Dog Anatomy Floor Puzzle

Dog Anatomy Floor Puzzle

Build the dog. Then turn him inside out. The Dog Anatomy Floor Puzzle is a 100-piece, double-sided floor puzzle that lets your child assemble a realistic Golden Retriever on one side, then flip the same pieces over and rebuild him to reveal the dog's internal anatomy.

Start with the outside. Your child pieces together the Golden Retriever's familiar face, paws, tail, and golden coat just as he would with a traditional jigsaw puzzle. Once it's finished, take it apart, turn every piece over, and start again.

This time, he's building what's underneath all that fur.

The reverse side features scientifically accurate canine anatomy illustrated by Certified Medical Illustrator Mesa Schumacher. As the puzzle comes together, your child gets a detailed look at the organs, systems, and internal structures that allow a dog to breathe, digest food, move, and function.

The learning doesn't stop when the last piece goes in. A poster-sized Anatomy Guide helps your child identify the internal structures he's assembled, while the included Fun Fact Sheet adds information about canine biology and behavior. A sheet of Genius Games stickers is included, too, for decorating notebooks, water bottles, or other sticker-friendly surfaces.

Using the same 100 pieces for both pictures makes the second build a surprisingly different challenge. A piece your child recognizes by the curve of a paw or patch of golden fur on one side becomes part of an organ or internal structure when flipped. He has to set aside the visual clues he just learned and solve the puzzle all over again.

If you also have the Cat Anatomy Floor Puzzle, put the finished anatomy pictures side by side. Comparing two animals your child already knows gives him an easy introduction to comparative anatomy as he looks for similarities and differences in their internal structures.

Along the way, all that assembling, flipping, comparing, and rebuilding puts visual discrimination, spatial reasoning, fine-motor skills, and persistence to work. It's twice the puzzling from the same 100 pieces—and a fascinating look at what's really going on inside man's best friend.