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The Learning Resources® Jumbo Reptiles & Amphibians set has such a great selection of creatures to explore. One way we love to use them is with sensory habitats. This means we love to add a fun sensory base such as rice or water and a few materials that you might find in the creature's natural habitat. Sometimes we enjoy making these habitats on a large scale using larger storage containers, and we will focus on just one of the reptiles or amphibians from the set. However, this time around, we decided to make a unique little home for all five creatures from the set by making mini shoe storage box habitats. These particular shoe storage boxes are from Walmart and are less than $1 each. Here are all the details and some fun ways that the boxes were played with.
The Jumbo Tortoise
For the sensory base, we used some play dirt which is similar to kinetic sand. You could, of course, also collect some actual dirt and grass from outside! We then added some mini logs, rocks, and green glass pebbles (all from Dollar Tree).
The play dirt is such a neat sensory base because you can explore making tortoise footprints in it, scoop it and transfer it with your hands (it’s so soft!), and you can also squish it into little hills for the tortoise to climb up. With this box, there was also lots of burying the green pebbles in the dirt for the tortoise to dig up and discover.
The Jumbo Iguana
It can be fun to simplify the sensory base sometimes and go for something a little different. For the iguana, we used some fake plants from Michael’s and some mini logs from Dollar Tree. The fake plants added a different texture to the bin and were nice and robust for the energetic, hands-on play.
The advantage of including the logs with this bin is that they lend themselves well to some STEM building. There was lots of fun using the logs to build towers for the iguana to hide behind. As they were all different in size, it meant a great sense of challenge was to balance the log pieces on top of each other.
The Jumbo Frog
We had to opt for a water base for the frog-themed box as water play is always a hit with my children. We added some green glass pebbles from Dollar Tree and also a few green foam lily pads. The contents of this box, in particular, are very simple, but when it comes to water play, you don’t need to complicate the play. Children always enjoy the open-ended sensory element of water play!
The design of the Jumbo Frog means that the mouth is open wide and acts as the perfect scooper. The frog spent ages scooping up the water and then slowly ‘spitting’ it back out. The frog even went fishing for green pebbles too. The foam lily pads make for fun balancing pads which is another fun STEM play link.
The Jumbo Snake
The Jumbo Snake is particularly fun for a sensory bin… especially when you re-use two speckled Easter eggs as baby snakes about to hatch! For the base, we also re-used another Easter favorite- Easter grass! This particular version of Easter grass was more like crinkle paper, but the different shades of green were ideal.
The Jumbo Snake is so appealing to little hands because you can unravel it and stretch it out. We had lots of fun stretching out the snake and slithering it around outside of the box. We then pretended that the snake was rewinding up and settling for a sleep in the cozy habitat with the eggs. This works gross and fine motor skills hard!
The Jumbo Gecko
Our final sensory base was one of our favorites, rice. We dyed the rice green by adding rice and green food coloring to a baggie and a small squirt of white vinegar (this helps to prevent the color from rubbing off the rice and onto hands). We squished all the ingredients together in the baggie and then spread the rice out on tin foil to dry overnight. We then threw in some large pebbles and mini sticks (both from Dollar Tree).
Rice is a great sensory base for moving animals through; there’s something super relaxing about it! Time was spent ‘showering’ the gecko with the rice, as well as hiding the pebbles and sticks for the gecko to find. There was also some ‘fetch’ being played with the sticks and gecko too!
It’s amazing how much play can come from relatively small set-ups like this. It was fun to use the storage shoe boxes because they were like little habitat tanks. It is important to note that it helps to allow the play to flow out of the box. Sometimes the creatures were taken out of their habitats with some materials and played with, which was fine. I had a tray set up to allow for this to happen without being worried about any mess being made. It’s all about keeping the play freely flowing!
The Learning Resources® Jumbo Reptiles & Amphibians set has such a great selection of creatures to explore. One way we love to use them is with sensory habitats. This means we love to add a fun sensory base such as rice or water and a few materials that you might find in the creature's natural habitat. Sometimes we enjoy making these habitats on a large scale using larger storage containers, and we will focus on just one of the reptiles or amphibians from the set. However, this time around, we decided to make a unique little home for all five creatures from the set by making mini shoe storage box habitats. These particular shoe storage boxes are from Walmart and are less than $1 each. Here are all the details and some fun ways that the boxes were played with.
