M&D - Round the Shore Tracks Floor Puzzle

The Melissa & Doug Round the Shore Tracks Floor Puzzle is a 48-piece, oceanside-themed jigsaw designed for children aged 4+ years. This interactive puzzle can be assembled as three separate circles or as one complete circle, forming two circular tracks that accommodate wind-up vehicles. The set includes a wind-up boat and a school bus, which travel along the tracks, passing alphabet letters and numbers, providing an engaging way for children to learn while playing.

This puzzle not only offers hours of fun, but also delivers multiple developmental benefits. Working with puzzles helps children enhance fine motor skills, memory, categorisation, and sorting abilities. As children progress through different levels of difficulty, they also strengthen critical thinking, problem-solving, and strategy skills.

Educational Benefits:

• Fine Motor Skills: Children practice hand-eye coordination and improve dexterity by fitting puzzle pieces together and winding up the vehicles.
• Visual and Memory Skills: Working with the puzzle encourages visual tracking, pattern recognition, and memory retention as children recall the positions of the puzzle pieces and tracks.
• Early Literacy & Numeracy: The alphabet and number tracks help reinforce letter and number recognition, promoting early reading and maths skills.
• Categorising & Sorting: As children match pieces and vehicles to tracks, they engage in categorisation and sorting, developing organisational skills.
• Spatial Awareness: Assembling the circular tracks and arranging the vehicles helps children understand spatial relationships and enhances problem-solving abilities.
• Critical Thinking & Problem Solving: Children develop strategic thinking as they figure out how to complete the puzzle and navigate the vehicles around the tracks.

Classroom Ideas:

• Use the puzzle to teach basic concepts like letters, numbers, and sequencing. Ask children to identify the letters and numbers as the vehicles travel along the tracks.
• Encourage children to create their own storylines as the boat and bus travel around the puzzle, fostering creativity and language development.
• Turn it into a classroom race by challenging kids to wind up the boat or bus and see who can navigate the tracks the fastest.
• Use the puzzle to promote teamwork by having children work in pairs or small groups to assemble the puzzle and play with the vehicles together.

The compact design of this puzzle also ensures easy storage in a box with a handle for simple clean up, making it perfect for both the classroom and at-home play. The finished puzzle has a circle of 68(dia) cm, and the bus and boat are about 6.3(L) cm.