<p>Ways to play:</p> <p>1. This Montessori learning activity focuses on matching miniature animals to their matching realistic photo cards. Children lay out the cards and place the miniature animals on the matching picture.  montessori materials for toddlers<br></p> <p>Matching Skill - Visual Discrimination: This activity focuses on more advanced preschool matching. </p> <p>The objects are not an exact copy of the photo so children need to carefully observe details to match correctly. </p> <p>Children problem solve by looking at distinctive attributes that they can see on both the object and the photo. Usually they will start by color and eliminate pictures that do not share the same color. They can also look at shapes, patterns and details. </p> <p>They might ask themselves "which animals are white?"  They will then notice more than one white animal and have to look at another attribute. Recognizing these little details helps a child grow their category knowledge and learn new vocabulary </p> <p>2. Focus on a letter a day or week and use the matching animal as part of that curriculum. </p> <p>3. Pretend play - lots of animals for hours of pretend play. What is Included: - 12 miniature realistic animals. (Most 2"- 3" Long, 9 are TINY at about .5"-.75") - 12 laminated cards.  Cards are 2.7’’x 4.3’’ (7x11cm).this is good montesorri toddler toys<br></p> <p> Extension:</p> <p>- The photo card includes the name of the animal, so you can expand the game by studying the species!</p> <p>- This activity is small enough to carry around and can be extended to the fake figurine game or sensory box of the mini figurine. </p> <p>- You can let the children sort and classify the figurines according to their own characteristics.</p>