Abstract: A method that facilitates the learning process of musical note reading which is exhibited in a series of written exercises. Musical notes and letters of the alphabet are arranged in a specific order on musical staffs that consist of five horizontal lines. Each staff begins with a musical clef and is often, but not always, separated into segments by vertical lines. When each note is correctly identified and translated into the appropriate letter of the musical alphabet, either a, b, c, d, e, f, or g, the answers, in combination with the letters printed, will form recognizable words.

Abstract: An educational toy for teaching a child a sequence of letters, numbers, colors or other sequences. The toy would be provided with a plurality of segmented body portions, each of the body portions associated with a single indicia. A switch is provided on each of the segmented body portions. When this switch is depressed, an audio output associated with the indicia would be produced. After the child has memorized a series of indicia to produce a learned sequence, a switch associated with a segmented body portion having demarcation indicia would be depressed, allowing the entire sequence to be vocalized in order.

Abstract: An educational toy (10) having a dodecahedron shape is formed with a different visual display on each planar face (17-28). A position sensing mechanism (50) is oriented inside the toy (10) to inform a microprocessor (62) which one of the planar faces (17-28) is in the “up” position. As the toy (10) is turned or moved a signal is generated to “power on” and a musical tune is played. When one of the planar faces (17-28) is stopped in the “up” position, the position sensing mechanism (50) informs the microprocessor (62) and an aural response corresponding to the visual display is transmitted through a speaker (44). If the toy (10) is left alone for a specified period of time, a warning tune is transmitted. If the toy (10) is still not moved thereafter, the toy (10) will automatically “power off”.

Abstract: A teaching aid is designed to develop intelligence of the preschoolers and is composed of a base and a plurality of sliding members. The base has a pathway portion which is provided with a plurality of intersecting paths. The sliding members are provided thereon with an alphabet, pattern, or symbol and are selectively slid in the paths of the base to locate at a predetermined position of the pathway portion of the base such that the alphabet, pattern, or symbol of the selectively-slid sliding members form a predetermined word or figure.

Abstract: An interactive learning device for children has a housing with a front and back face. Multiple switches are located on the front face of the housing and an image of a letter of an alphabet is associated with each of the switches. The housing also supports a speaker designed to produce sounds or music and one or more display devices for displaying images. An electronic processor in the housing communicates electrically with the multiple switches, the speaker, and the one or more display screens. The processor responds to the switches to selectively cause the speaker to produce sounds and the screen to display images.

Abstract: A method for assessing the readiness skills of a child between the ages of two and six years is disclosed. To assess the child's skills, a set of specially designed cards is provided. Each card displays one or more predetermined symbols. The cards are displayed to the child according to a predefined protocol. As the cards are displayed, a testing specialist asks the child questions about each card and records the child's responses. The child's responses are then scored to assess his or her skill level. The cards are organized into color-coded subsets. Each subset can be used to test a child's mastery of a certain task. In addition, the cards can be asymmetrically-shaped to facilitate sorting and presentation. The unique design of the cards permits the testing specialist to quickly screen young children with possible learning disabilities.

Abstract: An education method for aiding to teach and learn proper English reading, sounding and spelling. The method is designed in being able to teach and to learn reading with the proper sounding of the English alphabet rapidly with minimal instruction and supervision. It employs colors and symbols to represent 18 vowel sounds, 30 consonant, phonogram sounds and silent sounds. Each colored alphabet letter with or without symbol maps a designated sound which helps to depict a correct sounding from various spelled combinations of the English language. This color and symbol mapping method facilitates teaching reading of the English words as well as to spell correctly. It reduces long intensive phonic drills as well as guessing mistakes from a various possible sounding.

