One-piece, large, wooden cube has activities on each side and bead mazes on the top to keep children’s hands and minds busy developing many useful skills such as fine motor, problem solving and eye-hand coordination. Zany Zoo features wooden spinning blocks, animal disks that slide down zigzag tracks, peek-a-boo doors, bead maze and animals that move along winding paths. BPA-free and lead-free.
- Coordination of hands and arms can be practiced while playing with this toy.
- Hand-eye coordination is utilized to move the beads and animals.
- The beads on the wires help children develop a pincer grasp. This fine motor control can help hone skills needed for holding and writing with a pencil.
- Have the child describe each item by feel.
- Play a guessing game. Have the child close his eyes and touch an animal. Give him clues, such as “this animal says, ‘quack’.” Have him guess what it is. Take turns, so he is asking you and giving you clues as well. This helps work on memory and recall skills as well as receptive and expressive language.
- Tape pictures that have high contrasting colors behind the doors of the activity cube.
- Add textures such as fabric or sandpaper to the activity cube and its attached pieces.
- Add Braille stickers to the animal blocks.
- Use this toy in a quiet room to lessen external distractions during play.
- This toy teaches spatial relationships when the child maneuvers pieces through the different openings.
- Children can work on fundamental skills such as colors, numbers, shapes and objects.
- Matching the animal puzzle blocks or matching the ducks or rhinoceroses on the top of the activity cube can encourage matching skills.
- Name the objects and colors that can be found on the toy.
- Make a matching game by taping two sets of animals behind the four doors.
- Identify animals with similar attributes such as point to all the animals that have fur, all that have scales, all the mammals, all the animals that can be found in a zoo, etc.
- Use only one side at a time to simplify for the child. To assist this, use a blanket or sheet to cover the top and other sides. Tuck the sheet under the activity cube to maintain its position.
- Use this toy in a quiet room to lessen external distractions. To further assist focus, turn off the overhead lights in the room and shine a lamp directly on the activity cube.
- As children manipulate the attached pieces, they will naturally incorporate wrist rotation.
- Eye-hand coordination is incorporated as children manipulate the objects.
- This toy can help promote fine motor development by pushing the attached beads, opening doors, sliding wooden disks and spinning wooden blocks.
- Take turns pushing the objects on the toy.
- Push objects to someone on the other side and anticipate and prepare your body for its return.
- Tip the activity cube on its side to help a child with physical limitations access and play with the bead mazes.
- A caregiver can sit or kneel on the floor to physically assist the child.
- Set toy on a table if child cannot reach the toy.
- A child who cannot physically play can press a button that has “switch” recorded on it. When the button is pressed, the other children, who are playing with the toy, must switch places to another side.
Developmental Processes Promoted
- Object Permanence
- Action Concepts
- Fine Motor
- Hand & Finger Grasp
- Eye-Hand Coordination
- Spatial Relationships
- Reaching/Arm Extension
- Letter Recognition & Identification
- Functional Finger Movement & Exploration
- Imagination/Pretend Play
- Tactile Discrimination
- Two-Handed Play
- Wrist Rotation
- Isolated Finger Movements
- Motor Planning
- Sequential Thought
- Color Recognition & Identification
- Cause and Effect
- Early Literacy
- Word Recognition
- Sorting & Classification
- Auditory Processing
- Visual Processing & Tracking
- Approximate Price:
- Age Range:
- Levels of Play:
- Four Levels
- Surface Wipe