MiniZoo model animals are such a versatile product, whether you’re a collector for display purposes, enjoy small world play or use animal figurines in your sensory or craft play, the opportunities are endless.

With school holidays on the horizon you might be thinking about how you're going to keep the kids happy on long car rides or plane trips. It is times like these, or perhaps even just sitting in a waiting room for ages, waiting for food at a restaurant, trying to take part in a meeting, or maybe you just needed 10 minutes to cook dinner, that you need something to entertain the kids quietly and keep them happy, preferably without resorting to screens - MiniZoo can help!

Recently, when preparing for a trip, I made some on-the-go activity boxes centred around our MiniZoo tube animals and I wanted to share our creations because they were a hit, with the parents just as much as the kids. You might be familiar with one of my recent blogs discussing storage ideas for MiniZoo model animals. Well, this is based around one of the ideas in that blog so feel free to read it here, if you’re interested.

All I did was choose a few MiniZoo animal tubes, fit them into a plastic compartment box (though a pencil case could also work if you don’t mind them getting mixed in together), and print out some of these awesome environment scenes that have been digitally made here at MiniZoo HQ - check them out here. And Voila! A super easy small world for your kids to play imaginatively.

Independent imaginative small world play is good for social development because it initiates a play time when kids are free to just explore social constructs on their own without rules or expectations, and directly influences their emotional regulation, language skills and problem-solving capacity.

You may have even seen recently we now have some eco-friendly and super convenient MiniZoo calico bags which would be perfect to carry your travel kit with your plastic container(s) full of model animals and your printed scenes. Pop your container of animals and play scene inside our drawstring or tote bags and take them with you.

We often post on social media and blogs about sensory play which are awesome for creating environments, but if you’re time poor, need something super quick, or need something that’s not going to spill everywhere in the car, plane or restaurant, these free printables might be your saving grace. We have created MiniZoo scenes for you to easily download and print whatever scene you’d like. They can be printed in A3 for use with MiniZoo tube animals, or in A4 if you prefer to use MiniZoo Safari Good Luck Minis. I’d print them on card and/or laminate them to preserve them for many uses.

I’ve used the CollectA Farm Animals Tube, Wild Life Tube, and Prehistoric Tube A, as well as the Safari Ltd Coral Reef Tube, and the Wild Republic Aquatic and Mermaids Nature Tube. This selection gave my kids a little of everything to use in their play when we printed each of the scenes. Of course, they like to mix and match, so its not uncommon for me to notice a mermaid escaping a dino in the prehistoric scene, which is what imaginative play is all about. 

Downloadable scene options include a Prehistoric Dinosaur World, African Safari, Country Farm and a Coastal Ocean environment, but keep your eyes on this space as we have plans to expand our range of printable scenes (you can even let us know your favourites and put in a request if you like!).

We also have a range of small world play mats and props that you can use as well to build up your environments. Play mats can easily be used for an instant imaginary play small world play base, and can be rolled out with ease along with your container full of MiniZoo tube animals. Small trees, mushrooms, fences, pebbles, rocks and shells can add that extra element of magic to your scene. Check out the Tara Treasures felt range, or the Let Them Play and Papoose wooden play props for a wide selection.

Share your MiniZoo on-the-go play with us on social media, on Instagram, Facebook, or on our VIP group, and let us know any requests for scenes to be turned into printable environments. Also check out our other free online printable PDFs here for plenty more educational and animal-themed fun.

Jenna @ MiniZoo