Learning Resources very kindly asked us to pick a product to review and the Jumbo Ocean Animals have been on my wish list for ages so we were delighted to choose these.
First Impressions are they are much bigger than I thought which is amazing! They are so easy to grip because of their size. They feel so realistic and I love how detailed they are. You can really see all the prints and lines making them so nice and tactile, especially the octopus and turtle which gave me my first activity idea!
Ocean Animals – Playdough
I made up some Playdough in blue and green to represent the ocean and land or plant life.
I also added some shells and gems.
This created a fantastic sensory invitation play.
Isabella loved making an ocean for all the animals to go in and we pressed them down into the dough to leave impressions of the animals and due to their amazing detail the prints were so intricate.
Isabella played happily with this set up for 30 minutes non stop and gets it out everyday.
Ocean animals – Imaginative Play
Next Isabella decided herself to take them into the bath so I added a little blue food colouring and bio glitter to the water. She could not wait to get in!
Isabella loved making them swim up and down in the water and made cute little voices and animal noises for the. She acted out a game where the shark was chasing the turtle but the octopus saved the day!
I loved watching her use her imagination to create her own stories.
Ocean Animals – Tuff Tray
We all know I love a tuff tray so this was the perfect excuse for me to make one up.
I also decided this was the perfect opportunity to help make Isabella aware of all the plastic going not our oceans.
Yes these animals are plastic but they are not single use plastic and when we out grow them, We will be passing them on to Isabellas Pre school where I know they will get many more years of play due to their durable quality.
So I filled the tray with blue water and added some blue water beads to represent the plastic in the ocean. We acted out the animals eating the beads and then not feeling well. We talked about how they can also get trapped in the plastic.
We saved the animals by rescuing them with our Learning Resources tools and used the pipette to wash them down and feed them fresh clean water.
Isabella really likes these animals and I will definitely be buying more of the other Jumbo Animal sets that Learning Resources do.
Isabellas favourite animal is the baby shark and she takes it in the shower or bath every day and sings the “Baby Shark” song.
They are nice and light in weight for her to hold and she absolutely loves them so we highly recommend this set.
This pack comes in a good quality box containing six pieces
-Whale
-Shark
-Seal
-Octopus
-Dolphin
-Turtle
You also get an animal fact sheet activity guide and some discussion starters.
RRP £28.50 from Learning Resources
Recommended for ages 3 – 10 (although even as an adult I love them)
As always thanks so much for reading and we would love to hear any comments you may have below.
My Three Little Strawberries
XXX
The other sets available are Jumbo Jungle, Zoo, Farm , Forest, Insects, Pets and Dinosaurs Animal sets