Peg Friends Around the Town

Peg Friends Around the Town - Talk about community helpers as you assemble the peg people.

Peg Friends Around Town consists of nine community helper characters and a firm, foam map to stand them in. By each hole in the map, there is a building that represents where one community worker works. Build in sequence the three peg pieces per person and then insert that person into the hole next to their work place. For instance, teacher with school and fireman with a fire station. 

Each of the peg people consist of three parts - a head, torso and legs. The pieces are lightweight, hollow plastic and each piece has a hole on the top and a cylindrical piece at the bottom so that you can stack the pieces and then insert them into the mat. The images on the pegs are stickers, but I have not had any trouble with them coming loose at this point. There are three colors and three occupations per color: 1) Red are fire fighter, teacher and farmer; 2) Blue are police officer, mail carrier and doctor; 3) Yellow are veterinarian, construction worker and chef/baker. 

Each of the nine characters represents a different occupation and consists of legs, torso/chest and head, and four of them show an arm on the torso piece holding something. Each occupation will have a female on one side of the head and a male pictured on the other, and these two sides are wearing similar outfits so you can mix and match. Only the head will identify if it is a male or female. The torso pieces that are holding something will show an item associated with that particular occupation. For instance the farmer is holding a chicken on one side and corn on the other, while the police officer simply shows a badge on both sides. 

The foam map/mat shows a city street with the nine buildings/areas where these nine people would work. Next to each building is a hole so that once you assemble the peg person you can match it to their place of business and stand them next to it. The map measures 10" square and each person is the same size, measuring 4.75" tall when all three pieces are assembled.

For more information about peg-type games and toys check out What's in Your Therapy Box? Peg Board Edition.

Try this:

• Play with the pieces and show how they stack and then insert into the mat. 
• Forget the occupations and just build people according to color (all yellow, all red, etc).
• Forget the occupations and just build in sequence of body parts (one legs, torso, head for each person).
• Lay the three pieces for a person next to the individual and ask them to assemble in the correct order.
• Use consistent language while learning such as top/middle/bottom or legs/bottom or torso/chest/middle, or head/top.
• Talk about each community helper and the role they play as you assemble them and look for their building on the map.
• Talk about how the person will use the tool they are holding, such as the doctor and the stethoscope, and other tools you might see each occupation use. Have other tools ready to show that you already own or pictures that you print out from the internet.
• Talk about what activities each person will engage in at work.
• Talk about safe strangers vs. unknown/unsafe strangers as you discuss community helpers.
• Use two hands. Hold the bottom piece in on hand and stick the other two pieces with the other hand.
• Stack all the pegs in one big tower. I have a boy that loves to do this. I do have to steady the tower as he builds, but it does get him up out of the chair and reaching.
• Work on visual discrimination, spatial relations, eye-hand coordination, coordinated use of two hands, body awareness, community helpers, stranger awareness, sequencing, manual dexterity, process skills, creativity, executive functioning skills, play and leisure exploration and participation 
  
  

In the box: 27 body pieces, 1 map mat

If you are interested in purchasing this toy or just want more information, click on the image below.