Animal matching tiles - Domestic

14 pairs of smooth and tactile basswood ply square tiles, each colour printed on one side with clear detailed photographic images of real domestic animal adults and their young. The chunky tiles are easy for small hands to grip, rotate and turn over.

This versatile set provides endless opportunities for exploring the fascinating animal kingdom and can be used in a number of ways:
1. As a matching game - turn all the tiles face up and match the adult animal with its corresponding infant.
2. As a memory game - turn all the tiles face down and try to remember where the matching animal family pairs are located.
3. For sorting into groups - e.g. by habitat, how their feet are different (hooves, claws or paws), which are pets and which are farm animals, or ordered by size.

Ideal for promoting discussions about where animals live, what they eat and what eats them, where children can see or visit them, and the differences between the adults and their young. Children will enjoy playing whilst developing several aspects of learning, including descriptive language, mathematical language, collaborative play, fine motor skills, imaginative play and understanding the wider world around them. Includes colour identification guide in 7 languages.

Supports the following areas of learning:

• Personal Development - collaborative play
• Physical Development - motor skills
• Communication & Language - descriptive language
• Communication & Language - reasoning
• Understanding the World - the world

Nursery World Equipment & Resources Awards 2019
(Silver - Understanding the World category)

What the NW Award testers said:

Children enjoyed arranging them and then independently discussed the animals in the pictures, stating which they had at home. Practitioners discussed the names of adults and babies and the children then went on to group them in their families. In one setting, it provided an opportunity to use technology to look up the names of baby animals. Children initiated games such as "pairs" with them, and they paid close attention to detail, especially with the animals they had at home.