition will be shaped by what teachers tell us. If an activity could work better in your classroom, we want to hear it: hello@myfamilybuilders.com. A Spanish edition is planned; write to the same address to receive it when it ships.

Download the guide (free PDF)

Looking for family-composition work?

The Friends set contains children only, so this guide focuses on friendship, feelings and fairness. When your classroom is ready for family work, the 48-piece set adds adult figures and Activity Cards in English, French and Spanish, and has its own guide: Classroom Activity Guide for the 48-piece set. Every My Family Builders set works together.

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