We believe that it is important to keep children engaged and learning, whether they are at school, having fun at the weekend or on a break! Educational toys are a really great way to maintain this as it means the little ones can have fun with one another while learning skills such as problem-solving and sharing, nurturing their creativity and much more… One of our favourite educational toy brands is Orchard Toys. So, we have decided to share our favourite five Orchard Toy products with you!

The History of Orchard Toys…

Did you know that Orchard Toys started around a little kitchen table? Making blocks and stencils for a local nursery 40 years ago is where all the magic began. Now, they ship worldwide to over 50 different countries. It is amazing to see how a company can go from making local toys to being recognised as a leading manufacturer of educational games and puzzles, in the space of a few decades.

In addition, Orchard Toys are proud of their British roots. So much so, they still design, produce and pack all of their wonderful products in Wymondham, Norfolk. Can you guess who else is based in Norfolk? Us, Toy Street! Our shop in Bowthorpe is just a twenty-minute drive from Wymondham. So, you could visit us both in one day!

Top 5 Orchard Toys

Match & Spell

Our first pick is our bestselling language and literacy game, Match and Spell. Some of the great educational qualities of this board game include encouraging letter recognition, teaching phonetic word building and promoting the matching of pictures and words. Even better, Match and Spell feature two ways of play! With games designed for both guided and independent word building.

Match and Spell Next Steps is a great follow-on from this game for children aged 5 and over. You could get the pair for £11.98!

1-20 Colouring Book

As a child, I was a huge fan of both colouring books and collecting stickers. So it was an obvious choice to add this one to our top 5! This fun sticker and colouring activity book includes traceable numbers, pictures and simple sums. This is a great way to reinforce a child’s understanding of numbers whilst having fun along the way. These colouring books have been designed to help improve hand-eye coordination, encourage creativity and improve pencil skills.

Animal World

A challenging, beautifully illustrated 150-piece jigsaw puzzle where you will discover and learn about amazing animals and their habitats around the world!

Discover 117 animals from Bottlenose Dolphin to Orangutans and Lions – all at the end of your fingertips!

Animal World comes with an amazing 20-page fact book inside to check out key facts and find out more about the animals and their habitats! PLUS, it includes a poster to help aid completion and display at home.

Rainbow Unicorns

Race your unicorns over the rainbow in this super fun and magical colour matching game! Like Match and Spell, there are also two ways to play Rainbow Unicorns. To get closer to the pot of gold, players take turns to pick up tail cards and match them to their unicorn heads. To begin with, younger children can use Rainbow Unicorns as a first matching activity. And as they become familiar with different colours, they can be encouraged to say the colour aloud as they turn over the unicorn cards.

Dinosaur Dominoes Mini Game

Last but not least, we present to you… Dinosaur Dominoes Mini Game! Based on traditional dominoes, the aim of the game is to get rid of your cards the fastest by building a dinosaur domino line. The aim of this Orchard Toy pick is to work on matching and observation skills as players match the right dinosaur to the end of the domino line. In addition, older children can enjoy talking about the different types of dinosaurs they can see on the cards! As a part of the mini-games collection, Dinosaur Dominoes Mini Game is one of Orchard Toys’ smallest games – compact and portable.

Shop Our Orchard Toy Range Now!

Editors note: This post was originally published on 13th February 2020. Updated on 21st March 2024 to improve the information available.