YikkoMontessori Animal Match Cards 48pcs - Insects and Animals Figurines and Cards, Montessori Materials Preschool Infant Toddlers Sorting Toys, Gift for 3 Years + Kids

As the title indicates, you can use this in a Montessori setting. You can also apply your creativity and apply it to other uses. My wife is an ESL teacher, so she is using them for interactive games in her classroom. She is great at making language learning fun, which also makes it more effective. She's also found that several age groups like things like this, not just young children. Let your creativity flow, you'll be surprised at what you come up with.

The picture quality is great on the cards. The many of the objects are poor quality. The farm animal set you can't even use because the objects don't match the pictures and it's misleading.The ocean animals is missing the walrus object so I can't even use that one.I was let down. But the rest of them can be used. So I'll keep it since I need it for my class.

Overall, we love these cards. Our 19-month-old daughter quickly learned how to lay the cards out and then match every animal with every card.However, there are some animals that confuse all of us and that she consistently gets wrong because their coloring is very odd. The horse is a bright orange color, which doesn’t match the horse photo at all, for example. The cat’s eyes are big blue blobs.We did buy some cinch bags to bundle each set together, as these do not come with any bags to keep the parts together.

I"ll get the reason for my missing star out of the way first. The photographs on the cards could be better quality. Some of them seem a little blurry. I always think it's important, even when you intend to use items for small children, to present top quality reproductions in any kind of art, including photography. Of course it would be nice as well to have beautiful molded pieces with different colored hand painted details. Some of them aren't bad, even look a little like their photos. Others are totally off, like the royal blue dolphin. I used to buy small animals like that at a toy store for my grandchildren when they were small, made in Germany, but the price per item would push the cost of this into the stratosphere!Other than that, this set is really great. I like the printed name of each creature on it's card. The printing is well done, the font is good, the size is good and even a small child may end up being able to read those words after many times playing match up with this set. The cards seem pretty substantial, although for what we are using them for, we may cover them in matte vinyl.Although I know some small children who might have a lot of fun playing with these, they are actually going to a middle school art class! Although just the picture cards might be enough, having the three dimensional versions of each animal as well is a bonus. The teacher who plans to use these has one class with wide-spread differences in ability, so from time to time, these may be used by some children who are being mainstreamed from the classes for children with disabilities who will enjoy looking over all the choices in one of the four categories, matching up the photo to the small figure, and then drawing or painting their own version, or if modeling clay is available, even making a little sculpture. This instructor also is excited about the fact that having 48 critters in all means that her middle school classes will be able to play a game where each of the approximately 32 students in a class is given a card, and can then have a few minutes of class time to trade cards with their table mates to get one they prefer. Afterward, the challenge will be to produce their own work of art featuring that particular animal. Again, having access to a 3-dimensional model will help them produce a piece that may present a different view than is shown in the photograph. Another variation might be for each table to cooperate in choosing just one animal, and then see how many variations the table turns out, as each student produces their own way to draw or paint the animal.Having taught middle school myself for quite a few years, even before the distractions of smart phones and tablets, and certainly not to kids who have been cooped up at home doing distance learning due to the Pandemic, I know how much effort goes in to engaging the attention of a roomful of sometimes squirrelly 12 year olds. Kids who are being taught by a serious art teacher how to draw -- something most of them seem to be really excited to do -- need to have every aid and incentive to practice what they are learning and express their creativity, and this will provide both some models and an opportunity to have some fun.