I just saw the blue Fisher Price case and knew that something great was in it because it was the same case that Barnyard Bingo is in.
So when I got home and opened it up, I was thrilled to find what was inside. A Matching / Animals / Memory / Tic Tac Toe game! Perfect for our family.
So the game comes with 24 "coins", each of which are half of a whole. They match up by animal (turtle, zebra, bumble bee), and then they fit together to make a whole coin. At that point, you can also look at the shape on the coin that matches to the slot on the top of the ark. It then drops into the ark like Connect 4.
This is such a great game for any child, but especially for a Special Needs kid.
Fine Motor: not only does it take good coordination to put them into the ark, but matching them up is tricky too, and then keeping them together while putting them in is yet another level of skill.
Memory: you can flip them all face down and play it like a memory game.
Matching: we put three in a row (eventually four, then five, and so on) and have the boys match the one we hand them to the choices in the row. We could also turn the choices over so they can start to learn to remember where the match is or isn't.
Colors/Shapes: once the animals are matched, you need to talk about colors and shapes to get them into the ark.
Manding: so easy to have a child mand for the coins simply by "coin" (or use the sign for it), by animal name (or sound!), or by shape name or color.
OT: make it a sensory activity! Put the ark on one side of the room and hide the coins in the rice table on the other side of the room. Dig for a coin, run it across the room and put it in the ark. Or roll across the room. Or pull yourself across on a scooter board. Or put them in a bag and have the child reach in and pull them out one at a time. Or put them in a baby wipes box and have the child reach in through the slot in the top to pull them out (Huggies wipes have a great rubbery slot that little hands reach into nicely and easily but also provide good resistance.)
So, while I hate it when other people post about great thrift shop finds that I will never have a hope in finding, I've discovered that you just never know what you might find, if you just open your eyes a little bit.