Abstract: An educational toy for teaching a child a sequence of letters, numbers, colors or other sequences. The toy would be provided with a plurality of segmented body portions, each of the body portions associated with a single indicia. A switch is provided on each of the segmented body portions. When this switch is depressed, an audio output associated with the indicia would be produced. After the child has memorized a series of indicia to produce a learned sequence, a switch associated with a segmented body portion having demarcation indicia would be depressed, allowing the entire sequence to be vocalized in order.

Abstract: A toy ball as teachware includes a rubber ball body, a ball-shaped Velcro layer covering on the ball body, and a plurality of Velcro pieces written with letters, characters, symbols, figures, etc. on the outer surfaces to be stuck releasably on the ball-shaped Velcro layer. Then the toy ball may serve as a toy for children to play and as a teachware to learn from.

Abstract: Representations of letters of the alphabet have surfaces which have a feel on being touched which are different from the feel of surfaces of other letters. The letters may be presented in a book having a plurality of pages, each page displaying a letter of the alphabet, the surface of the letter having a feel on being touched which is different from the feel of its page and from the feel of other letters. The letters may also have a different appearance from the appearance of other letters. Each letter may have a combination of feel and appearance which is different from the combination of feel and appearance of each of the other letters. The letters may be disposed in a plane which is offset from a plane defined by its page. Each page is preferably split into a first portion which displays the uppercase form of the letter and a second portion which displays the lowercase form of the letter, the first and second portions being capable of being turned independently of one another.

Abstract: An educational system is provided including a recipient surface such as a cloth or base having a plurality of entities positioned thereon which are selected from the group of entities including colors, shapes, alphabetic characters, and numbers. Also included are marbles and figurines for being removably positioned adjacent to the entities.

Abstract: A raised character display structure for an educational toy includes a label having a first character printed on one side thereof and a layer having a first and a second opposite side. The layer's second side has a projection defining a second character shaped substantially identical to the first character and made of a non-opaque material. The layer is disposed on the label with the first side of the layer adjacent to the one side of the label and with the second character substantially coincident with the first character on the label so that the first character may be viewed through the second character and that a user is provided with an illusion that the second character has the color and/or pattern of the printed first character.

Abstract: An educational electronic baby mat having means for auditory and visual responses to user motion or pressure stimuli including a top layer having a plurality of symbols inscribed on a plurality of light transmitting zones adapted to be compressed by a baby or child thereby impacting middle layer light diffusers. The light diffusers impact electrical conducting contacts that impinge upon contact points located within electrical circuits on a flexible printed circuit board to activate indicator lights and auditory recitations associated with each compressed symbol. Alternatively, a motion sensor detects a baby or child's movements and preprogrammed sound and visual responses indicating the identity of top layer symbols are activated.

Abstract: An article of clothing such as a bib, T-shirt, pants, dress, pajamas, etc. for a baby, toddler, or child having one or more inverted items, for example characters, numbers, diagrams, pictures, letters, designs, figures, or combinations thereof, on the front of the article so that, they appear right-side-up to the infant or toddler wearing the article and up-side-down to the adult or care giver. Such an article can be used to teach a child numbers, letters, pictures, the alphabet, numerical system, and the like while a child is wearing the article. It is believed that by putting the items in the proper orientation for right-side-up viewing by the child, the child may learn more quickly and not be confused when these items are shown right-side-up on the television and in reading materials.

Abstract: A play material container includes a base having an interior cavity, a sidewall and a cookie-cutter edge defining a predetermined shape. A lid is configured to be snap-fitted upon the base to provide container closure. An extrusion die is formed in the container base sidewall which is capped by a resiliently supported cap secured to the container lid. The container lid defines an upper surface supporting a plurality of open face press molds. The cookie-cutter shape, the press mold elements, and the extrusion die aperture are preferably coordinated in accordance with a common theme such as a food article or the like.

Abstract: A game piece for language related play having a plurality of flat exterior surfaces that are equal in number to the number of letters in the alphabet of a particular language. All of the letters of the particular language are displayed on the body so that one letter is on each flat exterior surface. Optionally, a corresponding braille character and/or a corresponding sign-language character may be displayed adjacent to each letter on the same flat exterior surface. In one embodiment, the language is English and the plurality of flat exterior surfaces number twenty-six.

