''Numberblocks'' is a British

animated television series An animated series, or a cartoon series, is a set of Animation, animated films with a common title, usually related to one another. These episodes typically share the same main heroes, some different secondary characters and a basic theme. Series ...

for

preschool A preschool (sometimes spelled as pre school or pre-school), also known as nursery school, pre-primary school, play school, is an school, educational establishment or learning space offering early childhood education to children before they ...

ers that debuted on

CBeebies CBeebies is a British free-to-air Public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom, public broadcast children's television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is also the brand used for all BBC content targeted for children aged six year ...

on 23 January 2017. The programme was created by Joe Elliot and produced by Alphablocks Ltd with Blue Zoo. It was commissioned by the

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

, with Larkshead Media and Learning Resources holding merchandising rights. The show follows the Numberblocks, characters made of blocks who represent numbers. They live on a fictional planet called Numberland and embark on adventures relating to mathematical concepts. In 2017, the show was nominated for a

BAFTA The British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA, ) is an independent trade association and charity that supports, develops, and promotes the arts of film, television and video games in the United Kingdom. In addition to its annual awa ...

award in the "Learning" category.

Premise

''Numberblocks'' follows the adventures of sentient, colourful block characters in Numberland, each representing and named after a number, and made up of the equivalent number of blocks. A black floating number, called a Numberling, appears above their heads to show their value. When one block hops on top of another, they combine into a different character to make a new number. Many of the numbers have styles and personalities associated with their numbers (One is brave and independent, Four loves squares as he is a

square number In mathematics, a square number or perfect square is an integer that is the square (algebra), square of an integer; in other words, it is the multiplication, product of some integer with itself. For example, 9 is a square number, since it equals ...

, Seven is

rainbow A rainbow is an optical phenomenon caused by refraction, internal reflection and dispersion of light in water droplets resulting in a continuous spectrum of light appearing in the sky. The rainbow takes the form of a multicoloured circular ...

-coloured and lucky due to the superstition behind that number, Eight has

octopus An octopus (: octopuses or octopodes) is a soft-bodied, eight-limbed mollusc of the order Octopoda (, ). The order consists of some 300 species and is grouped within the class Cephalopoda with squids, cuttlefish, and nautiloids. Like oth ...

-like tentacles as octopuses have 8 tentacles, Eleven loves

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

as a football team has 11 players, etc.). The show helps toddlers and young kids learn

numeracy Numeracy is the ability to understand, reason with, and apply simple numerical concepts; it is the numerical counterpart of literacy. The charity National Numeracy states: "Numeracy means understanding how mathematics is used in the real world ...

skills, especially how to count and do simple maths. Integer concepts such as even and odd numbers, and factoring are discussed and explored. More sophisticated ideas are also explored in later episodes such as comparison,

square numbers In mathematics, a square number or perfect square is an integer that is the square of an integer; in other words, it is the product of some integer with itself. For example, 9 is a square number, since it equals and can be written as . The us ...

thanks to Four, and

triangular numbers A triangular number or triangle number counts objects arranged in an equilateral triangle. Triangular numbers are a type of figurate number, other examples being square numbers and cube numbers. The th triangular number is the number of dots in ...

(known as "Step Squads" in the series) thanks to Fifteen, as well as counting using

binary numbers A binary number is a number expressed in the base-2 numeral system or binary numeral system, a method for representing numbers that uses only two symbols for the natural numbers: typically "0" (zero) and "1" (one). A ''binary number'' may also ...

thanks to Sixty-Four's inventions.

Production

Kay Benbow of

BBC Studios BBC Studios Limited is a British content company. It is a commercial subsidiary of the BBC that was formed in April 2018 through the merger of the BBC's commercial production arm and the BBC's commercial international distribution arm, BBC Wor ...

commissioned ''Numberblocks'' as an animated series for children aged 3–6 to be developed by

Essex Essex ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East of England, and one of the home counties. It is bordered by Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, the North Sea to the east, Kent across the Thames Estuary to the ...

production company Blue Zoo. The production was made in partnership with the National Centre for Excellence in the Teaching of Mathematics (NCETM) to complement the ''

Alphablocks ''Alphablocks'' is a British animated television series for preschoolers that debuted on CBeebies on 25 January 2010. The programme was created by Joe Elliot and produced by Alphablocks Ltd (Magic Lantern in series 1) with Blue Zoo. It was c ...

