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This safari truck is a fun and flexible toy for your animal-loving child! It also has a lot of different animals to talk about. Below are some ideas of how to play with the toy according to what level of play your child currently enjoys. Suggestions for words to say while playing are in italics. Please see the introductory page here to learn more about the different play levels and which one may be most appropriate for your child. As always, have fun following your child’s lead and playing together!
Simple Play:
Drive the truck around the room. (Truck. We’re pushing it.)
Push the truck back and forth between you (It’s fast! Oh no, it fell).
Open/close the door on the back (Door. It’s open.)
Combination Play:
Put all of the animals in the truck. Hint: If the shapes are too difficult for your child to match, you can push them through any hole or put them in using the back door. (Lion. Zebra. In the truck. The hippo is in.)
Dump out all of the animals from the back door. This helps start the routine over again. (They came out.)
Put the animals in a different vehicle. (Giraffe. He’s in the bus.)
Early Imaginary Play:
Make a road for the truck using blocks, paper, or tape. (Block. We’re sticking the tape. We made a road.)
Scatter the animals around the room and drive the truck around to pick them all up. (He’s under the couch. The zebra is on the table.)
Have the animals do different actions. (The lion is running. The rhino is climbing. He’s on top of the truck!)
Advanced Play:
Set up different habitats for the animals. Hint: You can use boxes and construction paper. For example, you can make a pretend pond by cutting a circle out of blue paper. (The hippo is hiding in the grass.)
Make houses out of board books standing up like tents. You can drop the animals off at their homes and put them to bed. (The zebra went in his house. He’s sleeping.)
Get the toy here.
