Animal Puzzle Homes
What you need
- a wooden inset puzzle board with four to six chunky animal pieces, each with its picture printed in its space, and each piece too big to fit through a toilet roll tube
How to do it
- Sit on the rug with the board between you and lift the pieces out together, naming each animal.
- Spread them face up and point to the pictures left in the empty spaces.
- Let them pick any piece and find its home, and see what they do.
- If one sits crooked, hold the board still while they wiggle it in.
Why it matters
Each space shows the animal that lives there, so finding the right home is a matching game as well as a fitting one.
What they're learning
- Fitting and turning
- Turning a piece until it drops flat into its space.
- Matching pictures
- Finding the animal in the board that matches the one in their hand.
- Animal names
- Hearing each name as the pieces come out and go home.
What to look for
Watch for them looking from the piece in their hand to the pictures in the board.
A tip
Knobs make lifting easier, but check each one is fixed firm before you start. If a knob wobbles or a piece cracks, put the puzzle away.
Make it easier or harder
Easier: take out just two pieces and leave the rest in the board
Harder: turn the pieces face down and let them find each animal before it goes home
