Animal Match - SHARK - Miniature Animals with Matching Cards - 2 Part Cards. Montessori learning toy, language materials

 This Montessori learning activity focuses on matching miniature shark species to their matching realistic photo cards. Children lay out the cards and place the miniature shark replica on the matching picture. This activity is small enough to take with you and can be extended into pretend play with the mini animals.

Species include: Whale Shark, Great White Shark, Tiger Shark, Thresher Shark, Grey Reef Shark, Stingray, Leopard Shark, Hammerhead Shark, Mako Shark, and Blue Shark.

Matching Skill - Visual Discrimination:
This activity focuses on more advanced preschool matching. The objects are not an exact copy of the photo so children need to carefully observe details to match correctly. 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. They might ask themselves "which sharks have spots or stripes?" or "which has longer tail fins?" Recognizing these little details helps a child grow their category knowledge and learn new vocabulary!

What is Included:
- 10 miniature plastic Safari LTD shark figurines. (approx 2-3" long)

- 10 laminated cards professionally printed on 100# cardstock and laminated with 5 mil lamination. The cards are classroom tough. Cards are 2.6"x 2.5"

I have several different animal sets including themes like: safari, North American, rainforest, dinosaurs, insects, farm, pets, polar/arctic and even human organs!

Extensions:
- The photo cards include names of the animals so you can extend the play with researching the species! 
- This activity is small enough to take with you and can be extended into pretend play or sensory bins with the mini figurines.
- You can have the children sort and categorize the figurines by like traits on their own.

What they are learning while having fun
- Matching objects to pictures encourages one-to-one correspondence (basic math skill) and visual discrimination.
- Observing and comparing small details to match correctly. Comparing involves identifying similarities and differences among objects
- Children can group the figures by similar traits - this is sorting and classifying!
- Children gain experience with one-dimensional print, and learning to connect real objects to print. 

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These bags contain small parts that may not be appropriate for children under the age of 3. Adult supervision is required.