Abstract: A dictionary of an alphabetic foreign language is an information carrier on which marked-off groups (4-10) of words (3) of the foreign language are positioned. A translation (13) and transcription (12) are provided adjacent to each word of the foreign language. Words, which have an identical sequence (11) of letters, comprising at least one third of the letters in the words, in the direction from the end to the beginning of a word, are combined into a group (4-10). Wherein, each group is positioned sequentially with respect to another group of words, the aforesaid sequence (11) of letters of which comprises the greatest number of coinciding letters in the direction from the end to the beginning of a word. The groups (4-10) of words are separated one from another by a separating element (14), for example, by marking the group or by an empty space (15) on the carrier. The number of groups is not limited.

Abstract: A system where a child or other individual arranges one or more computer-recognizable characters on a working platform to spell words or provide a mathematical result in response to computer generated questions or prompts, the system then indicating whether the words or mathematical result is correct.

Abstract: A cloth chart for learning characters having the characters indicated on a bed sheet or a lap robe for infants or children, for example, which may be used in sleep or for cold weather. The cloth chart is a sheet of cloth which is formed of at least one or a plurality of sheets of cloth in piles, with the characters indicated on at least one face of the cloth, and pictures with each of pictures respectively located adjacent each of the characters so that a pronunciation of the first letter in the title of a picture corresponds to the reading of the character. At least one of the characters and the pictures is embroidered. A list formed of different colored pieces of cloth is sewed along the circumference of the face on which the characters are arranged.

Abstract: A series of books having indicia printed on the outside thereof which cooperate when employed as building blocks is disclosed to function as an educational tool.

Abstract: A self-corrective, reversible device comprising a handled, slotted framework, on each side of which the top frame is imprinted with inverse mathematical symbols, below which is a number line from one through ten in ascending and descending order. Below the number line, nine channeled horizontal rows each contain ten grooved, colored, movable, workpieces. The first four rows on side "A" teach counting, addition, subtraction and place value. These workpieces have the following values: Row one, "1" each; Row two, "1" each; Row three, "10" each and Row four, "100" each. Workpieces in each row are the same color, but each row is a different color. Corresponding with these four rows in both value and color are four boxes imprinted on an erasable surface contained within the framework. The remaining five rows on side "A" teach large and small letters of the alphabet, phonics and consonant blends.

Abstract: A multi-level educational game apparatus and method for teaching children and adults language, mathematical, and other skills. The educational game includes a board and a plurality of cards. The board comprises a plurality of rows and columns, each having a letter, word, or picture imprinted thereon. The cards have letters, words, numbers, symbols, or pictures imprinted thereon that correspond to the participant's boards. The board game includes multi-levels of difficulty corresponding to varying individual language and other ability levels. An instructor will read aloud the card and give a brief explanation of the card's contents. When a participant recognizes the cards contents on his board, he will cover the respective box with a marker. The object of the game is to complete a row or other predetermined sequence of boxes prior to another participant.

Abstract: Tutorial stampers in logically related sets, such as 26 alphabet stampers, are fabricated with a different color associated with each member of the set. Both the marking fluid and at least a portion of the outer shell each marker match the color associated with the character imprinted by that marker. Preferably the marker cap matches the selected color and the character is imprinted on the marker barrel in the same color. For adults color is a re-enforcing visual cue to help quickly locate the desired character. For children the color difference helps fix in the child's mind the distinction of, for example, each letter of an alphabet or numeral of a number set. In the business world, different colors can be used, in association with a set of distinctive symbols to identify different functional portions of large organization and set of stampers organized in that way can be used, for example, in the organization's mail room to identify package destinations.

