Young, Wild & Friedman Zoo Kit
I don’t think that there is any doubt that the most important work of the child is that of play. Unstructured play with open-ended parts unlocks a new world for children and invites them to construct their own learning about the world around them. Julie, over at Young, Wild and Friedman captures the essence of that philosophy so effortlessly in her play dough kits. She frequently shares about the host of benefits of sensory play and how it has benefitted her own family, and her business has organically grown as others have seen the tremendous stage that these kits set for this open-ended and imaginative learning.
I know a frequent question she gets is, “So how are my kids supposed to play with these kits?” And she will answer without hesitation, “However they want to!” She’s totally correct and I couldn’t support this statement more! This non-toxic play dough is totally appropriate to expose young toddlers to! I started making our own play dough and using it with my girls around 15 months. They enjoyed squishing it in their fingers and pressing the stamps into it. Simple cause and effect experiences to start off with! It was a restaurant-waiting staple for us, as I rolled out balls and had them squish them with their palm or pick them up with a fork. Their love and ability to engage in play has only evolved from there! While their little imaginations are taking off and they’re now making birthday cakes and other delicious treats, they are only accessing a small amount of potential use from this kit – and that’s so exciting to me! Their play will only evolve into more elaborate adventures and the open-ended nature of the kits allow for different experiences each time!
That’s the immense beauty with these kits. Play is going to look a little different each time a kit is taken out. Sometimes a child might bring in a phrase and characters from a book. Sometimes they’ll give a large amount of focus to their fine motor skills. Sometimes they’ll try on different personalities (“zookeeper” or one of the animals). The social, physical, and cognitive benefits are outstanding!
You might have heard the phrase “learning through play.” In the Montessori world, children are encouraged to learn through “meaningful play” but honestly, this is best practice for all babes! These kits already do so much of the work setting up kids for this type of play, but I want to give a few ideas on how to extend their play with these kits. I absolutely love playing with these with my girls. It scaffolds their play so much when they invite me in. I always respect and value independent play, but we can take it to another level when Mama comes in!
So, here’s the “what else” you can do with your kits.
Social & Emotional Development
Littles are invited into opportunities to engage with other siblings and are even working through different roles while playing with this kit. Are they being more authoritative and mimicking the zookeeper in “Goodnight Gorilla” with their animals? Are the animals friends going to a birthday party? Are they comforting an animal who is sick or hurt? They are also being given opportunities to resolve conflict and develop empathy. Look at the animals faces. Encourage your babes to mimic and use a mirror if necessary. “The hippo has his mouth open, like this! Can you make your mouth look like the hippo’s? What do you think he is doing? Eating? Hmmm what do you think he is eating?”
Physical Development
When children are presented with a curiosity-peaking activity, the “work” aspect seems to fade. As a former Kindergarten teacher, I know that fine motor skills are essential to getting those fingers and hands ready to write or turn the delicate pages of a book. This doesn’t seem like “work” to kids with this kit. Use the tweezers to pick up fruit and feed it to the animals. Use the cookie cutter to press and lift molds. Use your pincer grasp to stick trees in the play dough to create a forest. All of these things are just golden opportunities for littles to foster these developmental skills! Given the choice to have them practice holding a pencil for hours on end, I’d pick this every single time!
Language Development
I can’t even with the language opportunities in this kit! For babes learning to talk, littles with speech delays, littles who are learning multiple languages, and littles who are on track, this kit provides so many opportunities! I’m really working on positional words with my girls right now, and the materials are so open to that. There are so many chances to use this vocabulary. “Can you put the giraffe beside the fence? Can you put the leaf on top of the hippo? Can you put the lion behind the fence? Can you put the zebra in front of the tree? Can you put the banana inside the hippo’s mouth?”
For older littles, hiding an animal or fruit in a bag and describing it so the other person can guess will help build vocabulary. “My animal is yellow. My animal has spots. My animal runs fast. My animal has sharp teeth. It’s a cheetah!”
Literacy Skills
Make letters with the jewels
Books: Goodnight Gorilla // 1, 2, 3 to the Zoo // From Head to Toe // Panda Bear, Panda Bear What Do You See? // National Geographic Kids // ZOO by Gail Gibbons // Color Zoo // Put Me In the Zoo // If I Ran the Zoo // Curious George Visits the Zoo // Dear Zoo // I Want to Be a Zookeeper // Giraffe’s Can’t Dance
Songs
“Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear, Turn Around” (insert zoo animal name and have kids act out)
“Five Little Monkeys”
“From Head to Toe” song based off Eric Carle book
“Lets Go To The Zoo” by Super Simple Songs
Numeracy Skills
Patterning: Use the jewels to create patterns
Whose tracks are those?: Use the animals to create tracks and have your babe guess which animal made them. Ask them to explain how they know.
Write numbers on post-it notes (add dots if still learning) for child to match with the number of animals or jewels
Shapes: Create shapes with jewels, popsicle sticks, or plastic knives
Other Ways to Extend
Make tracks in paint with animal figures
Use brown boxes to make cages for the animals
Animal Flashcards: Check out the farm ones I made to go with our Melissa & Doug Barn
Add farm animals and ask kids to sort who lives where – zoo or farm?
Sensory bottle with jewels
Plastic Knives to cut play dough “snakes”
Bowls and Silicone Molds (my girls are obsessed with turning everything into a birthday cake)
Rolling Pins & Stamps: Alex Art // Constructing Playthings Rolling Pins and Stamps // Wooden Rolling Pins // Melissa and Doug
Y’all. Are you exhausted/excited with all of the open-ended opportunities with this kit? These are no brainers for growing babes and will engage them in hours of meaningful play. Hoping that these “what else can I do?” activities empower you to get on the ground with your babes and play! Snag one of Julie’s zoo kits (or any of her other amazing ones here!)