The Jumbo Tortoise
For the sensory base, we used some play dirt which is similar to kinetic sand. You could, of course, also collect some actual dirt and grass from outside! We then added some mini logs, rocks, and green glass pebbles (all from Dollar Tree).
The play dirt is such a neat sensory base because you can explore making tortoise footprints in it, scoop it and transfer it with your hands (it’s so soft!), and you can also squish it into little hills for the tortoise to climb up. With this box, there was also lots of burying the green pebbles in the dirt for the tortoise to dig up and discover.
The Jumbo Iguana
It can be fun to simplify the sensory base sometimes and go for something a little different. For the iguana, we used some fake plants from Michael’s and some mini logs from Dollar Tree. The fake plants added a different texture to the bin and were nice and robust for the energetic, hands-on play.
The advantage of including the logs with this bin is that they lend themselves well to some STEM building. There was lots of fun using the logs to build towers for the iguana to hide behind. As they were all different in size, it meant a great sense of challenge was to balance the log pieces on top of each other.
The Jumbo Frog
We had to opt for a water base for the frog-themed box as water play is always a hit with my children. We added some green glass pebbles from Dollar Tree and also a few green foam lily pads. The contents of this box, in particular, are very simple, but when it comes to water play, you don’t need to complicate the play. Children always enjoy the open-ended sensory element of water play!
The design of the Jumbo Frog means that the mouth is open wide and acts as the perfect scooper. The frog spent ages scooping up the water and then slowly ‘spitting’ it back out. The frog even went fishing for green pebbles too. The foam lily pads make for fun balancing pads which is another fun STEM play link.
The Jumbo Snake
The Jumbo Snake is particularly fun for a sensory bin… especially when you re-use two speckled Easter eggs as baby snakes about to hatch! For the base, we also re-used another Easter favorite- Easter grass! This particular version of Easter grass was more like crinkle paper, but the different shades of green were ideal.
The Jumbo Snake is so appealing to little hands because you can unravel it and stretch it out. We had lots of fun stretching out the snake and slithering it around outside of the box. We then pretended that the snake was rewinding up and settling for a sleep in the cozy habitat with the eggs. This works gross and fine motor skills hard!
The Jumbo Gecko
Our final sensory base was one of our favorites, rice. We dyed the rice green by adding rice and green food coloring to a baggie and a small squirt of white vinegar (this helps to prevent the color from rubbing off the rice and onto hands). We squished all the ingredients together in the baggie and then spread the rice out on tin foil to dry overnight. We then threw in some large pebbles and mini sticks (both from Dollar Tree).
Rice is a great sensory base for moving animals through; there’s something super relaxing about it! Time was spent ‘showering’ the gecko with the rice, as well as hiding the pebbles and sticks for the gecko to find. There was also some ‘fetch’ being played with the sticks and gecko too!
It’s amazing how much play can come from relatively small set-ups like this. It was fun to use the storage shoe boxes because they were like little habitat tanks. It is important to note that it helps to allow the play to flow out of the box. Sometimes the creatures were taken out of their habitats with some materials and played with, which was fine. I had a tray set up to allow for this to happen without being worried about any mess being made. It’s all about keeping the play freely flowing!
The Learning Resources® Jumbo Pets set has been such a staple in our play over the past year. The larger size of the animals, combined with their excellent quality and durability, has meant that we have enjoyed lots of creative adventures with the dog, cat, fish, rabbit, guinea pig, and bird. In this series of blogs, we share some fun and unusual ways to use your Jumbo Pets to keep the play creative and engaging. Let’s see how we can enjoy some fresh and fun activities with the Jumbo Dog.
Activity 1 Set-Up: Dog Feeding Tray Water Transfer
Does your child love water play like mine does? At first glance, this activity might seem way too dull or straightforward, but sometimes it’s the simpler ones that are the most engaging. I found this cute dog bone-shaped feeding tray at Dollar Tree and paired it up with the Jumbo Dog, some water, and a Learning Resources Twisty Dropper™.
Let’s Play!
I intentionally didn’t give any instructions to my four-year-old and just let her explore the setup. She naturally started transferring the water from the full side to the empty side of the tray. This was great for her fine motor skills, helping to work those little hand muscles hard to prepare for writing in future years. She also liked that she could make a few bubbles appear if she squirted the water hard into the tray. After a while, she chose to switch her focus to playing with the dog. She carefully let the dog drink from the tray and even attempted to wash his fur, too—fun for sensory exploration and imaginative play.
