DIY games for a 5 year old child. DIY board games

We have a great idea - a “magic bag” with all sorts of things, containing handmade games for children that will keep your fidget busy for a long time. So roll up your sleeves and get ready to have a great weekend with the kids and our DIY toddler play ideas.

We offer you a bunch of ideas on what you can do to keep your child busy at home when he is bored and tired of all the toys a long time ago. At the same time, you won’t have to spend much on new games; what you have around will be enough to make your own new fun for children.

10 DIY games for kids to keep your child occupied at home

A selection of great games that you can make for your child with your own hands to keep him occupied at home.

Drawing illusion

Children love to draw, but frankly speaking, it is always stressful for mom. If you don’t know what to do with your child at home, give him colored and thick sheets, brushes and a small container of water instead of white paper and paints.

He will dip a brush into water and paint on colored paper. The paper will darken where water gets in, and your child will think he is drawing. There will be no disaster in the apartment.

DIY construction kit for a child

What to do with a child at home if he is between one and three years old? Children at this age simply adore toys with many details.

For example, Mr. Potato. cut out a potato from felt, also cut out eyes, nose, hats, mustaches, and other attributes from felt of other colors for it. You can carry him with you in your bag or leave him at home, but in any case, Mr. Potato will bring a lot of joy. It's hard to think of a better game for kids.

The second option is possible.

Spy bottle - a DIY game for children

All that is required is to dig deep in your drawer in search of all sorts of unnecessary little things: buttons, small toys, thimbles, keys. Take a photo of them, laying them out on the table, then put them in a bottle and cover them with rice or other cereals.

When you need free time, give your child a photo and ask him to find all the elements from the picture. You can create such games for kids with your own hands again and again.

Games for children made from popsicle sticks

A great way to keep kids busy at home.

Print out drawings of various geometric shapes (triangle, square, rhombus) and let your child, using the drawing, try to put together the same stick figure. Unlike counting sticks, which will also work, popsicle sticks are not as easy to lose.

You can also make a puzzle out of popsicle sticks. For this, a few more popsicle sticks (or use the ones for the figures, but on the reverse side). Cut any photo into strips and glue to sticks. Your child will be able to put the puzzle together to make a picture. The advantage of this game for kids is that you don’t mind losing or ruining it, and it’s also easy to make a new one.

DIY lacing games

A great idea to keep your child occupied at home is to give him an object with holes into which he can insert the lace. Cut out figures from foam rubber, cardboard or paper plate make holes around the edges. Give the child some kind of strong rope that can be threaded through these same holes.

You can equally well use cocktail straws or fluffy wire instead of a cord and a colander (skimmer) instead of cardboard to keep the child occupied at home for a while.

DIY games with plastic utensils

Surely, every mother has plastic spoons and cups from some feast lying around somewhere at home. You can also use them to make educational games for kids with your own hands.

Take several transparent, white and colored plastic spoons. After this, use a marker to draw identical patterns on one colored and one transparent. On the remaining spoons also draw different figures according to this principle.

The point of this game for kids is that your child can find two spoons with the same icon and put them on top of each other. This will not only save you if you don’t know what to do with your child at home, but will also teach your child to distinguish between figures.

You can do the same with plastic cups. Such games can keep your baby busy at home for a long time.

Stringing pasta

We have all seen what children do somewhere in class, so why not play with dry pasta at home.

Give your child some pasta with a hole in it and a string, after tying a large knot at one end to keep the pasta from falling off. Children can make beads or just a long, long bunch of pasta in different shapes and colors.

You can also suggest stringing pasta onto wire or sticks stuck into a plasticine or foam base. You can also replace pasta with other materials: colored beads or cardboard.


Sorting squares of colored cardboard

Another activity that not only entertains, but also develops. For this DIY game for children, buy colored cardboard and cut it into small squares. different colors and attach it to a clothespin. Lay out a palette of colors in front of your child and let him try to attach a square of cardboard of the desired color with a clothespin. This is both a fun and educational game for kids.

We model figures with our own hands

To keep your child busy at home profitably and inexpensively, give him plasticine and toothpicks (there is an edible version of the game with marshmallows and straws) and offer to create three-dimensional shapes using plasticine to connect the sticks.


