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Group Games Toddlers will Love - Part 1

By Mary Perrin, edHelperBaby

  Ready, Set, GO!
           The following set of activities can be incorporated into a birthday party, a play date, or even organized into a set of competitive events to celebrate a larger theme, like the Olympics.
  1. Dressing Relay:  Two or more teams compete as they race a short distance, select three pieces of dress up clothes to garnish themselves with, run back to the next teammate to exchange dress clothes, and begin the entire process again.  Game continues until the first team to dress and return each member crosses the finish line.
  2. Page Turning Relay:  Obtain a rip-resistant book, like a board book.  Divide into two or more teams.  Each team sits in a circle.  Before the start of the race, make sure all participants are aware that the pages of a book turn from right to left and demonstrate this for them.  On "go" the first team member will turn the pages from front to back and pass it to the next team member.  The first team to finish wins.
  3. Puzzle Mania:  Prior to the game consider how many players you will have, divide them into teams of 3-4, and prepare a message that spans three sheets (one sheet for each team).  If you have three teams, you will want a three-sheet message.  If you are celebrating a birthday and you have three teams, your message might be "Happy Birthday, Jacob."  Keeping the sheets of paper separate, cut each sheet into puzzle pieces.  Fewer and larger pieces are easier for younger children with little puzzle experience.  Also, creating a lined border around your message will assist each team in constructing the puzzle.  The winner is the team who can put their message together first.  When everyone finishes, put the puzzles together to spell the secret message (or clue if you chose this to be part of a larger scavenger hunt).
  4. Musical Building Blocks:  This game can be played in teams or individually.  Obtain enough building blocks to be equally distributed between all players/teams.  Look for blocks of different shapes and sizes.  Place all blocks in the center of the group.  Players can take turns dealing out the blocks between each round so players will get a different set of blocks each round.  On the start of the music, each player will attempt to build the tallest tower.  When the music stops (15-30 seconds), the player with the tallest tower wins the round, towers are knocked over, and blocks are placed back in the center and dealt again for the next round. Play the game for a desired number of rounds and keep track of who obtained the most points for creating the tallest tower; he/she will be deemed the winner.
  5. Ring Around the Tennis Balls:  Obtain a set of ten tennis balls for each team, ten paper squares or circles, and a hula hoop.  Use a permanent marker to draw a different letter on each tennis ball.  Then on squares of paper, mimic the same letters drawn on the balls, creating a set of balls and paper squares for each team.  In a spacious area, place the tennis balls at one end of the playing field and a hula hoop filled with the upside down lettered paper squares at the other.  Teams will line up and on the word "go" will, one at a time, pick a letter, run down to find the matching ball, and bring it back to the hoop.  The paper will be placed on the ground with the matching ball on top.  The first team to match and collect all their balls wins.  This game can be easily adapted to enrich the skills of older children as well.

   

From a Parent's Perspective
           My daughter and I scheduled a play date with a friend of hers.  Since it was only the two of them, we did not play the Ring Around the Tennis Balls in teams, but rather they worked together to accomplish the task.  I varied the game slightly by preparing twenty-six tennis balls, one for each letter of the alphabet.  The corresponding paper letters were lined up horizontally, like a train, from A-Z and the tennis balls at the other end were placed in the hula hoop instead of the other way around.  The girls grabbed a letter, ran down to find the ball, and ran back to place the letter and ball into the correct place in the alphabet train.  Once they were finished, they recited the alphabet together and we parents quizzed them on letter recognition.  This activity had a strong educational connection and it provided the girls with loads of fun; they wanted to play it over and over.

   


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