WO2006006050A1

WO2006006050A1 - Instructional toy for young children

Info

Publication number: WO2006006050A1
Application number: PCT/IB2005/001910
Authority: WO
Inventors: Karin Nicola Ribbens
Original assignee: Karin Nicola Ribbens
Priority date: 2004-07-07
Filing date: 2005-07-06
Publication date: 2006-01-19
Also published as: ZA200610802B

Abstract

An instructional toy that is provided comprising a set of graphic cards (1) wherein there is provided at least one card face (2), and preferably an entire dedicated card, for every letter of a required alphabet, typically the letters A to Z of the English-language alphabet. One card face (2, 10), in each case, carries carrying the associated letter clearly displayed thereon, and in the preferred instance, examples of the use of the letter are carried on the reverse face (11). The cards are attached to each other by means of flexible attachment means (3) to hold the cards captive relative to each other with the attachment means being optionally releasable. Preferably the attachment means is a flexible tension element passing through a hole or eyelet (5) towards the periphery of each card with the ends of the flexible tension element conveniently being attached together releasably (4) to form an endless loop.

Description

INSTRUCTIONAL TOY FOR YOUNG CHILDREN

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

This invention relates to an instructional toy for young children and, more particularly, young children of preschool or early school going age.

BACKGROUND TO THE INVENTION

There is a constant need for new varieties of toys that can hold the interest of a child on repeated occasions for at least some period of time and, at the same time, have an instructional or educational value. In particular, it is of importance that young children learn the alphabet applicable to a language in which they are to be educated.

Numerous different configurations of toys have been proposed, manufactured and are in common use that serve the purpose of amusing a child at an early age and yet instructing such a child in one or other matters such as that of the alphabet, numerals, and, in some cases, other signs such as basic arithmetic, mathematical and operator signs.

OBJECT OF THE INVENTION

It is an object of this invention to provide a variation of instructional toy that may be utilized for the aforesaid purpose.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

In accordance with this invention there is provided an instructional toy comprising a set of graphic cards wherein there is provided at least one card face for every letter of a required alphabet with the relevant card face carrying the associated letter clearly displayed thereon, the instructional toy being characterised in that the cards are attached to each other by means of flexible attachment means to hold the cards captive relative to each other with the attachment means being optionally releasable.

Further features of the invention provide for a separate card to be provided for each letter of the alphabet in which case the relevant letter is, in each case, displayed on the obverse face thereof; for the alphabet to be the English-language alphabet with a separate card being devoted to each of the letters A through Z with each letter preferably being illustrated in both an uppercase and a lower case format and wherein optionally a reverse face of each card carries an alternative or different word slogan or saying starting with that particular letter or in which the particular letter is dominant and preferably with an appropriate illustration thereof; for an occurrence of a letter or example of a word starting with that letter to have that letter or word highlighted in a suitable manner; for each card to have associated with it a picture and optionally a word describing the picture and wherein the name of the item illustrated and the word begins with the associated letter of the alphabet; and for the attachment means to be releasable in order to enable the cards to be separated from each other and used individually in an unattached format.

Still further features of the invention provide for the set of cards to include additional cards each of which carries a single numeral, typically the numerals 0 to 9 or 1 to 10 and, optionally, relevant associated graphic material; for the set of cards to include additional cards depicting individually, on a face thereof, the symbol indicating a basic arithmetic or mathematical function optionally with a graphic illustration of a basic sum; for the reverse face of each card to have graphic or literary material not directly related to the letter or number depicted on the obverse face; and for additional cards to carry graphic material illustrating any one or more of basic shapes and colours together with their names, the time using a clock face, and basic internationally accepted protocols such as traffic light colours, basic rules for good living such as keeping the environment clean, and informational cards, typically illustrating the use of emergency telephone numbers or the like.

Additional features of the invention provide for the flexible attachment means to be a flexible tension element passing through a hole or eyelet provided towards the periphery of each of the cards; for the flexible tension element to be formed into an endless loop; for the endless loop to be formed by connecting together two free ends of a length of flexible tension element, with the connection being optionally releasable to enable removal or replacement of one or more cards to be effected either for maintenance purposes or to enable the cards to be used in a separated form, typically for building words, sums, or for playing any game that may be created using the cards; and for different groups of cards carried on the same endless loop to be separated by spacer members carried on the loop, typically coloured plastic beads or other elements.

