Play is the Business of Kids - Pt. 3

3 - 6 years age range

Social and Intellectual: additional dress-up outfits, bathing and feeding doll, puppets and theaters, store-keeping toys, toy phone and toy clock, playhouses, housekeeping toys, toy soldiers, dolls for dressing and undressing, large puzzles, outdoor play equipment, board games
   DT Toy Suggestions: Play to be Safe, Friendship Island, Discovery Fun Playhouse, Fashion Friends

Problem Solving: farm, village, and other play sets, small trucks, cars, planes, and boats; beads, blocks, buttons, peg board, simple construction sets, housekeeping toys, trains, race car sets, balls
   DT Toy Suggestions: Zoo-mobiles, Giant Pegboard, Motor Works, Fashion Friends

Form and Spacial Relationships: simple puzzles, set of plastic measuring cups, large tricycles, sleds, cookie cutters, wagons, scooters, swings, backyard gym sets and jungle gyms, empty cardboard boxes, seesaws, monkey bars, rope swings
   DT Toy Suggestions: Progressive Puzzles, Measure Up! Cups, Playful Patterns

Creativity: crayons, children's safety scissors, finger paints, clay, sketch pads, paste, rhythm instruments
   DT Toy Suggestions: Jam Sessions, Make It Fun Craft Kits, Ahoy! Pirate Pete, Once Upon A Time

Language: story books, books on cassette tapes, radio
   DT Toy Suggestions: Bilingual Songs CD, Wipe Clean Learning to Read & Write, ABC & 123 Wipe Clean Workbooks, Playfull Letters, What Am I? collection






What Caregivers Can Do
Reverse roles.
Make-believe telephone conversations.
Play hide-and-seek.
Improvise characters doing routine things.
Practice motor skills with card and board games.
Play games of courage.
Play "counting" and "number" games.
Provide children with the materials and environment needed for good, healthy play.
Do gymnastics.
Mimic animals and people.
Use hand puppets with different voices.
Listen to and talk about dreams.
Tell "what-if' stories.
Act out fairy tales.
Read to the children.
Teach children to identify different sizes and shapes with cookie cutters and baking pans.
Play "matching" games.
Describe activities that are taking place while you are doing household chores.
Encourage children to create stories while looking through books and magazines.

To order the DT Toys listed above and so much more, visit www.playsmartstore.com and click on Shop Products.

posted by:
Cara Retz
Educational Leader, Discovery Toys
www.playsmartstore.com
playsmartstore@gmail.com