Abstract: A learning tree board game is provided which includes a game board having a picture of a tree, a sand box area on a lower left hand corner, a green area on a lower right hand corner and a plurality of identifiable indicia upon the picture of a tree. A plurality of playing tokens are provided, in which one for each of the game players is placed on the sand box area at the beginning of the game and then on one of the identifiable indicia during the play of the game. A deck of cards are used, in which each card has indicia thereon which matches up with one of the identifiable indicia upon the picture of a tree of the game board. The deck of cards is placed on the green area face down at the beginning of the game and then one card is picked by each player taking a turn during the play of the game.

Abstract: An article of clothing such as a bib, T-shirt, pants, dress, pajamas, etc. for a baby, toddler, or child having one or more inverted items, for example characters, numbers, diagrams, pictures, letters, designs, figures, or combinations thereof, on the front of the article so that, they appear right-side-up to the infant or toddler wearing the article and up-side-down to the adult or care giver. Such an article can be used to teach a child numbers, letters, pictures, the alphabet, numerical system, and the like while a child is wearing the article. It is believed that by putting the items in the proper orientation for right-side-up viewing by the child, the child may learn more quickly and not be confused when these items are shown right-side-up on the television and in reading materials.

Abstract: A teaching aid including a face panel having a flat front chamber and a plurality of squares defined within the flat front chamber and marked with a respective mark, a partition panel fitted into the flat chamber of the face panel and having a plurality of slots corresponding to the squares of the face panel, a set of mother blocks adapted for fitting into the slots of the partition panel, each mother block having an insertion hole of a particular design, and a set of differently shaped daughter blocks adapted for fitting into the insertion holes of the mother blocks respectively.

Abstract: A system and method which enables individuals to rapidly and accurately obtain information about the contents of a written text without having to read the words of the text. Written text, which is comprised of graphic markings that represent linguistic sound, forms a graphic image. This graphic image can be mapped in various ways to illustrate and provide insight about the structure and content of the text with regard to one or more selected features. Individuals can perceive the graphic information contained in the text using parafoveal and peripheral vision, thereby enabling those individuals to process the graphic information using visual/spacial cognitive abilities. The present invention system and method therefore enables a person to understand a large amount of information about the body of written text without reading the words comprising the body of written text.

Abstract: This invention comprises an instructional and game device wherein two elements of the device may be fitted together to form a non-continuous ball which may be bounced, rolled, spun or thrown. The elements comprise, for example, the letters of the alphabet wherein a large "A" and a small "a" may be fitted together to form a discontinuous spherical ball. The letters are formed in a particular rounded format around the exterior edge and include a centrally located notched internal member where the elements are locked together. The individual elements are generally flat and may be readily stacked for packaging. Various constructions or combinations may be built with the letters. Also, the elements may be made in the shape of numerals so that various combinations of numerals or numerals and letters may be fit together into a discontinuous spherical design.

Abstract: An assembly is provided having at least two sets of pieces representing characters of a known set. The pieces may be connected to form an assembled puzzle of the pieces wherein the completed assembled puzzle arranges the puzzle pieces in a known order for a known set. Preferably, the pieces are letters of an alphabet wherein one portion of the puzzle pieces are lower case letters of the alphabet and another set of the puzzle pieces are upper case letters, of the alphabet. The lower case letters fit into the upper case letters to complete the upper case letters, and the upper case letters fit into another conventional puzzle piece which, following assembly of the conventional pieces, place the known set of characters in the known order.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for teaching reading and spelling skills to children which is particularly adapted to be used in teaching children with a short-term memory disability. Visual indicator members are provided wherein a first set of visual indicator members represent vowel letters, a second set of visual indicator members represent consonant letters extending above a middle line on a ruled penmanship paper, a third set of visual indicator members represent consonant letters extending below a lower line on a ruled penmanship paper and a fourth set of visual indicator members represent consonant letters not represented by the second and third sets of visual indicator members. Each of the visual indicator members of each set have a unique color characteristic whereby the members of each set are distinguishable from each other. In addition, the members of each set have a common physical characteristic, such as height, whereby the different sets may be distinguished from each other.

