The Library and bookdrops at 110 W. Maple Street are closed as we move to 411 S. Main. For updates on our move and Grand Opening, visit our Big Move webpage.
Whether you want manipulatives for learning new skills, imaginative play, or board games for the whole family, our Learning Game collection is full of fun!
"Introduce your child to pattern matching, spatial reasoning, and problem solving! Q-bitz Jr. builds visual intelligence and STEM skills and is so much fun, your child will want to play again and again!"--Cover
"The Sneaky, Snacky Squirrel Game helps preschoolers master matching skills, develop fine motor skills including pre-handwriting skills, social skills like taking turns, and strategic thinking skills"--Instruction guide
Making Acorn Soup is easy as 1-2-3! The round box bottom doubles as a bowl, which contains wooden ingredients and a sturdy wooden spoon for mixing and stirring. Simple recipe cards teach toddlers to identify the ingredients and count as they cook. Mix, stir, eat and play together! Counting, pretend play, sorting, fine-motor skills are benefits of this fun, interactive game!
"Snap together color-coded pieces to build uppercase and lowercase letters, and build fine motor skills. Practice letter recognition and pre-handwriting too!"--Publisher's website
Begin to recognize numbers, learn to take turns, and deal with setbacks as you try to become the first to go from square #1 to square #100.
This ten piece tile set makes learning numbers in Braille as easy as 1-2-3. Each tile features one side with the numeral and corresponding Braille cells and the other side features impressed leaf illustrations to help children count. Children can trace the indentations on each tile and learn to count with their fingers while counting out loud
This 26 piece Braille alphabet set features double sided pieces with upper case letters on one side and lower case letters on the other. Each has Braille symbol that represents each letter in the alphabet.
Mudpuppy's ABC Spot Me Game is an educational, exciting, and fun fast-paced game for early spellers and their families. Players will work to be the 1st to spot an icon that starts with the letter on the card and then collect the tile. The player with the most tiles is the winner!
Discover 20 aspirational jobs to find and match. Each pair is made up of boys and girls alike in roles that are usually dominated by one gender. Our matching game teaches equality from a young age, empowering the next generation. … if he can, she can and if she can, he can. SNAP!
Realistically detailed animals designed for little hands and big imaginations! Figures invite imaginative play and are perfect for vocabulary development. Activity guide includes facts about each animal and early science discussion starters. Made of durable, non-toxic plastic.
The six sides of Spinning Drum are composed of 5 colors and a mirror. Exercise baby's hand movements through rolling the toy.
This montessori material encourages curiosity from child's early age and sends brain signals that a goal was achieved. Develops eye-hand coordinationa and basic logic skills.
An amusing pop up wooden toy. Designed to encourage hand/eye coordination and introduce color awareness.
Introduce children to the concept of the 5 food groups and healthy meal planning with this set of magnetic, illustrated foods.
"A garden full of imaginative play! Plant and grow flowers and veggies right before your eyes with gardening essentials including a watering can, shovel, and 3 pots. Colorful mix-and-match flowers and veggies encourage role play and early vocabulary development while nurturing an appreciation for nature."-- Publisher's website
Matroyoshka with a modern twist! Each colorful ball is cleverly textured with fascinating dots, lines, ribs and swirls. meanwhile, short, safe tethers keep them all connected in a wonderfully wobbly row. But the best part? Each ball opens up and fits snuggly into the next! From motor skills to color identification to hand-eye coordination, tactile learning is on a roll!