DIY games made from cardboard boxes

To keep your child occupied at home, make something for him from under his shoes. The box itself can be turned into table soccer using a pair of cocktail straws. And the lid - into a ball maze: just glue ice cream sticks or cocktail straws to the box.


Games with sunlight

Place it, place a sheet of paper next to it and ask the children to trace the shadow along the contour.


Crafts made from colored paper

Crafts made from colored paper are an easy way to keep your child busy for quite a long time. You don’t have to do anything specific; you can simply give a set of cut out figures (stripes, circles, squares, rectangles, triangles) and invite the child to dream up.


Water games

A quick way to keep your child occupied at home without special effort from adults: pour water into a basin, pour in small objects (caps from plastic bottles, balls) and give the child the task of getting them out using chopsticks, a spoon, a ladle.


Obstacle course at home

Take colored tape, electrical tape or masking tape and stick it on the floor in the form of paths and islands. Then, to keep the children occupied, have them complete an obstacle or race with toy cars, or roll a short ball along the track, blowing on it through a cocktail straw.


Funny drawings and collages from scrap materials

A simple recipe for keeping your child occupied at home with drawing. Just give him unwanted magazines, advertising brochures or old postcards, scissors, glue, paper and pencils. Next, the child cuts out characters that interest him, pastes them onto a blank sheet of paper, and completes the drawings as he sees fit.

Such games not only help keep the child occupied so that he doesn’t get bored at home, but also develop imagination and train fine motor skills.

Now you know what to do with your child at home, and what toys you can quickly and easily make with your own hands.

It turns out that mathematical toys can be very different, but equally useful and interesting for little mathematicians.

DIY math toys from Anna Usova

And today I did it.

Our toy consists of 5 eggs (they are quite large, from small cars) on each there is a sticker with a number from 1 to 5. Wooden beads are placed inside (but I think you can replace them with buttons over time to maintain the child’s interest), the number corresponds written number.

We had already played a little: we opened each testicle and counted the beads. Ignat really liked it and we spent quite a long time opening and closing the testicles. Then they took out all the beads and selected the right amount for each egg. They also collected beads on chenille wire.

Today, while playing different games, we found a plasticine board. Somehow they made it, but for some reason they never played it. Now we are pleased to discover its enormous potential. They wrote numbers with a toothpick and placed the corresponding number of buttons on it. They stuck buttons in while standing. They drew geometric shapes, large and small, and laid out shapes from buttons - this is also mathematics.

DIY math toys from Nastya Tufanova

Competition work No. 3

My name is Nastya Tufanova, I am 31 years old, Severodvinsk.

I sewed a soft book for teaching counting from 1 to 5.

A page is dedicated to each number: number 1 - we count: 1 sun, 1 snail, 1 fish, 1 bush, 1 apple. Number 2 - count: 2 flowers, 2 bears, 2 bushes, etc.

All parts are removable with different fastenings (linden, buttons, ribbons, loops) and different fillings (beads, stones, rings, rustling bags).

The numbers are also removable on the linden. You can invite your child to select a number for each page.

Materials: cotton, calico, buttons, beads, ribbons.

Using this book you can learn to count, develop fine motor skills and logic. I think the little one will find it interesting.

DIY math toys from Maria Nagornaya

My name is Maria, I am from the village of Aksenovo, Republic of Bashkortostan. Mother of two children: Anastasia - 6 years old and Stepan - 3 years old.
These are the toys and aids I have made for my children over the years.

Competition work No. 4. Learning numbers.

I sewed 2 circles: one with a diameter of 19 cm, the other with a diameter of 30 cm. I divided both circles into sectors. I embroidered numbers on the small one, and sewed buttons on the large one. I made a slit in the center of these circles and connected the circles with two buttons. Thanks to this connection, the circles rotate.

Usually I sit Styopa on my lap and ask: “Where is the number 1?” Show me. Now let’s find one button!” And we rotate the small circle, put a number opposite the required number of digits. I think the essence of the game is clear.

What do we develop by playing with this manual?

  1. Mathematics (counting, numbers, the concept of big and small, what shape buttons are - round, oval, etc.).
  2. Fine motor skills of fingers (you can trace embroidered numbers with your finger, finger buttons).
  3. Studying color (we call button colors).