Abstract: A method employing the art, science, and technology of cartography to decode and comprehend graphic language texts. Improved reading and writing proficiency and efficiency may be realized by mapping a graphic language textscape (c.f. landscape). A textscape may be mapped with regard to typography, graphic or phonetic attributes of selected graphic features, meaning or usage of selected graphic features, statistical analyses of the attributes, meaning, or usage of selected graphic features, or semantic, rhetorical, compositional, thematic, or conceptual configuration. Two or more textmaps may be compared by sequential display, juxtaposition, superimposition, or animation (rapid sequential display). Elements of two or more textmaps may be combined either selectively or wholesale to produce a new textmap. Textmapping may be practiced in any scale, in up to four dimensions. Textmapping may be practiced directly upon a text, as well as indirectly, off to the side or on a separate surface, for example.

Abstract: A stackable puzzle and assembly having a set of known characters arrangeable in a know order are provided. The puzzle includes pieces that may be interconnected to form a stack of the pieces. The stack can only be arranged in the known order as a result of a unique arrangement of pegs and apertures on each of the interior pieces of the stack. The first piece preferably includes only pegs and the last piece only includes apertures. A method is further provided for stacking a plurality of characters representing a set of characters such that the set is arrangeable in a known order.

Abstract: Games for teaching alphabet, numbers, colors, shapes and math along with coordination and motor skills comprising a planar member having a circle at its central interior and having curves therearound to define a plurality of zones around the center. The zones have radially extending lines therethrough, at least some of which are offset from each other to define segments with indicia in the form of an alphabet, number, color, and/or shape marked in each of the segments. A plurality of indicia is correlated to the indicia of the planar member, such plurality of indicia being randomly selectable by the players.

Abstract: Teaching apparatus is disclosed having a keyboard for selecting a character to be inscribed, an inscription panel for supporting writing material, and control apparatus for displaying the selected character under the inscription panel; each character is developed bit by bit along a writing stroke or strokes, and the rate of sequencing of the bits is regulated so as to be conveniently followed by the user in executing the inscription strokes. A supply roll of inscription material is provided at the right of the inscription panel so that a sequence of upright characters may be inscribed by drawing a previously inscribed character to the left and drawing a fresh area of writing material over the inscription panel.

Abstract: A multidimensional puzzle. The puzzle includes a plurality of three-dimensional first object pieces having a contoured front surface. The object pieces are each representative of a thing with the contoured front surface having a shape identified with the thing represented by the object piece. A background defines a plurality of recesses each shaped to receive one of the object pieces with the contoured surface projecting from the recess. The background includes a plurality of second pieces. The puzzle also includes identification indicia associated with each of the recesses identifying one of the things represented by the object pieces to thereby indicate which of the object pieces the recess is shaped to receive.

Abstract: A display device for teaching reading and writing includes a base member made from a blank cut from a sheet having a printed face. The blank is folded and slitted to define a guide collar having an unobstructed display area and an adjacent variable display area. Opaque and transparent display members are mounted in the collar for movement relative to one another and relative to the base member. A representation of a letter of the alphabet appears on the unobstructed display area and on part of the transparent display area. The variable display area has a representation of an object associated with the shape and sound of the letter. The opaque display member has a masking portion with a representation of a clue suggesting the object, and an additional display area having a representation of a motor plan for forming the letter. The display members are moved to employ different display modes including the object or the clue with and without an overlaid representation of the letter.

Abstract: A cubic block puzzle assembled from a plurality of readily separable interfitting puzzle pieces shaped like various letters of the alphabet. The puzzle pieces may also be assembled in a multiplicity of other ways to produce fanciful representations of familiar objects, birds, animals, building structures, vehicles and imaginative.

