: Staedtler Noris junior

Noris junior is Staedtler's toddler-focused range — the part of their catalogue designed for the years before a child can properly hold a regular pencil.

Staedtler have been making pencils in Nuremberg since 1835, and the Noris range (that familiar yellow-and-black hexagonal pencil from school) has been in continuous production since 1901. The junior version takes everything that makes a Noris a Noris — break-resistant leads, ergonomic shape, proper colour pigments — and scales it up for hands that are still developing fine motor control. Extra-thick barrels for a palmar grasp; hexagonal shape that nudges the natural transition to a tripod grip; leads roughly three times the diameter of a standard pencil, so they survive being dropped, sat on, and used with enthusiasm.

The whole range sits at age 2+, dermatologically tested, with packaging in 80%+ recycled cardboard. You'll find the 3-in-1 coloured pencils that also work as wax crayons and watercolour pencils, chunky hexagonal wax crayons, ultra-washable fibre-tip pens, finger paints, jumbo pavement chalks, and toddler-safe scissors. Most of what we stock here also comes in Peppa Pig licensed designs — same engineering, more pig.

A genuine first art kit for the under-fives, made by people who know how a pencil should work.