Activity 2 Set-Up: Dog Bone Count & Transfer Activity
Continuing along with our focus on using those all-important fine motor skills to transfer materials, this setup adds in some numeracy work. I used a Jumbo Dog, a dog treat container from Dollar Tree, a feeding bowl from the pet store, some Learning Resources Jumbo Science® Jumbo Tweezers™, and repurposed our Party City Halloween bones as dog bone treats. I also included the two-dice dotted Dice Popper!
Let’s Count!
The idea of this setup was to simply fill the dog’s bowl with bone treats by popping the dice and using the tweezers to transfer that many bones into the dog’s dish. This was challenging for my preschooler as she needed to add the two dice values together. I chose to use the two-dice popper for this reason, and she enjoyed the challenge. Plus, it meant that the dog’s bowl was piled high with bones much faster! The bones were a little tricky to pick up with the tweezers, and it was great to see my preschooler having to problem solve when they kept slipping out. She soon realized she had to pick them up in a certain way to transfer them securely. You could also play this as a two-player game, taking it in turns to pop the dice and fill separate bowls with the bones.
It always surprises me how long younger children will happily spend transferring materials from one place to another. Simplicity for the win! These activities enabled plenty of fine motor work and counting and even some sensory exploration with the water as well.
The Learning Resources® Jumbo Pets set has been such a staple in our play over the past year. The larger size of the animals, combined with their excellent quality and durability, has meant that we have enjoyed lots of creative adventures with the dog, cat, fish, rabbit, guinea pig, and bird. In this series of blogs, we share some fun and unusual ways to use your Jumbo Pets to keep the play creative and engaging. Let’s see how we can enjoy some fresh and fun activities with the Jumbo Dog.
Activity 1 Set-Up: Dog Feeding Tray Water Transfer
Does your child love water play like mine does? At first glance, this activity might seem way too dull or straightforward, but sometimes it’s the simpler ones that are the most engaging. I found this cute dog bone-shaped feeding tray at Dollar Tree and paired it up with the Jumbo Dog, some water, and a Learning Resources Twisty Dropper™.
Let’s Play!
I intentionally didn’t give any instructions to my four-year-old and just let her explore the setup. She naturally started transferring the water from the full side to the empty side of the tray. This was great for her fine motor skills, helping to work those little hand muscles hard to prepare for writing in future years. She also liked that she could make a few bubbles appear if she squirted the water hard into the tray. After a while, she chose to switch her focus to playing with the dog. She carefully let the dog drink from the tray and even attempted to wash his fur, too—fun for sensory exploration and imaginative play.
Activity 2 Set-Up: Dog Bone Count & Transfer Activity
Continuing along with our focus on using those all-important fine motor skills to transfer materials, this setup adds in some numeracy work. I used a Jumbo Dog, a dog treat container from Dollar Tree, a feeding bowl from the pet store, some Learning Resources Jumbo Science® Jumbo Tweezers™, and repurposed our Party City Halloween bones as dog bone treats. I also included the two-dice dotted Dice Popper!
Let’s Count!
The idea of this setup was to simply fill the dog’s bowl with bone treats by popping the dice and using the tweezers to transfer that many bones into the dog’s dish. This was challenging for my preschooler as she needed to add the two dice values together. I chose to use the two-dice popper for this reason, and she enjoyed the challenge. Plus, it meant that the dog’s bowl was piled high with bones much faster! The bones were a little tricky to pick up with the tweezers, and it was great to see my preschooler having to problem solve when they kept slipping out. She soon realized she had to pick them up in a certain way to transfer them securely. You could also play this as a two-player game, taking it in turns to pop the dice and fill separate bowls with the bones.
It always surprises me how long younger children will happily spend transferring materials from one place to another. Simplicity for the win! These activities enabled plenty of fine motor work and counting and even some sensory exploration with the water as well.
The Learning Resources® Jumbo Pets set has been such a staple in our play over the past year. The larger size of the animals, combined with their excellent quality and durability, has meant that we have enjoyed lots of creative adventures with the dog, cat, fish, rabbit, guinea pig, and bird. In this series of blogs, we share some fun and unusual ways to use your Jumbo Pets to keep the play creative and engaging. Now we are shining the spotlight on the Jumbo Rabbit.
