8
Toys and Games
How Playing With Toys and
Games Promotes Development
The Toys and Games Area includes manipulatives, puzzles, collectibles,
matching games, and other games that children can play at a table, on the
floor, or on top of a divider shelf. These materials offer children a quiet
activity that they can do alone, with a friend, with a teacher or a parent
volunteer, or with a small group. Children strengthen all areas of their
development as they play with toys and games.
Social/emotional development. Children learn to cooperate with one
another by sharing and taking turns as they play a game or build an
intricate design. They develop confidence when they complete a task
successfully using self-correcting toys such as puzzles, sorting boards,
and stacking rings.
Physical development. Children practice eye-hand coordination while lacing
cards or placing pegs in a pegboard. When children string beads or
construct with interlocking cubes, they refine small muscle skills.
Cognitive development. As children build with table blocks or make
designs with pattern blocks and parquetry blocks, they experiment with
construction and invention and use creative problem-solving skills.
They also expand their emerging math skills such as counting, seriation,
matching, patterning, and classification. In fact, the Toys and Games Area
often serves as the math hub in your classroom.
Language development. Children use words to describe how they are putting
together a puzzle or sorting a collection of objects. They compare the size,
shape, and color of objects as they play. While using beads, pegboards,
puzzles, dominoes, and collectibles, they develop reading skills such as
left-to-right progression, visual discrimination, and matching similar
objects. As they use magnetic letters and alphabet blocks, children explore
letters, then arrange and rearrange them to form words.
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Setting up the
Toys and Games Area
Suggested Materials
Puzzles: with knobs and without, large-piece jigsaw,
racks for puzzles
Location:
Near other quiet areas such as the
Library and Art areas
Set up:
Low shelves to hold materials in
labeled containers
Stacking cubes, nesting cubes, attribute blocks, Unifix cubes,
hardwood table blocks, geoboards, stacking, interlocking
toys, stringing beads, Legos, dominoes
Self-help frames for buttoning and zipping
Magnetic boards and felt boards with shapes
One or two tables with chairs
Small props: animals, trucks, cars, boats, wagons, etc.,
for sorting
Templates for tracing
Lotto and other board games
Collections of objects (plastic bottle caps, keys, shells, etc.)
Selecting Materials
Look through any catalog of early childhood materials and you will see a
wide range of toys and games. To make good choices for your children,
think about variety and complexity as well as safety, durability, and price.
Select toys that do not convey stereotypes. At the end of this section we
discuss types of toys to avoid.
Types of Toys and Games
Toys and games can be grouped into four categories: self-correcting,
structured toys; open-ended toys; collectibles; and cooperative games.
Self-correcting, structured toys are those that fit together in a specific
way—for example, a puzzle. A child using this type of toy can determine
readily if the toy has been put together correctly. Self-correcting toys
include the following:
• puzzles: wooden, rubber inset,
durable cardboard, and large
floor puzzles
• self-help skill frames (buttoning,
zipping, tying)
Part 2: Interest Areas
• graded circles that fit
on a cylinder
• nesting boxes, cups, racks, poles
• geometric shape sorters
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Chapter 8:Toys and Games
Open-ended toys have no right or wrong way to be used. They can be put
together in a variety of ways, depending entirely on the child’s creativity
and level of development. They promote problem solving and initiative.
Many are excellent for developing motor skills and eye-hand coordination.
These toys are also natural tools for developing mathematical skills and
concepts. Open-ended toys include the following:
• felt boards
• Cuisenaire rods
In selecting toys and games,
• Lego blocks, people and props
• parquetry blocks
pick a few from each
• colored cubes, wooden
• magnetic letters and numbers
category to offer children a
variety of choices.
or plastic
• beads and sewing cards with
yarn or string for stringing
• pegs and pegboards
• geoboards
• wooden geometric shapes
• interlocking links and cubes
Collectibles, like open-ended toys, can be put together in a variety of
unspecified ways. The difference is that collectibles contain sets of like
objects. Attractive collections encourage children to sort, match, and
compare in many inventive ways. Examples of collectibles include:
• bottle caps
• erasers
• buttons
• sample paint chips
• keys
• nuts and bolts
• plastic coffee scoops
• plastic fasteners
• small boxes
• small toys
(e. g., from bread bags)
• lids
Cooperative games encourage children to work together to match pictures,
numbers, symbols, and objects. Rather than winning or losing, these games
give children opportunities to develop social skills while improving visual
discrimination skills. Games in this category include:
• lotto
• matching games
• dominoes
• card games
• concentration
• board games
Because some toys and games can be used in different ways, they fall into
more than one category. To illustrate, parquetry blocks are a structured toy
when used with pattern cards—that is, when the child chooses to replicate
the design on the card. However, they are open-ended when children create
their own patterns.
