Top 10 Games for School Readiness
Collection by Toy Talk®
School readiness is a journey that takes six years & doesn’t happen overnight. Pre-schoolers are in training for big school! Will your child be ready for grade R or grade 1 in 2020? Here are some fantastic ideas for games and toys to help you get them well-prepared over the next year.
LEAPING LETTERS
This game makes letter recognition fun as your child learns to match at speed (From grade 1 and up and adults will enjoy it too). Initially, play without the timer or choose just a few letters to play with (all 26 might overwhelm a 7 year old but will be fine for a 9 year old), or just choose to play with letters of one colour (there are three colours).
EDULUDO ADDITIONS
This versatile game is brilliant for creating understanding of quantity, counting, addition & subtraction. The 40 colourful bug tokens enable your child to physically count & sort objects to begin with. They move onto matching the objects to the numbers & then onto following the visual instructions such as placing two ducks in the pond and adding four frogs, as an example. How many animals do you have altogether now? Turn the card over to check the answer.
ZINGO!
Zingo is a classic bingo game that all families with young children should own. The Zingo! Zinger is the tile dispenser that will have your child completely fascinated. Every player has a challenge board and when tiles are revealed by the Zinger, the first player to spot a match wins the tile/s. The winner is the first player to shout Zingo! when they have covered all the pictures on their board with matching picture tiles.
PAPILIO
Learn how to colour match in a fun way. The four small, wooden caterpillars set off on a big journey across a bed of coloured flower discs. The five colour & symbol dice show your child what moves they can make, jumping from flower to flower. When they reach the big flower at the end of the journey they turn from a caterpillar into a butterfly, but they have to correctly turn over two matching coloured wings to win. If the wings don’t match, they have to try again on their next turn
RAINBOW PEBBLES ACTIVITY SET
This is a complete and unusual school readiness set in a box. Use the brightly coloured slightly rubbery and nicely weighted pebbles to complete the 24 challenge cards. This game encourages the skills of copying and visual memory, problem solving, counting, colour sorting, matching and much more. Children can also create their own free play constructions and pictures with the pebbles.
DOMINO 123
This is a beautifully illustrated 28-piece jumbo version of the classic matching game of dominoes. A great way to understand quantity while having fun, as the dominoes consist of a number on one end and pictures of objects on the other. Match numbers to numbers, numbers to objects or objects to objects but the value must be the same eg. The number four and four spiders....
Classic World Uni Blocks
Children will love these 14 colourful bright blocks with their funny, irregular shapes that can be stacked on the sticks in different ways to create pictures, characters and interesting patterns. Choose from a variety of themes such as a fox, owl, frog and a lion. Your child can do free play or use the 5 double-sided activity cards to copy and match a particular design. Great for developing fine motor skills and hand eye co-ordination, spatial planning and problem solving skills. AGE: 2 – 5…
LITTLE ACTION
Little Action is a wonderful game to get your children moving and learning at the same time. Children follow the visual instructions (pictures) on the action cards and if they succeed in completing the task, they win a medal token. Your child will learn the skills of throwing, catching, balancing and aiming using the six chunky animals for each action. When all the action cards have been used up, the player with the most medals wins.
MOSAICO MAXI
Get your child to practice their fine motor skills, eye-hand co-ordination and matching skills necessary for writing and copying later on. When placing the pegs in the holes on top of the picture, your child is colour matching which is about discovering similarities and differences, and holding the pegs using the pincer grip. They use their thumb and two fingers – the same ones they will use to hold a crayon or pencil. This is a pre-writing game. AGE: 3 – 5 years
LITTLE CIRCUIT
If you are looking for a first board game – this is it! Using the colour dice and their colour matching skills, your child must move their cute, chunky animal along the path, competing against other players to get to the end first. Some of the many benefits of board games are that children learn how to take turns, win and lose. It’s a quick game giving you 10 minutes in a busy day to connect with your little one. AGE: 2 – 4 yrs PLAYERS: 2 -4 BRAND: Djeco