Another Favorite Product Series

Safari Toobs are sold at craft stores, novelty shops, bookstores and once in awhile, at your local grocer's.  The versions I've often seen on sale, have sea creatures, zoo babies or dinosaurs and are probably most often purchased at these locations as small toys for things like stocking stuffers and to spread out into party grab bags.  Their "Jamestown Settlers Toob" might frequently be purchased to create dioramas for school of what this fort probably looked like.  However, the company site itself demonstrates the multitude of highly educational options these "Toobs" offer.

One of our favorite Toobs has been the "Around the World" Toob with great monuments from around the world.  In the photo above you can see the roof of the Parthenon, the Taj Mahal, the Pyramids and a few others from this Toob.

One of my favorite things to do with Alice is to ask her to place a landmark or other related figurine on the map.  For example, when we learned about India, I had her to find the Taj Mahal figure from the Around the World Toob collection.  Then she had to find India and hold the figure up to India on our wall map.  

Alice really enjoyed the figurines from the Ancient Egypt Toob and played with them as if they were small dolls, but also related them to the symbols about which she was learning in that history unit.  I look forward to using the Ancient Fossils Toob you see pictured here as well.  In fact, there is a very cool project slated for fall about which I will make sure to publish an article.

Every once in awhile I get out my pencil box full of geography related Toob figures (Animals count because she has to know where they live) and have her spread them out over a map, placing the figures where they belong on the map.  Its a great review of what she has learned and when I time her, it becomes a game we can play.  Can she beat her previous time?

Whatever subject your student might be studying, there is likely a related Toob with which you can practice.