Competition work No. 5. Geometric Lotto.

I placed 6 figures of different colors on cardboard, cut out exactly the same ones for them, and laminated them with tape. I glued a pocket on the back side. This makes it easier to store the pieces so they don’t get lost.

DIY math toys from Olga Shevykina

Competition work No. 7

I'm Olya, 23 years old, mother of three kids: Antoshi (4), Ksenia (soon 3) and Veronichka (1,3). This is my first toy that I came up with on my own. Why did I decide to make this particular toy? Well, for starters, I thought: what, in general, does mathematics for kids include, and I identified several areas for myself, namely:

  • figures, numbers and quantities;
  • geometric shapes and size;
  • sequences;
  • orientation (I mean the concepts of “up”, “down”, etc.

For my children (I mean the two older ones), the most difficult topic so far has been numbers. We count confidently only up to five or six, and then confusion begins. With numbers, it’s generally dull: only the first three. In principle, they refuse to understand the meaning of zero. And then such a fun simulator came up by itself.


After New Year's Eve there were a lot of gift boxes left. Among them there was a wonderful one, small, with four windows - in general, as specially for my toy. I covered each side with colored paper. The thoughtful face of an animal looks out the window (I drew it on cardboard and glued it to the inside).

The game begins: mom (that is, me) says: the kitten (dog/donkey/bunny) wants to eat (in the case of a donkey to play), give him, for example, three fish (bones/balls/carrots (this is all cut out of colored cardboard) )). I paste a number above the window, also on cardboard. Children name the number and glue as many objects as the number shows below, under the window. After the child says “that’s it,” we check.

If it’s wrong, nothing happens, if it’s right, a cheerful face appears in the windows on top of the thoughtful face. By the way, children like this moment the most. During the first game they clapped their hands with joy for the animal)). In order to glue it all, I first used bulky double-sided tape, but it sometimes leaves marks and quickly stopped sticking, but plasticine is ideal for this purpose)), only colored paper should be glossy.

I put all the seeds, carrots, etc. in capsules from under a Kinder surprise toy. All capsules, along with a piece of plasticine and cards with funny animals, are stored inside the box - very convenient. Nothing has been lost yet, although we play every day.

DIY math toys from Irina

Hello! My name is Irina, I’m 26 years old, I’m Lenochka’s mother (3 years old, 4 months old). We live in Chita.

I have been making this toy for a long time. First, objects of the corresponding color were glued onto the multi-colored petals. And it was necessary to choose the right covers and hide the pictures under them. When we began to know the colors perfectly, I remade the flower.

In place of the pictures I glued numbers from 1 to 5. I also glued numbers on the lids. I cut them out from two identical magazines so that the lid and petal would have the same type of numbers. For example, the number 1 on a black background should be placed on the same one on the petal. The number of dots on the flower tells you the name of each number. I also chose lids to create toys because they are useful for developing fine motor skills.

In general, when we play with numbers, we animate them, they can talk, they come to visit us and that’s why each one has a name. This way Lenochka perceives them better. So the toy is made from waste material(lids, cardboard, old magazines). But it helps us a lot in mastering numbers. When we grow out of it, it won’t be a shame to throw it away. And then quickly make a new one, for example, with 10 petals.

Competition work No. 9. Geometric toy

So far we are studying and knowing five geometric shapes: circle, oval, triangle, square and rectangle. I cut the shapes out of old plastic folders to make the toy more durable. On one side the figures are smooth, and on the other they are rough. Then I laid out several pictures from the figures on cardboard from various boxes. I traced the contours of the figures. The toy is ready.

The idea is simple - you need to select the shapes and lay out pictures from them according to the model. At the same time, we talk about what figure is needed and what size. In the same way, we post pictures without a sample, calling on our imagination to help. For example, a Christmas tree, a girl in a triangular dress, a snowman, etc.

We also simply sort the shapes. What Lena likes most is the game where the animals need to distribute cookies of different shapes. For example, a kitten should be treated only to a square one, and a dog only to an oval one. The figures can be placed in an opaque bag and pulled out by touch. But so far we haven’t been able to do that very well. Thus, the toy is made from waste material and its production takes very little time. And you can come up with many game options.