In order that the invention may be more fully understood one embodiment thereof will now be described with reference to the accompanying drawing.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING

In the drawings:-

Figure 1 is a schematic plan view of one embodiment of instructional toy according to the invention;

Figure 2 illustrates the obverse and reverse sides of a card dedicated to the letter "a"; Figure 3 illustrates the obverse and reverse sides of a card dedicated to the numeral "6"; and,

Figure 4 illustrates the obverse and reverse sides of a card dedicated to illustrating shapes and colours.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION WITH REFERENCE TO THE DRAWING

In the embodiment of the invention illustrated in Figure 1 of the drawings, an instructional toy comprises a series of printed and die-cut plastic cards (1) each of which carries on its obverse face (2), one letter of the English language alphabet. There are thus twenty-six alphabet cards that are preferably arranged in alphabetical order from a card carrying the letter "A" and indicated by numeral (1a) through a card carrying the letter "Z" and indicated by numeral (1b).

Each of the cards also carries, on its obverse face, a graphic illustration of an item, the name of which begins with the relevant letter, and, in addition, there is preferably also displayed the written form of the word describing the item. Also preferably the letter of the alphabet is illustrated in both uppercase and lower case formats.

In this variation of the invention, the reverse side of the card could carry one or more illustrations of a common item the name of which is a commonly used word and that is shown in suitable association with the illustration. Such commonly used words all begin with the same letter as is carried on the obverse face of a card so that an entire card is dedicated to a single letter of the alphabet. Thus, simply by way of example, and as illustrated in Figure 2, a card dedicated to the letter "a" could have on the obverse side (10), the upper and lower case letters "A" and "a"; the word "apple"; and a picture of one or more apples, in this case an apple of a slice cut out. The reverse side (11) of the same card could have a picture of an archery target with an arrow stuck into it and both the words "arrow" and "archery" are printed thereon.

There are numerous different selections of items that could be depicted and printed on the two faces of any card and the material is shown will be one of choice. However, it must be mentioned, that the material is not limited to the illustration of individual items and could contain additional or alternative information. Thus, for example, on the reverse side of the card dedicated to the letter "b" they could be printed the picture of a bicycle with the word "bicycle" highlighted within the sentence "a bicycle has two wheels". Others such material could convey a generally accepted message, such as, in the case of the letter "f" the message "remember firecrackers are dangerous" with the word "firecrackers" highlighted one optionally by printing it in a more eyecatching colour.

In another variation of this embodiment of the invention the reverse face of each card could carry the same letter in lower case as is represented as a capital letter on the obverse face.

In a still further and less sophisticated variation of this embodiment of the invention only an uppercase letter could be shown on the obverse face and illustrations and optional simple words on the reverse face.

In each instance that the reverse face of a card is not employed for instructional material it could simply be provided with decorative or graphic material of a nature having a particularly appealing significance to children.

As provided by this invention all of the cards are interconnected by a flexible attachment means that, in this particular embodiment of the invention, assumes the form of a flexible chain (3) of a commonly available type that consists of links in the form of the hollow cylinders or spheres interconnected by alternate links in the form of a straight lengths of wire having a head at each end that is held captive within the two adjacent cylinders. The free ends of the chain can be connected together utilizing a connector link (4) of conventional type that serves to form a releasable endless loop.

The chain passes through a hole or eyelet (5) in a top corner of each card in order to interconnect them.

In addition to the alphabet cards described above, additional cards (6) can be provided with each card carrying on its obverse face a numeral, typically ten additional cards being provided in order to cover the numerals "0" through "9" or any other selected range of numerals. In this instance there could be printed on the obverse face the numeral itself; the word that described by numeral; as well as a number of items corresponding to that number, for example, the numeral "5"; the word "five"; and a picture showing five apples. The reverse side of each of these cards could have a simple arithmetic sum shown to which the answer is required of the user and is represented simply by a question mark. Thus, as illustrated in Figure 3, a card dedicated to the number six could have the numeral and would printed on the obverse side (12) and a simple sum on the reverse side (13) with a number of objects, giving a clue to the answer which is six.

