Animal Rescue Shape Sorting Truck

Animal Rescue Shape Sorting Truck - Includes seven animals and two drivers.

Kids get a chance to use their imaginations while loading the animals into the Animal Rescue Shape Sorting Truck. Creative play with toys like these allow kids the freedom to make up a different story every time they play.

Everything is wooden except the plastic wheels, which do turn so the truck can roll. The truck measures 10.5" front to back and is 6.75" tall. Holes are cut out on the sides of the truck, one for each of the seven wild animals included (see image above). There are three cut outs on each side of the truck and one on the back door. Each animal will have to be pushed in through his own hole as holes are cut specifically to the shape of each animal. You can push the animals in through the holes to load them, or you can lift the back door off the truck and put them in through the back. Replace the door to store the animals in the truck.

 

There are also two people included, a man and a woman, both dressed in safari-type outfits. These two people stand in slots in the front of the truck. The animals are painted all over but the features are printed on one side only. Three of the animals are facing right and four are facing left. They all stand independently.

Try this:

• Reinforce colors and animal names by describing each animal as you play, such as the grey hippo or the blue elephant.
• Line the animals up and compare them. Who's the tallest, who's the longest, who's the biggest, etc.
• Ask open-ended questions such as where are the animals headed today or what do you think it sounds like in the truck?
• Present one animal at a time and scan the truck to find the hole to push it through. Can you see the correct shape just using your eyes? If not, try different pushing it through different holes until you find the right one. 
• Present each animal in a different orientation than it will need to be to push through the hole so manipulation is required.
• Turn the animals around so that you can't see the features. Can you remember which animal is which just by the shape? Can you find the hole the animal will go through, even though you are looking at it backwards?
• Lay out a course around the room beforehand that the truck will drive to include ample opportunity to crawl on hands and knees.
• Partially hide the animals around the room, letting part of each animal peek out from behind something. Ask the child to push the truck around the room and find and load each animal.
• Take the opportunity to talk about animal sounds, habitat, food, care, etc., while you play.
• Line up the animals that are facing left. What do you think they are looking at? Line up the animals that are facing right. What are they looking at?
• Work on visual discrimination, spatial relations, position in space, color and animal recognition, manual dexterity, creative play, crawling (to push the truck), motor planning, executive functioning skills, process skills, play and leisure exploration and participation 

In the box: 2-piece truck (body and back door), 7 animals, 2 people