Abstract: The present invention is a word game to be played by two or more persons, in which the object of the game is to assemble solutions to word transformation puzzles. The game of the present invention requires the use of a computer (or processor), a display, and a keyboard (or other input device). At the beginning of the game and at various times during the game, the processor must find a solution to a word transformation puzzle or determine that one does not exist. Efficient solution of puzzles by the processor is accomplished by creating two minimum-length search trees, each tree having a number of nodes that contain words generated via a predetermined relationship with respect to one another. The first tree is based on the first Doublet word (the source), while the second tree is based on the second Doublet word (the destination). An intersection of the two search trees is discovered by repeatedly comparing at least one word of the first search tree with at least one word of the second search tree.

Abstract: A teaching toy (8) includes at least one receptacle (12). Receptacle (12) has a conductive signal-out pad and a plurality of conductive code-in pads (46) at an inner surface. At least one remote unit (14) is included which is removable from receptacle (12). Remote unit (14) has multiple sides and a conductive signal-in pad for capacitive coupling to the signal-out pad. Remote unit (14) also has at least one conductive code-out pad (50) electrically connected to the signal-in pad for capacitive coupling to one of the code-in pads (46). The signal-in pad and the code-out pad (50) are disposed on a first side of unit (14). Remote unit (14) also has a datum disposed on a second side. A processor (20) is included for generating a control signal to the signal-out pad and detecting data signals from the code-in pads (46). Processor (20) associates the data signals with and generates data representing the datum. A memory (22) is included which stores instructions for operating processor (20).

Abstract: An educational apparatus includes a housing having a front wall with laterally spaced arrays of sensing and positioning holes and sets of letter or number display members each including one or more positioning pins and one or a pair of differently spaced and located positioning pins projecting from the rear faces of the display members, the pins being slidably engageable with respective holes. A switch matrix is located behind each hole array and is connected to the input of a calculator or message enunciating network located in the housing and having an output connected to LCD's on the housing front wall and/or to a transducer speaker in the housing. Calculator function switch buttons are located on the front wall.

Abstract: An aid for teaching students to read, comprising sound letters formed from standard English alphabet letters, each sound letter corresponding to a single sound most commonly associated with a particular alphabetic letter or combination of alphabetic letters of said standard alphabet, each said sound letter characterized as having a front, a back, a top, a bottom, a left side and a right side, said sound letters adapted for arrangement in a visually associated, juxtaposed relationship to form combinations of said sound letters so that students are able to read said combinations of said sound letters phonetically.

Abstract: A reflective word game is provided in which letter tiles placed into a game plate by a player will simultaneously form both a real word and a reciprocal image word that is reflected in either one or two adjacent mirrors. A challenger player must make up a matching word by placing letter tiles into the game plate which will also be reflected in either one or two adjacent mirrors. The scoring values of the letters making up the words are added up and are cumulative, whereby the player with the highest score at the end of the game is the winner.

Abstract: An educational apparatus for teaching symbols, such as letters, words and numbers which includes a number of cards, each of which features a drawing and/or a word or other assembly of symbols, and a number of symbol blocks, such as letter blocks, each of which features a hollowed-out region representing a single letter, and a frame for holding one of the cards and several of letter blocks. The user can select a card, place the card on the frame, and proceed to select and place onto the frame the appropriate letter blocks to form the word represented on the card. If a sheet of paper is place below the frame, the user can proceed to stencil in the word. Furthermore, the user can fill in the letters with soft non-adhering pliable plastic putty, such as play dough or silly putty and the like, and/or to fill in the hollow letters with specially designed letter segments.

Abstract: An educational game has a playing board on which is imprinted a pathway. The pathway contains a plurality of segments, each segment being separated, one from the other by an object image portion. Each segment is sub-divided into spaces bearing alpha-numeric indicia with each segment being a different selected color. There is a die associated with each of the segments and which bears the color of an associated segment. Each such die bears the alpha-numeric indicia associated with that given colored segment. On one face of each die is an object image as depicted in the object image portions between the primary segments of the pathway on the playing board. A child learns the colors of the segments, the colors of each of the dice employed, and the names of the objects which appear in the object spaces and on the object face of each die. Play is easily learned by the preschool children.

