Exploring The Animal Kingdom And Nature Through Play

Whether you have your own memories of playing with a treasured farm or zoo playset, or you have watched your little ones create their own stories with tiny dinosaurs or monsters, animal figures and playsets have always been a toybox staple.

Children are spending more time indoors, often engrossed in screens and less time outdoor connecting with nature. As caregivers, it’s important to foster a sense of responsibility to protect the natural world. A love of nature, the outdoors and the animal kingdom supports children’s physical, mental, and emotional development by expanding their horizons and introducing new concepts and ideas. Learning about animals and exploring the possibilities of the natural world encourages creativity, stretches their imagination and helps to foster a sense of wonder about the world.

Animal figures come in lots of guises and varieties and your child will take the lead in which toys they want to play with. They might initially be drawn to small figures and have a preferred favourite to hold, especially as they develop fine motor skills and hand-eye co-ordination. As they grow they will become more interested in playing with multiple figures and acting out more complex scenarios.

Why Encourage Children To Play With Animal Figures And Playsets

Let’s take a closer look at some of the positive benefits of exploring the animal kingdom through play.

Educational Value:

There’s so much for little ones to learn about animals and their habitats. Their very first words could include cat, dog or another favourite animal, especially if they have a pet or favourite toy. Learning about the wider animal world comes a little later, and animal figures and storytelling telling form part of this early learning about the animal kingdom.

Appreciation Of Nature

As we said above, it’s really important that we instill a sense of appreciation and responsibility for the natural world into the next generation. Learning about protecting animals and how they live together, the circle of life and whereabouts in the world they live are all exciting for young children as they start to discover the world outside their homes, fostering a curiosity and respect for wildlife and the environment.

Imaginative Play

Imaginative play stretches children’s imaginations and allows them the freedom to try new ideas and grow their confidence. Toys figures and play sets give an opportunity to develop intricate stories based on their own knowledge or things they may have see in their favourite TV shows, at the zoo or in well-loved stories. You can encourage this by suggesting and supporting storytelling within their play, talking about how animals might interact in real life, or the places they might live.

Empathy

Playing with animal toys helps children develop empathy as they imagine caring for and nurturing animals, leading to a greater understanding of the needs and feelings of real animals.

Social Interaction

As with all types of imaginative play, when interacting with their peers children have to use listening skills and be able to take direction and compromise. These skills will be really useful when they start school and have to work closely with others. Encourage positive interactions by giving lots of opportunity to express their ideas, promoting and modelling sharing and suggesting scenarios if needed.

Play Ideas With Animals

We’ve put together some ideas for playing with animals figures and playsets. It’s always better to let your children lead the way when it comes to imaginative play, but providing the right encouragement and resources can go along way towards them getting the most of the play in terms of learning opportunities as well as fun!

Set Up A Dinosaur Dig: A shallow container filled with sand make a wonderful place to bury dinosaurs! Add some interesting stones and plastic plants and encourage some fun sensory play by encouraging them to find all the buried dinosaurs.

Rescue Mission: Turn a scavenger hunt into a rescue mission by hiding animal figures in precarious places and helping them to find and rescue them. This kind of play encourages critical thinking and decision-making as they figure out the best ways to rescue the animals. It also builds empathy and understanding of helping others.

Playset Role-Playing: With farm or zoo-themed playsets, children can pretend to be caretakers and keepers, looking after the animals and creating their idea habitats. This role-playing helps them understand daily routines and responsibilities, supporting memory and sequencing skills.

Storytelling: Animal play sets and toys help children to create and act out stories. This imaginative play boosts their creativity and helps develop language skills as they come up with plots and dialogue. It also encourages problem-solving as they figure out how their story will unfold – supporting their ideas and following instructions about where to place figures and what sounds to make will show your child that their ideas have value, helping to grow their confidence too.

We hope this blog has given you lots of ideas for having fun and exciting interactive play with your little ones. As they explore and gather information about nature, animals and the outside, you’ll see their confidence and excitement grow, fostering a love for the outdoors and for animals which will hopefully stay with them for life.

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