You can buy an animal picture puzzle or make your own by printing two copies of an animal picture. Cut one copy into puzzle pieces and save the other copy as a photo guide. The child can be given the pieces to build the puzzle on his own or you can play a guessing game together by hiding the photo guide and building the puzzle in front of the child. Have the child guess what the animal is as you are building the puzzle.
Felt sticks to itself, so to assemble a felt-board puzzle you place the largest animal shape on the felt-board first and layer features such as a beak, ears or nose on top. To make your own, print an animal coloring sheet to use as a template, staple the template to appropriate colored felt and cut out pieces. Make it a game by asking questions about the animal and giving the child a piece of the puzzle for each correct answer. Allow the child to place the pieces on the felt board as he receives them, so that by the end of the questions, the animal is complete.
Ideas for animal matching games include matching mothers to their babies (such as a hen to baby chicks), matching animals to their habitats (such as an alligator to a swamp) and matching animals to their food (such as a bird to a worm). To make your own matching puzzle, print five or more coordinating pairs of images for each matching game.
You can purchase 3D animal puzzles at bookstores and online. These puzzles come with pop-out pieces that are assembled to create a 3D model of the animal. After building the animal model, it can be set on a shelf to be admired, used for pretend play or taken apart for rebuilding. Make it a game by hiding pieces and sending children on an exploration to find the animal. Finding the pieces will be as fun as building the puzzle.