Competition work No. 10. Geometric glades

Another guide for games to consolidate geometric knowledge. I don't have a printer, so everything I make is created from suitable clippings, pictures and written by hand. So, to study geometric shapes: circle, oval, square, rectangle and triangle, I designed sheets of paper.

Every separate sheet dedicated to one figure. The name of the figure is written, the figure itself is cut out and glued from colored paper, a poem and a riddle are written about this figure. And also just pictures of this form were selected. For durability, the leaves were placed in transparent files.

How to play:

  • Lena's favorite version of the game. The leaves are laid out on the floor at a distance from each other. I give the task what figure to stand on and what to do, and Lenochka completes it. For example, you need to stand on a triangle and clap your hands. You need to stand in a circle and stomp your feet. You need to lie down on a rectangle, etc. We played a similar game on the street all summer. I drew large figures on the ground and gave Lenochka the same moving tasks.
  • Another version of the game. On the laid out clearings we lay out the plastic figures that I showed in the previous geometric toy. Or I collect parts from toys (rings, cubes, balls, lids, construction set parts and other small things) into a pile. They also need to be laid out in clearings. But this task turns out to be more difficult, since the figures are voluminous. Therefore, we say that “the side of the cube is square, so we put it on the square,” “the ball is round, so we put it where the circle is.”
  • We read poems, guess the riddles on the pages, and then look for objects of a given shape in the rooms, kitchen, and bathroom.

Thus, we easily and naturally consolidate geometric knowledge during outdoor games and, one might even say, pampering.

DIY math toys from Elena Petruk

My name is Elena, I am 36 years old. My daughter's name is Masha (2 years 2 months). We are from Kyiv.

Competition work No. 11.

The history of the creation of the toy is simple, it was created based on the book that Masha now loves. According to the plot of the book, a little squirrel lives in a hollow in an oak tree and dries mushrooms, berries, and fruits on branches for the winter. When Masha and I read, we constantly find from the picture where the berries are, where the mushrooms are.

So I decided to play with this book with a mathematical twist. I took a sheet of A3 cardboard. Three cocktail tubes, cut the cocktail tubes in half. I cut the lower part of the tube into 4 parts and secured it to the sheet with tape. Then I put it on top of a white sheet with holes. On this sheet I drew an oak trunk and a hollow. I pasted a squirrel card.

On the crown of the tree, where the tubes are branches, I glued oak leaves. Above each tube I wrote numbers from 1 to 3. I think that is enough for our age for now. If we overcome them, we will move on. And I painted fruits, berries, mushrooms. Then I cut out cards from white cardboard and drew the same fruits and mushrooms. I made holes on the cards.

The point of the game is that we, like a little squirrel, hang food on branches to dry. We hang one card on one branch - a plum. We hang two cards on another branch - 2 mushrooms. We hang 3 apples on the third branch. The advantages of this toy are that, in addition to mathematical development, she is still developing fine motor skills. Then, when I get tired, I’ll stick nuts and acorns on top of the fruits and draw new cards - the game will be updated.

Masha liked the game. She was happy to put the cards on, although for now she wanted to put a mushroom on a plum))).

Competition work No. 12.

After the holidays, there were boxes left over from cheeses and cakes. I covered the boxes with colored paper and secured them with transparent tape (I glued the triangle with glue - it doesn’t stick well). I made slits on the boxes. Then I cut out geometric shapes from colored cardboard in different colors. The size of the figures is such that they fit into the slots.

The game is to insert squares into a square, circles into a circle, etc. To complicate the game, I cut out squares of different colors. So that Masha understands that not only yellow squares will fit into a yellow square, but also other colors - after all, they are also squares. The game can also be tied to the theme of color. Insert all red figures into the red figure.

You can also stick animal cards on the shapes and cut out cards (or even from the back of geometric shapes) with food. There are many options. This game develops not only mathematical abilities, but also develops fine motor skills. To my joy, Masha appreciated this work too)) she inserted the cards very diligently).

Competition work No. 13

My name is Ekaterina, 28 years old, my son is almost 8 months old. I made an educational math toy from a tumbler box. The box is hexagonal, one side is made of transparent film. Round holes are cut out in the box (corresponding in size to the balls, the number of holes is indicated on each side). The top side with one hole (number 1 pasted), the side with two holes (number 2 pasted), etc. up to five.

