Posters and friezes
Animals Underground, Under the Sea, Arctic Animals, Pondlife, Desert Animals, Wild Animals, Farm Animals, Pets, Birds, friezes around 30 x 160cm (Mantra Lingua, 8.99 each, tel: 020 8445 5123, www.mantralingua.com).
Exploration
Worm world, a complete kit for studying worms (NES Arnold, 11.75, tel: 0845 120 4525).
Folding magnifiers, pack of 10 (NES Arnold, 11.75).
Tripod magnifier, sturdy design (NES Arnold, 23.50).
Insect exploring kit, includes a multi-level ant house and bug viewer (Insect Lore, 15.99, tel: 01908 563 338, www.insectlore-europe.com).
Triops refill eggs and food, prehistoric creature which grows to between 2.5cm and 5cm, nearly doubles in size daily, swims upside down and breathes through its feet (Insect Lore, 5.25). Also from Insect Lore: adalia box - live ladybird eggs and frozen food (22.97), giant land snails (20.56) and butterfly garden, with five caterpillars (22.31).
Software
Percy's Animal Explorer, six games, playable at different levels of difficulty (AVP Educational Software and Video, 39.95, www.avp.co.uk)
Video/DVD
Pets theme pack, to take the children in your setting on a video visit to the vet's, farm park, pet shop and to see some new puppies. The pack also includes a practitioner handbook with role-play guidance, audio CD with topic-linked songs and parents' notice (Early Vision, 45, tel: 01989 567 353, www.earlyvision.co.uk).
Pets CD ROM, including film clips and games that cover all areas of learning within the Foundation Stage (Early Vision, 20).
Animal sounds
Animal and Bird Sounds, audio CD (Columbia River, 6.99, available from amazon.co.uk).
World of little people - animal sounds zoo (Fisher Price, 19.99) Animal flashlights, squeeze the animal torch to make an animal sound; six animal varieties (Little Tikes, 9.99)
Listen to short clips of animals online at www.animalpicturesarchive.com/animal/SOUND/ and www.georgetown.edu/facultyballc/animals/animals.html. See the animal sounds quiz at www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies/teletubbies/funandgames/animalsounds/index.shtml and at www.bbc.co.uk/wales/snapdragon/yesflash/who-said-that-1.htm. For insect sounds, visit www.naturesongs.com/insects.html
Role play
Wooden farm includes a base, chicken coop, pigsty, sheep pen, barn and outhouses (Early Learning Centre, 15, www.earlylearningcentre.co.uk) Baby and adult farm animals (Early Learning Centre, 5) Big farm (Lego Duplo, 39.99, www.lego.com)
Wooden Noah's Ark and pairs of animals (Articles of Faith, 19.95, tel: 0161 763 6232)
Country life farm set, 68 wooden pieces, including a tractor, kennel and animals (Hope, 29.95, tel: 08451 202055)
Jungle lodge, wooden lodge including tower, mosquito net, rope ladder and bed (Eduzone, 49.95, tel: 08456 445 556, www.eduzone.co.uk)
Minibeasts, definitive collection of 24 bugs (Eduzone, 9.95)
Safari mat (Eduzone, 22.95)
Bee, butterfly and ladybird costumes (Wesco, 17.70 each, tel: 0115 986 2126, www.wesco-group.com)
Painted lady butterfly wings, for dressing-up (Insect Lore, 9.99) Puppets and masks
Plush finger puppets, pack of 24 (Hope, 38.95)
Farm, forest and wild animals, packs of six puppets (Eduzone, 28.95 or 5.50 each)
Wild and farm animal masks, sets of six, hand-held (Asco, 25.00 per set, tel: 0113 270 7070)
Games
Animals and their young, six tray puzzles with adult animal on top and its young on base of the tray (Hope, 34.95)
Whose home? and Whose baby?, animal matching games (Eduzone, 5.50 each)
Find my food, match animals to their food (Insect Lore, 8.99)
Tuzzles giant floor puzzles: elephant (110cm tall, 33 pieces, 62.50), panda (70cm tall, 27 pieces, 46.50), giraffe (120cm tall, 30 pieces, 52.50), tiger (70cm tall, 31 pieces, 46.50) (all from Asco)
Books
PICTURE BOOKS
The Patchwork Cat by Nicola Bayley (Red Fox, 4.99)
The Great Pet Sale and Billy's Beetle
by Mick Inkpen (Hodder Children's Books, 5.99 each)
Dear Zoo and Farm 123 by Rod Campbell (both Picture Puffin, 4.99)
Borka: the Adventures of a Goose with No Feathers and Cannonball Simp by John Burningham (both Red Fox, 5.99)
How Many Bugs in a Box? by David A Carter (Little Simon, 5.99)
Cockatoos by Quentin Blake (Red Fox, 4.99)
Spot Goes to the Circus by Eric Hill (Puffin Books, 4.99)
The Story about Ping by Marjorie Flack (Puffin Books, out of print, but available second hand and at libraries)
One Yak Called Jack by Darcia Labrosse (Jonathan Cape, 10.99)
Eliza's Wild Ride edited by Golden Books (Golden Books, out of print)
Topsy and Tim Have Horse-riding Lessons by G and J Adamson (Blackie Children's Books, out of print)
Who Sank the Boat? by Pamela Allen (PIcture Puffin, 5.99)
'Pardon?' Said the Giraffe by Colin West (Walker Books, 4.99)
We All Went on Safari: a Counting Journey through Tanzania by Laurie Krebs (Barefoot Books, 6.99)
My Cat Likes to Hide in Boxes by Eve Sutton (Picture Puffin, 4.99)
Six Dinner Sid by Inga Moore (Hodder Children's Books, 5.99)
Farmer Duck, The Pig in the Pond and Owl Babies by Martin Waddell (Walker Books, 5.99 each)
Rosie's Walk by Pat Hutchins (Red Fox, 5.99)
Old MacDonald Had a Farm C Hawkins and J Hawkins (lift-the-flap book, Egmont Children's Books, 5.99)
Noah's Ark written by Heinz Janisch and illustrated by Lisbeth Zwerger (North South Books, 9.99)
Baa for Beginners by Deborah Fajerman (Red Fox, 4.99)
Ponies and Dogs by Babette Cole (Egmont Books, 3.99 each)
Rhymes
Pets, Pets, Pets! by Kathy Henderson, collection of poems (Frances Lincoln, 5.99)
This Little Puffin edited by Elizabeth Matterson (Puffin Books, Pounds 6.99)
Storysacks and props
The Great Pet Sale, book, laminated characters and price tags (27.50, TTS Early Steps, tel: 0800 318 686, www.tts-shopping.com)
The Gruffalo Storysack (52.00, Storysack, tel: 0161 763 6232, www.storysack.com)
Non-fiction
The Animal Family Book series (North South Books, 5.99 each).
Farm Animals (Life cycles series, Penguin Books, out of print)
Animal Babies on the Farm (Kingfisher Books, 5.99)
Woof! A Guide to Understanding Your Dog and Meow! A Guide to Understanding your Cat by Caroline Heens (Kingfisher, 9.99, each)
Encyclopedia of Animals (Visual series, Dorling Kindersley, 9.99)
Let's Look at Animals Underground and Let's Look at Animals by Night (Moonlight Publishing, 6.99 each)
Let's Read about Pets (Franklin Watts, 8.99 each)
Discover the Farm, 22 photographs of life on a farm (15.22, Wildgoose Early Years, tel: 01530 518568, www.wgoose.co.uk)