"Help kids build hand strength, coordination, and other essentials of fine motor skill development with the Fine Motor Peacock Pals. This friendly set of 5 fine motor toys for toddlers brings fine motor learning to small groups and classrooms with the help of their pinchable, pullable feathers. The Fine Motor Peacock Pals also come with a 4-in-1 learning surprise— in addition to boosting fine motor skills through push-in, pop-out play, feathers also come with unique textures that support tactile play, and introduce kids to early color recognition and number recognition skills thanks to their vibrant designs and 1–5 numbered surfaces. Sort by color, match by number, and more— Publisher's website
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"Stack your Spelligator with as many words as you can to win. Challenge your friends to see who can build the highest stack of words!" -- container |
"With the Penguin Musical Wobbler, children can experience sound and delight in the penguin's soothing tinkling sounds and funny waddle. Encourage your child to experience sound by pushing the Penguin Musical Wobbler, making him waddle and emit his soothing, tinkling sounds."--Container
"An incredibly unique shape-learning experience! The six chunky shape blocks are each covered with fascinating textures that are sure to thrill the fingers. But the best part? As kids push the shapes through the elastic bands of the cube, curiosity is sparked and young minds can't help but explore, experiment, and discover. It's beautifully simple and amazingly mind-expanding!"--Container
"Ready for the fun? - Press down on the big bee button at the top and - WHOOSH! - the platforms inside spin fast, causing the bees to roll and clatter around and around! Sensory learning is on a roll!." Publisher's website
"Can you spell early learning fun? Poke the irresistible buttons to hear satisfying "clicks" and "pops" while learning letters A to Z and first words. Each side of the 13 sturdy cards features a letter, along with objects that begin with that letter and corresponding dots to poke. Poke-a-Dot learning cards help encourage language development, and fine motor skills."--Publisher's website
"Count on these learning cards for a unique twist on number fun! Poke the irresistible buttons to hear satisfying clicks and pops while developing early learning skills. Each side of the 13 sturdy cards features a number or a shape and a color, with corresponding dots to poke. Poke-a-Dot learning cards help encourage counting, color and shape recognition, and fine motor skills.."--Publisher's website
Explore the Magic of the Microscopic world! 20 slides packed with amazing images of bugs, plants, and more. Listen to facts and tickle your brain with wildlife warrior Bindi Irwin. --Text from original box
Looking for a puzzle? We have tray puzzles, floor puzzles, and jigsaw puzzles (up to 70 pieces) to complete at home.
"A thoughtfully created design that is a marriage between fun Rangoli patterns and the sacred geometry of Mandala. It is a blend of fun and focus, family time and independent play, cultural story and game.. " -- Publisher's website
Puzzle Huddle was created to inspire and affirm children using a creative format. Puzzles provide a fun, challenging, and rewarding experience across a wide range of ages. Our puzzles celebrate diversity and culture.
Puzzle Huddle was created to inspire and affirm children using a creative format. Puzzles provide a fun, challenging, and rewarding experience across a wide range of ages. Our puzzles celebrate diversity and culture.
Puzzle Huddle was created to inspire and affirm children using a creative format. Puzzles provide a fun, challenging, and rewarding experience across a wide range of ages. Our puzzles celebrate diversity and culture.
Puzzle Huddle was created to inspire and affirm children using a creative format. Puzzles provide a fun, challenging, and rewarding experience across a wide range of ages. Our puzzles celebrate diversity and culture.
Puzzle Huddle was created to inspire and affirm children using a creative format. Puzzles provide a fun, challenging, and rewarding experience across a wide range of ages. Our puzzles celebrate diversity and culture.
Puzzle Huddle was created to inspire and affirm children using a creative format. Puzzles provide a fun, challenging, and rewarding experience across a wide range of ages. Our puzzles celebrate diversity and culture.
This Montessori wooden chunky puzzle celebrates diversity in all its forms and inspires children to embrace their uniqueness. Every child, regardless of ethnicity, skin color, ability, or preference, is to be celebrated and respected. The chunky pieces enable success and confidence for little hands. And each piece is two-sided for numerous combinations within each gender. The chunky pieces are also designed to stand on a flat surface so the pieces can be stacked vertically.
Children are the future! Black or brown skinned, curly or straight haired, blind or hearing impaired, we want all kids to be confident and feel loved. Help your child identify what features make them special as they assemble our Beautiful Faces puzzle.
It's a beautiful day in Sweet Home Chicgo! Enjoy it with your family. Have a picnic, ride bikes, or visit The Bean! Chicago is our favorite city, and you can piece it together with this puzzle.