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The Creative Curriculum for Preschool
Chapter 8:Toys and Games
The Teacher’s Role
Young children’s play with toys and games varies widely. When given highquality toys, children will experiment, explore, discover, and create. They
need toys and games that allow for both solitary play and cooperative play,
and adults who value the work they are doing as they play in this Area.
Observing and
Responding to
Individual Children
Children approach toys and games in fairly predictable ways.
Depending on their previous experiences with these materials and their
physical skills, children generally move from simple to more complex
and integrated play.
How Children Approach Toys and Games
Functional play. Children approach a new toy by getting to know its
characteristics. Their exploration helps them answer questions such
as these:
• How does this object/toy look?
• How does it feel? What kind of texture does it have?
The purpose of functional
• How big or small is it? How heavy or light?
play is to investigate
the physical properties
of the toy.
• What shape is it?
• What color is it?
The purpose of functional play is to investigate the physical properties of
the toy. This type of free exploration is necessary before any purposeful or
structured use of toys occurs.
Constructive play. In constructive play, children use toys creatively to make
something. They may build a tower with colored inch cubes, construct a
fence with construction toys like Legos, create a design with parquetry
blocks, or use pegs and pegboards to make a birthday cake. Before using
collectibles such as bottle caps or buttons to sort and compare, children
may use them to create patterns or complex designs. In constructive play,
children ask themselves questions such as the following:
Children use toys creatively
in constructive play.
• What can I do with this toy?
• Can I make somehing new with these shapes?
• Can I use these blocks to build something big?
• How high can I build before it falls down?
• What kind of design can I make with these materials?
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The Creative Curriculum for Preschool
Dramatic or pretend play. The next type of play after exploring and
constructing is using toys and games for pretend play. After children have
explored the materials using their senses (functional play) or created
something new (constructive play), they often begin to use them in their
pretend play. They may fill a pegboard with pegs to make a cake and
carry it to you as they sing “Happy Birthday.” They may string beads,
wear them as a necklace, and tell you or a friend they are going to a
party. They will also work together to build a construction site with Legos
and then take on roles such as the worker or the boss as they play with
their creation.
Games with rules. Board and card games offer the opportunity to master the
skills of understanding and accepting the limits of rules. Remember that
learning about rules is difficult for most 3- to 4-year-olds. Very often,
children create and invent their own games with rules. They determine each
person’s role, devise a system for taking turns, and decide who will go first,
second, or third. This development can precede or occur simultaneously
with learning to play by conventional rules.
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Chapter 8:Toys and Games
As children experiment with toys and games, they invent more and more
ways to use these materials, gaining new skills as they play. A child’s
development in this interest area is enhanced when teachers make good
decisions about when and how to introduce new and increasingly complex
materials. After first observing how children use toys and games, you can
then decide how to respond.
Responding to Each Child
The teacher’s role is to provide encouragement, help children get involved
with materials, introduce new skills, challenge them to take the next step in
their learning, and talk to them about their efforts and accomplishments.
You’ll know how to respond after observing what children say and do as
they work. Your role is to be a detective of sorts, trying to figure out what
interests children and how they approach materials. Based on what you
learn you can build on children’s interests and address their individual
needs. Notice whether a child
• selects and cares for materials independently
• explores the physical properties of the materials
(functional play), builds and creates (constructive play),
roleplays (sociodramatic play), or follows the rules
of a game
• is developing increased eye-hand coordination and
fine muscle skills
• uses logical thinking skills to work with the
materials (e.g., classifying, patterning, measuring,
comparing, counting)
• communicates what he is doing while playing with the
toys and games
The information you gain from focused observation enables you to respond
appropriately. It also can guide you in the kinds of questions you ask, the
comments you make, and the materials you provide.
Careful observation lets you know which toys and materials the children
select and how they use those materials. Observation also gives you insight
on the different ways children use the materials and how they apply
literacy, math, science, and other content area skills. Based on what
you see, you can plan ways to enhance each child’s development in this
interest area.
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The Creative Curriculum for Preschool