Because The son is still small and tries everything to his teeth, the balls are tied to strings (so that he doesn’t swallow or lose them :)), the strings are attached to one of the sides. Inside for beauty I glued a chicken, outside there is grass and the sun. With the help of toys we develop fine motor skills, learn to count, and match the shape of the hole and the shape of the ball. I myself am happy with my “invention”, and my son likes it :)

DIY math toys from Olga Duk

My name is Olga, I have two children, my son is almost 5 years old, and my daughter is 1.5 years old. This is my first time participating in such a competition; I have never done any work for a competition before. But she “lit up” after she joined the “” - create, so create! I really wanted to come up with something interesting, multifunctional, so that I myself would really like it, and then the children would “get involved.”

Competition work No. 14

I went through a lot of ideas and settled on the fact that children really love to play with cubes, pyramids, and nesting dolls. The idea itself is not new, but the implementation and filling of the edges are the result of my inspiration. Playing with the colors of the rainbow, picking and counting apples is suitable for the youngest daughter. But cutting your favorite pizza into pieces and solving Mayan numbers is suitable for the eldest son.

The boxes are 5-sided, nested one inside the other, the pictures on the edges are glued with tape, and the colors of the rainbow are self-adhesive paper. Making a toy is time-consuming, but it is fully paid off by the joy of children’s play and development. It took me 3 evenings to make the toy, but I am happy with my work, and especially with the fact that the children appreciated it.

Here are our games:


I wanted to first make the sides, like in a dice, but this method is not suitable up to 10, and I discovered the Mayan numbers, I really liked the idea of ​​1,2,3,4 5-stick (like a flat palm), and then the palm +1=6, palm+2=7, etc., and 10 is 2 sticks, palms. I think this is visual and interesting for children. The children had great fun playing the games and I think this toy will captivate many children and help them develop and learn mathematics.

Competition work No. 15. "Funny Pasta"

Easy and affordable. Materials: pasta, acrylic or gouache paints, paper rod from kitchen foil, films (preferably thicker and longer), cotton swabs. Pasta can be painted in different colors to create a row from 1 to 10. If you make holes in the paper rod with small scissors and insert cotton swabs, you will get an excellent counting stick.


Game options:

  1. Add up all the numbers: group the pasta by color, count how many pasta of each color you got, put the pasta next to the corresponding numbers
  2. Hide different amounts of pasta in boxes/cupboards and guess/count how many are there.
  3. Add the numbers according to the stencil/image of pasta
  4. Addition. For example, show clearly that if you add 3 to 2, it becomes 5
  5. Multiplication. For example, show clearly that if you take 2 times 3, you get 6
  6. Counting stick - how much will it be if you take 2 pasta and 4 more? Very convenient and clear

I think we can still experiment and come up with games.
I like that it turned out simple and interesting.

DIY math toys from Ekaterina Timofeeva

Competition work No. 16. Sorter with geometric shapes

Two levels of nesting: the figures themselves are nested in square frames, and square frames with figures are nested in one large frame. I decided to make such a toy because I was simply interested in making it. My daughter immediately became interested in her, although at first she was not her age; but over time she learned not only to recognize the figures, but also to invest them correctly.

Tired of the mess in your nursery? Tired of endlessly collecting toys for your child?

The sorter is made of plywood and painted with watercolors. Recently we played geometric lotto: we traced all the shapes with felt-tip pens in the album, and then stuck similar shapes cut out of colored cardboard inside the outlines.

Competition work No. 17. Digital ottomans – 10

I sewed this toy two years ago, I used cotton fabric, red and blue fleece (for the ends), blue leather-like fabric (for the numbers), padding polyester (filling). I made ten ottomans in total, so to speak, with a reserve for the future. With them you can learn numbers, and as we grow up, we will begin to learn the numbers themselves.

We play them in different ways: both actively (throwing them like snowballs, for example, while counting), and calmly (carrying them around in a large car and handing them out to the toys, some one at a time, some two at a time, etc.).