Activity 1 Set Up: Small World Feeding Bin
The great thing about both of the activities I’m sharing for the Jumbo Rabbit is that they take a matter of minutes to set up but lead to lots of excellent numeracy, fine motor, and creative play. For the first activity, I simply added some leftover Easter grass into a sensory bin, along with two of the Jumbo Rabbit pets, a small feeding bowl from the pet store, and some cute pretend carrots which I found at Dollar Tree.
Let’s Play!
This is such a simple invitation to play, but it blew me away that it entertained my children for so long. They had a blast pretending that the rabbits were friends who liked to play hide and seek in the grass and go on all sorts of adventures together. The real highlight was when the rabbits got hungry, and it was time for a carrot snack. The play then turned into a fun game of carrot hide and seek as well. My seven-year-old helped my four-year-old with some counting and sorting to ensure that both the rabbits had an equal number of carrots. This was wonderful to see the leadership he was taking and how well my younger one responded to learning from him.
Activity 2 Set-Up: Roll and Count Bunny Treats
For the second activity, we used two Jumbo Rabbits, two small feeding bowls, some cute little bunny erasers from Target, and our Learning Resources Dice Popper! I set up the dice and a bowl of the mini bunny erasers in the middle, and then each rabbit had their feeding bowl. I told my preschooler that the erasers were ‘bunny treats.’
Let’s Count!
This was a fun but straightforward counting game for two players. We took turns to pop the dice and say the number out loud on the die. This was great for number recognition. Then we counted that many bunny treats into our feeding bowl, ready for the Jumbo Rabbit to enjoy. We continued to take turns to pop the dice until we reached 25 treats. The first one to get that number was the winner. You can always make the number higher or lower depending on the age of your child. My four-year-old thought it was cute that she had to collect bunny treats and enjoyed some small world play after as she fed the treats to her giant rabbit. All the time, she was working her fine motor skills hard and developing early number sense.
Making number games is such a great way to help your child learn without even realizing it. The Jumbo Rabbits were perfect for this combination of imaginative play and hands-on numeracy play and learning.
The Learning Resources® Jumbo Pets set has been such a staple in our play over the past year. The larger size of the animals, combined with their excellent quality and durability, has meant that we have enjoyed lots of creative adventures with the dog, cat, fish, rabbit, guinea pig, and bird. In this series of blogs, we share some fun and unusual ways to use your Jumbo Pets to keep the play creative and engaging. Now we are shining the spotlight on the Jumbo Rabbit.
Activity 1 Set Up: Small World Feeding Bin
The great thing about both of the activities I’m sharing for the Jumbo Rabbit is that they take a matter of minutes to set up but lead to lots of excellent numeracy, fine motor, and creative play. For the first activity, I simply added some leftover Easter grass into a sensory bin, along with two of the Jumbo Rabbit pets, a small feeding bowl from the pet store, and some cute pretend carrots which I found at Dollar Tree.
Let’s Play!
This is such a simple invitation to play, but it blew me away that it entertained my children for so long. They had a blast pretending that the rabbits were friends who liked to play hide and seek in the grass and go on all sorts of adventures together. The real highlight was when the rabbits got hungry, and it was time for a carrot snack. The play then turned into a fun game of carrot hide and seek as well. My seven-year-old helped my four-year-old with some counting and sorting to ensure that both the rabbits had an equal number of carrots. This was wonderful to see the leadership he was taking and how well my younger one responded to learning from him.
Activity 2 Set-Up: Roll and Count Bunny Treats
For the second activity, we used two Jumbo Rabbits, two small feeding bowls, some cute little bunny erasers from Target, and our Learning Resources Dice Popper! I set up the dice and a bowl of the mini bunny erasers in the middle, and then each rabbit had their feeding bowl. I told my preschooler that the erasers were ‘bunny treats.’
Let’s Count!
This was a fun but straightforward counting game for two players. We took turns to pop the dice and say the number out loud on the die. This was great for number recognition. Then we counted that many bunny treats into our feeding bowl, ready for the Jumbo Rabbit to enjoy. We continued to take turns to pop the dice until we reached 25 treats. The first one to get that number was the winner. You can always make the number higher or lower depending on the age of your child. My four-year-old thought it was cute that she had to collect bunny treats and enjoyed some small world play after as she fed the treats to her giant rabbit. All the time, she was working her fine motor skills hard and developing early number sense.
Making number games is such a great way to help your child learn without even realizing it. The Jumbo Rabbits were perfect for this combination of imaginative play and hands-on numeracy play and learning.
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