Melissa & Doug Dinosaurs 48-Piece Floor Puzzle
Posted on December 06th, 2009 in Toys
- Illustration of 13 dinosaurs
- 48 Thick, laminated cardboard puzzle pieces
- Educational and entertaining challenge for any child to build the puzzle and name all the dinosaurs
- A dino-sized value of epoch proportions!
- Recommended Age Range 3 Years and up
Product Description
This dinosaur scene has been transformed into a heavy duty cardboard floor puzzle. It features detailed graphics and large, high quality pieces that are 20% thicker than other floor puzzles. The easy-to-clean surface keeps puzzles looking new, and the large size helps small hands learn. Contains 48 pieces Measures 24″ x 36″.


This post has 5 comments
December 6th, 2009
There is nothing wrong with the physical quality of this product. The issue is with its suitability for children’s play and learning. One of the most difficult concepts for elementary school children to learn is that not all dinosaurs lived at the same time; that different families and species lived at one of three prehistoric time periods. This is result of the influence of the movie “Land Before Time” and other popular images showing scenes with Tyrannosaurus living at the same time as the sauropods (the “long necks” such as Apatosaurus) on impressionable preschoolers’ minds. So children then need to “unlearn” their concepts of dinosaurs living at the same time and place from those popular images. So as a Pre-K teacher in a state-certified program, I am suggesting that parents not buy this for their children. I am still searching for a dinosaurs floor puzzle that has the dinosaurs grouped into the Triassic, Jurassic, and Cretaceous Periods of the Mesozoic Era. It is not developmentally appropriate to teach young children false information, just facts that are simple enough for them to comprehend.
Rating: 2 / 5
December 6th, 2009
My 3 year old loves puzzles and dinosaurs, and he enjoys this puzzle. The colors are good, the pictures realistic, and it is durable (as I expect from Melissa and Doug products). My complaint is that there is no information about which dinosaurs are pictured. I am no expert, and my son keeps asking what their names are. We’ve been able to figure some out by looking through books, but it is work I don’t think I should have to do. If it had this information (or if you don’t care about this info), I would give it 5 stars. The Crocodile Creek dinosaur puzzle has a cartoonish look, but at least it includes the names and eliminates this hassle.
Rating: 3 / 5
December 6th, 2009
My son received this puzzle for his second birthday. He loves it. Even when he was too young to complete it on his own, we would show him where they go and he really enjoyed putting it together and saying “i did it! i did it!”.
I am looking on amazon right now to buy the other two like this for Christmas.
Rating: 5 / 5
December 6th, 2009
We bought this after success with M&D’s Solar System puzzle. Well, the little guy just loves it. He’s three years old. We thought it might be a little advanced for him, but after one time through, he’s got it. And that’s all he does. Over and over and over. He’s happy and the puzzle is durable enough to just leave it on the kitchen floor, sometimes partially completed and we just walk right over it. Fantastic! We’ve gone on to buy him the sealife puzzle also. Interesting things about this line of puzzles: the pieces are cut the same so you can interchange pieces from different puzzles. The upper left corner for all of them is the exact same shape. So now he does a space, dinosaur underwater puzzle.
One thing about this puzzle, there are no labels for the dinos. So what started as a nice, educational distraction for him, became a long, educational distraction for me. “What’s this one, dad?” “Who’s this?” “Is this a diplodachlosmechaurus?” You get my point….or do you??? (Cue scary music.)
Rating: 5 / 5
December 6th, 2009
We love the Melissa and Doug line. We have about 10 now I think and they have survived two to three years of my now two and four year olds walking on, chewing on, throwing around and working over and over and they are still like new. The scenes are always so vividly colored the kids love them. The price is a little high, but the durably makes it worth it.
Rating: 5 / 5