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Tips for kindergarten teachers
Compare (ages: 3+)
Use the various animals to help the children understand the different comparisons.
Which animals are larger, smaller or the same size? How big are these animals in nature?
Are there things in the room where you are that have different sizes? What about the
different sizes of the children in the group?
Animals in the meadow (ages: 3+)
Think with the children about which animals live in the meadow and which ones live in
the lily pond. Which animals have their habitat below the earth, which ones above land
and which ones approach the meadow from the air? Do the children know the difference
between mammals and insects? Which animals are in which categories?
Balance exercises (ages: 5+)
Look at the game disc together and think with the kids about how an animal might fall
off. Why is it more difficult to place the dragonfly? Make the comparison with a see-saw
on the playground. Maybe you can even test the results on a real see-saw.
Do simple balance exercises with the kids in the room or outside in the open. Who can
stand on one leg? Who can balance already? Is it more difficult to balance if you can’t
stretch your arms out to the side? Who can walk on stilts?
Tips for parents
Depending on the age of the child, you can leave out the dice with the different animal sizes so the
child first has to determine the difference between the colours of the flowers in the meadow. Later
you can add the dice with the sizes and discover the different sizes with the children. Differentiate
here between small, medium and large animals. Then the game can be played according to the
suggested rules of the game. Try it out yourself and see how much dexterity it takes to balance the
animals on the disc without them falling off. To simplify the game at the beginning, you can just
place the animals flat on the balancing disc instead of standing them up.