'' series. Created by Joe Elliot, the series was made to give children a deep understanding of how numbers work. Elliot wanted to visually show the concepts of maths in a way no other number series had, as he thought many people struggled with how the subject is taught. In October 2018,

Aardman Animations Aardman Animations Limited, known simply as Aardman, is a British animation studio based in Bristol, England, United Kingdom. It is known for films and television series made using stop motion and clay animation techniques, particularly those fe ...

' international sales and acquisitions arm acquired the distribution rights to the show, along with ''Alphablocks''.

Episodes

Series 1 (2017)

Series 2 (2017)

Series 3 (2018–19)

Series 4 (2019)

Series 5 (2021)

Series 6 (2024)

On 22 February 2024, the BBC announced that there will be new episodes coming out, being broadcast on Monday, 4 March 2024. It then concluded on 22 March 2024 as stating it's the season finale in the promotion of The Pattern of Patterns, and a series finale in promotion of the week of episodes 11-15. # Painting by Numbers # Leap Blob # Ice and Dice # Go Go Domino # Ten in the Bed # Shape Party # Can We Have Our Ball Back? # Cuboid Castle # On My Way to Numberblock Fair # Octoblock and the Path of Justice # Five’s Handy Shop # As Tall as the Sun # Feeding Time # Rockets and Rekenreks # The Pattern of Patterns

Series 7 (2024)

# Grid Unlocked # Friendly Fours' Beach Day # All-Star Line-Up # Rescue Racers # The Rolling Sixes # Remix the Sixes # Grid Game Galore # The Rainbox Makers # Sail the Seven Seas # We Need Another Hero # Super Eights Assemble # Seventy-two's Super Surprise # The Magical Nines # Nine's Time to Shine # Space Division

Series 8

Series 8 was confirmed to be in production by Andrew Emerson.

Specials (2021-22)

Numbersongs (2019-22)

Other media

UK-based kids media service company Larkshead Media was appointed to manage licensing activities for ''Numberblocks'' in August 2017; the agency announced that merchandise including toys and apparel would be brought to retail. In July 2020, a MathLink Cubes activity set inspired by the show was announced by Learning Resources to be available through major retailers later in the year. The set, featuring characters

One 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number, numeral, and glyph. It is the first and smallest positive integer of the infinite sequence of natural numbers. This fundamental property has led to its unique uses in other fields, ranging from science to sp ...

Ten Ten, TEN or 10 may refer to: * 10, an even natural number following 9 and preceding 11 * one of the years 10 BC, AD 10, 1910, 2010, 2110 * October, the tenth month of the year Places * Mount Ten, in Vietnam * Tongren Fenghuang Airport (IATA c ...

, was delayed and released in June 2021. In September,

Immediate Media Immediate Media Company Limited (with IMMEDIATE styled in all uppercase as its logo) is a British multinational publishing house that produces a wide range of magazine titles, including ''Radio Times, BBC Top Gear, Good Food'' and many others ...

launched an official magazine for the show, with the first issue released on 8 September 2021.

Fancy dress A costume party (American English) or fancy dress party (other varieties of English) is a type of party, common in contemporary Anglo culture, in which many of the guests are dressed in costume, usually depicting a fictional or stock characte ...

distributor Rubies announced an official dress up licence for ''Numberblocks'' in October, with costumes planned to be available in the

EMEA Europe, the Middle East and Africa, commonly known by its acronym EMEA among the North American business spheres, is a geographical region used by institutions, governments and global spheres of marketing, media and business when referring to t ...

and Australia in 2022. Learning Resources secured a global master licensing deal for ''Numberblocks'' in November 2021, announcing the release of plush toys in 2022 followed by playsets, video games and classroom items with sister company hand2mind by 2023.

Notes

References

External links

* * * {{BBC programme
Numberblocks on CBeebies
BBC children's television shows 2017 animated television series debuts 2017 British television series debuts 2010s British animated television series 2020s British animated television series 2010s British children's television series 2020s British children's television series Mathematics education television series British children's animated television shows British computer-animated television series British preschool education television series Animated preschool education television series 2010s preschool education television series 2020s preschool education television series CBeebies original programming BBC animated television series British English-language television shows