"Large 49-piece cityscape puzzle with a magic card camera viewer, that creates animated effects as you move it across the picture. " -- Publisher's website
"Who wants to ride the number train? These cute critters do! Match the tops and bottoms of the train cars by number or color or pattern. Or mix them up just for fun. Use it to teach numbers and colors, and promote fine motor skills." -- Publisher's website
"The joyful carousel puzzle is as fantastical and fun as any carousel ride a child's ever seen! Little ones will delight in piecing this puzzle together again and again as they do going around and around the carousel. Designed to aid in child cognitive brain development, learning, and memory."
A rocket shaped puzzle featuring shimmering foil effects.
"What's going on at the Monster Mansion? It's a party, complete with cake, gifts and balloons! Take the puzzle apart to see all the monster friends decorating and celebrating together. Kids will be delighted to find the fun surprises in the different layers of this sturdy wooden puzzle." -- Publisher's website
"Kindness 4-in-a-Box Puzzle Set includes 4 puzzles, each with a different level of difficulty. Puzzles with 4, 6, 9 and 12 pieces reveal color illustrated scenes featuring adorable animal demonstrating acts of kindness."-- Publisher's website
"Includes 24 double-sided puzzle sticks that create six unique eight-piece puzzles! Sort the sticks by background color, then use the included tray to arrange the sticks in the correct order to reveal a variety of professions including construction worker, scientist, artist and more!" -- Publisher's website
An owl-filled, tree-shaped puzzle featuring shimmering foil effects
"This 23-piece educational puzzle engages children in two steps of creative fun. First, kids assemble the jumbo pieces to form a large (over 3 feet long) vehicle, and then they learn about various shapes or colors by placing the various included objects into the assembled layout. But the fun doesn’t end there! Round pieces can be mixed and matched freely, so you decide who’s driving!" -- distributor's website
"Features illustrations of famous landmarks and other characteristics of Chicago so children ages 4 and up can learn about this great city while enjoying a puzzling challenge!" -- Publisher's website
Our Learning Kits bring books, games, and other manipulatives together for one simple checkout. Whether you are getting ready for kindergarten or want to bring the fun of storytime home, we have a kit for your family!
Best for ages 3 and up
Develops practice of independent skills and resilience. Develops skills in independence, fine motor, growth mindset.
Best for ages 3 and up
Develops skills in emergent writing and letter recognition. Develops skills in writing, letter recognition and fine motor development.
Best for ages 3 and up
Develops skills to extend literacy activities by retelling a story. Develops skills in literacy, retelling stories, positional words.
Best for ages 3 and up
Build confidence, empathy, adaptability, and grit with hands-on learning games and activities. Develops skills in social and emotional understanding and learning, relationships and social interactions with others, conflict negotiation.
Best for ages 3 and up
Learn about pizza making and set up shop. Develops skills in sequencing, fractions and dramatic play.
Best for ages 3 and up
Build early math skills in numbers and counting. Develops skills in number sense and counting, math operations and 1:1 correspondence.
Best for ages 3 and up
Develops early literacy skills by practicing letter sounds and rhyming. Develops skills in phonological awareness, letter and word knowledge and emergent writing.
Best for ages 3 and up
Practice measuring with a variety of tools. Develops skills in, number sense and counting, measuring objects with standard units, comparing objects by length.
Best for ages 3 and up
Practice identifying and talking about feelings with hands-on activities. Develops skills in: social and emotional understanding and learning; identifying emotions and how they relate to others; relationships and social interactions with others.
Best for ages 3 and up
Build early math skills through counting and identifying shapes. Develops skills in number sense, counting and shape recognition.
Best for ages 3 and up
Learn the names of instruments and make music. Develops skills in identifying instruments by name and sound, creating sounds with instruments, rhythm and rhyme.
Best for ages 3 and up
Develops gross-motor skills while moving and interacting with environment.
Best for ages 3 and up
Develops practice of independent skills and resilience. Develops skills in independence, fine motor, growth mindset.
Best for ages 3 and up
Practice identifying and talking about feelings with hands-on activities. Develops skills in: social and emotional understanding and learning; identifying emotions and how they relate to others; relationships and social interactions with others.
Best for ages 3 and up
Develops understanding of print materials and sequencing events in a story. Develops skills in reading comprehension, sequencing, dramatic play.