In order to extend the instructional material still further more additional cards (7) could be provided in the set to carry, on each card, a single operator of arithmetic or mathematical sums, in this case, the operators of addition "+"; subtraction "-"; multiplication "x"; and division "÷" are each displayed on a separate card. An extremely simple sum carried out using the operator can also be illustrated graphically.

Still further cards can be added to "teach" other simple concepts such as the signs "&"; "@"; one or more basic shapes such as a square, a circle, a diamond, a star and any other shape that is required and colours together with their names. Thus there is illustrated in Figure 4 in the obverse side (14) of a card (15) showing a star that is coloured green internally and with the word is "star" and "green" printed thereon. The reverse side (16) of the same card could have a square coloured red internally and with the word "square" and "red" printed thereon.

Other cards can be dedicated to the illustration of particular times of day using a clock face, and can be devoted to conveying basic internationally accepted protocols such as traffic light colours, basic rules for good living such as keeping the environment clean, and informational cards, typically illustrating the use of emergency telephone numbers or the like.

In each instance in which different groups of cards are carried on the same flexible attachment means, the groups are preferably separated by means of a plastics bead (8) or other suitable perforated element through which the flexible attachment means passes.

It will be understood that numerous variations may be made to the embodiment of the invention described above without departing from the scope hereof with individual selections of additional cards being made according to requirements and the level of education of a target group of children being addressed.

Most particularly, it is also within the scope of this invention to utilise both the obverse and the reverse faces of cards for the purpose of displaying different letters of the alphabet in order to the decrease in number of cards of the set. Thus, by displaying a different letter on each of two sides of a card, the number of cards required to cover the English language alphabet from "A" to "Z" is reduced to 13. It is envisaged that this variation may be appropriate for a truly beginner level of child

Numerous other variations may be made without departing from the scope hereof.

Claims

CLAIMS:

1. An instructional toy comprising a set of graphic cards (1) wherein there is provided at least one card face (2) for every letter of a required alphabet with the relevant card face carrying the associated letter clearly displayed thereon, the instructional toy being characterised in that the cards are attached to each other by means of flexible attachment means (3) to hold the cards captive relative to each other with the attachment means being optionally releasable.

2. An instructional toy as claimed in claim 1 in which a separate card is provided for each letter of the alphabet in which case the relevant letter is, in each case, displayed at least on the obverse face (10) thereof.

3. An instructional toy as claimed in claim 2 in which the alphabet is the English-language alphabet with a separate card being devoted to each of the letters A through Z.

4. An instructional toy as claimed in claim 3 in which each letter is illustrated in both uppercase and lower case format.

5. An instructional toy as claimed in either one of claims 3 or 4 in which each card has associated with it a picture and optionally a word describing the picture and wherein the name of the item illustrated and the word begins with the associated letter of the alphabet.

6. An instructional toy as claimed in any one of claims 3 to 5 in which a reverse face (11) of each card carries an alternative or different word, slogan or saying either starting with that particular letter, or in which the particular letter is dominant and optionally with an appropriate illustration thereof.

7. An instructional toy as claimed in any one of the preceding claims in which the attachment means is releasable (4) in order to enable the cards to be separated from each other or one or more replacement cards to be installed on the attachment means.

8. An instructional toy as claimed in any one of the preceding claims in which the set of cards includes additional cards (6) each of which carries a single numeral, typically the numerals 0 to 9 or 1 to 10 and, optionally, relevant associated graphic material.

9. An instructional toy as claimed in any one of the preceding claims in which the set of cards includes additional cards depicting individually, on a face thereof, material selected from a symbol indicating a basic arithmetic or mathematical function optionally with a graphic illustration of a basic sum, graphic or literary material not directly related to the letter or number depicted on the obverse face, graphic material illustrating any one or more of basic shapes and colours together with their names, the time using a clock face, and basic internationally accepted protocols, basic rules for good living, and informational cards.

10. An instructional toy as claimed in any one of the preceding claims in which the flexible attachment means is a flexible tension element passing through a hole or eyelet (5) provided towards the periphery of each of the cards.