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The Animal Walk tablecloth: the result of a wonderful partnership
A wonderful partnership for kids
What happens when three businesses with educational missions join forces? An extraordinary children’s product is created: the trilingual The Animal Walk colouring tablecloth.
When missions merge
Julie Blais, President of BiMoo, is always on the lookout for fruitful collaborations. That’s why last spring, she contacted Caroline Lebeau, founder of Regard9, a company that specializes in the creation of simple, colourful and accessible educational tools that promote motor and social development in children.
Trilingual educational tablecloths… books and educational guides… the missions of both businesses complement each other perfectly!
And that’s how it began...
The trilingual The Animal Walk tablecloth was created, based on the book The Animal Walk: Exercises for Good Posture. The book is essential in occupational therapy, and entertains children while developing their gross motor skills. It suggests 12 different ways to walk like animals and offers fun and efficient activities and tips.
The book is part of the ERGO édition collection by author, occupational therapist and librarianValérie Kempa, who has received several honours, including a Quebec entrepreneurship contest and the Innovation Award from the Ordre des ergothérapeutes du Québec. She also stood out during her appearance on Dragon’s Den!
Our eye-catching tablecloth features 12 playful animals for children to draw, illustrated by Étienne Taillefer. But that’s not all! The activity suggests 3 different steps by level of difficulty.
- Step 1: The child simply colours in the animal following the colours provided on the example, if desired.
- Step 2: The child first traces the outline of the dotted animal, then draws inside the animal.
- Step 3: The child traces the outline of the dotted animal, then colours it in like in step 1.
If you use washable crayons such as Crayola broad or fine line markers, the ink will wash off easily, meaning your child can draw on the tablecloth over and over again.
One tablecloth, several uses
With a few suggestions and a touch of imagination, you can use your tablecloth for a ton of different activities.
- Riddles: You provide clues and your child finds the animal. For example, “My tongue is blue” (giraffe), “I like to eat flies” (frog), etc.
- A new kind of Twister: Ask your child to place their right hand on the hedgehog, their nose on the kangaroo or their left foot under the flamingo.
- Motor skill game: Ask your child to move like the animals and imitate their sounds.
Working on fine and gross motor skills has never been so fun!
Éducazoo: a 3rd partner joins the fun
Do you know Éducazoo? Above all, it is a refuge for abandoned pets and exotic animals. The 30 passionate facilitators visit daycares, early childcare centres, schools and day camps to educate the young and old and raise awareness on adopting a responsible behaviour towards animals. During the activities, the animals love to walk around on the tablecloth.
We don't know what the future holds, but we can bet that more tablecloths will emerge from this fruitful collaboration over the next year. Stay tuned…