Abstract: A teaching and learning game for players to learn the sequence of letters in the alphabet. In a preferred embodiment, a set of fifty cards comprising two groups of twenty-five cards each are provided. The first side of one group has marked thereon a respective letter of the alphabet and first indicia to indicate the succeeding letter of the alphabet such that the players are directed to identify the letter of the alphabet which succeeds the letter marked on the first side of the card. The first side of the second group has marked thereon a respective letter of the alphabet and second indicia to indicate the preceding letter of the alphabet such that players are directed to identify the letter of the alphabet which precedes the letter marked on the second side of the card. The second side of the card has third indicia marked thereon to direct the players and to further teach the players the relation between the third indicia and the letters of the alphabet. A set of instructions is also provided.

Abstract: The present invention, designed especially for preschoolers, is a phonics card game comprising in combination eight decks of letter cards, word cards and short- and long-vowel sound cards. This phonics card game is comprehensive and fun. As the players play with this card game, they see and name all the letters of the alphabet; they show the sequence of the alphabet; they separate vowel from consonant letters and have a special vowel and consonant category for W's and Y's; and they match lower-case letters with capital letters having the same name. As the players play with this card game they hear and say the short- and long-vowel sounds; they see and say one-syllable short- and long-vowel words; and they see, clap, and say words with one or more syllables. The players can win this card game without using up all the cards in a deck. They merely have to have the most stars, which are exchanged for points earned when players say a letter or word correctly on the first try.

Abstract: A teaching and learning game for players to learn the sequence of letters in the alphabet. In a preferred embodiment, a set of blocks has a different letter of the alphabet marked on each side of a respective block and further has marked on two sides of the block, first indicia means to indicate the preceding letter, and has marked on two other sides of the block second indicia means to indicate the succeeding letters. Another preferred embodiment includes a set of twenty-six cards having the letters of the alphabet marked in alphabetical sequence on the sides of the cards. Further, one side of each card is marked with first indicia means to indicate the preceding letter and the other side of each card is marked with second indicia means to indicate the succeeding letter. Point scores are awarded to players correctly identifying the preceding or succeeding letter of the alphabet. Selected cards are further marked with scoring indicators to award bonus points to the players.

Abstract: A puzzle for teaching the sequence of a series of elements as number or letters. The elements, in their characteristic outline shapes, are fitted overlapping in sequence into correspondingly shaped pockets in a board. A following element, seated before the next preceding element, blocks the preceding element from being seated.

Abstract: An educational toy for teaching construction and recognition of predetermined individual forms, comprising a plurality of elemental components having shapes and sizes to constitute component parts of predetermined forms, especially letters of the alphabet. A minimum number of distinctively shaped parts can be selectively arranged to make a large number of predetermined forms. Each distinctively shaped part is also distinctively colored to facilitate selection. Illustrations are provided of the several letters or other forms, using the color coding of the elemental components, preferably in the form of individual cards. A dot code is also printed in association with each illustration, to facilitate a determination of the number of parts of each color necessary to make the illustrated form.

Abstract: A toy molding device that has one or more mold cavities. Each cavity has a shape that defines a three-dimensional visually recognizable element such as a tree or a cat. Each cavity also has an entrance with a shape that defines a two-dimensional visually recognizable element such as a letter. The two and three-dimensional elements for each cavity are readily recognizable and appreciated by the child-user as being related to one another. For example, a cavity forming a tree may have an entrance in the shape of the letter "T". The child-user may first push moldable material through an entrance into the associated cavity which is at least partially blocked from view; the cavity is then opened to allow removal of the molded three-dimensional element.