DIY math toys from Svetlana Melnikova

It is worth noting that my five-year-old son Gleb and I are big fans of paper, cardboard, scissors and glue. From an early age we learned together to cut, glue and create various appliqués. Now my son does everything himself and only the way he wants - I give him complete freedom in expressing his creative imagination.
For us, a variety of advertising magazines, catalogs and brochures that surround us everywhere have long been wonderful material for creativity and developmental activities. Using bright pictures from them, we are happy to make interesting paintings, applications, teaching aids, themed lotto. And recently we found a new use for pictures and photographs from advertising magazines - with their help we can easily game form getting acquainted with mathematical concepts.
I'll tell you about two of our current favorite role-playing games. In fact, you can come up with many variations of mathematical games using such material, depending on the interests of a particular child.

Competition work No. 18. Furniture store

The essence of the game is that the child is a furniture delivery man, and his task is to load a van and deliver a certain number of different pieces of furniture to addresses.

A large amount of furniture is laid out in front of the baby - pictures cut out from catalogs, pasted onto cardboard for strength and convenience (here I use various cardboard boxes and packaging for cereals, cookies, candies, etc. that are unnecessary in everyday life). Large numbers are placed nearby and next to each number a specific piece of furniture.

For example, next to the number “5” there is a picture of a table, which means you need to find and load 5 tables into the van. The child must find in the store the pieces of furniture indicated in the task in a certain quantity, load them and distribute them to the recipients. It is advisable for the child to recite the count until the required number.

Competition work No. 19. Grocery store

The game is that the child is a seller, and his task is to sell the specified number of products to the buyer.

Showcases are invented (you can use cutlery trays, cookie cutters with large divisions, etc.) on which food products are placed (pictures cut out from catalogs, also pasted on cardboard). A buyer (adult) comes to the store, names the product he wants to buy and in what quantity, while showing a large number.

The baby seller serves the buyer the desired product in the specified quantity from the display window. Here it is also advisable that the child count out loud the products to the indicated number. And, of course, don’t forget to pay the seller and clearly count out the same number of coins to him! There can be as many buyers and the number of purchases as you like - the main thing is to finish the game on time before the baby gets tired.

It should be noted that the more identical pictures of products you make, the higher the limit for your child to learn numbers - so take care of the required number of advertising magazines in advance.

I hope that the ideas my son and I have for simple mathematical games using simple and accessible materials will become interesting and useful for someone.

DIY math toys from Oksana Demidova

Competition work No. 20

This is a foldable folding book. Inside on each spread there is a drawing: an apple or 2 apples, etc., on the last spread there is the number 10. On the back of the book there are numbers 9, 8, 7...0 or 8, 6, 4, 2, 0, etc. We play like this: if you unfold a folded book in position 0, you get the count 1, 2,3... and the addition 1+1 =2, another +1=3. If you fold an already unfolded book from position 10, then we learn the subtraction 10-1=9, etc.

Production: cardboard and printed pictures, numbers drawn with a felt-tip pen. First you need to fold the book, and then glue the pictures and draw, because... Each inward turn is slightly smaller than the previous one. The book fits in the palm of your hand.

Competition work No. 21

The same principle, only the size is larger. The kid immediately came up with the idea of ​​using it as a path.

The only nuance of manufacturing is that the sheets were made separately, and the size was adjusted due to the different width of the joint with tape. This manufacturing option turned out to be better for large format. True, 10 hedgehogs no longer fall into the child’s field of vision. Therefore, this toy is for active games, and small ones for learning counting.

My name is Tatyana, I am 28 years old. I am the mother of Bogdan (1 year and 8 months). We live in Estonia.

The toy is based on the book by Eric Carle. Material felt, iris threads, hot glue, scissors, eyes, holofiber (pillow filling). I just finished the toy. For now we are playing with a caterpillar that we put on our hand (we really like to run around and bite everyone) and a butterfly. We plan to teach colors, names of objects, days of the week, numbers, and stages of butterfly development.

DIY math toys from Svetlana Pekeshina

My name is Svetlana, I am 36 years old. My son Artemka is 5 years old. We are from Volzhsk, Mari El Republic. My child is already old (he will go to school in two years), so I try to use games that will help him master addition, subtraction and equalities.

Competition work No. 25. "Mathematical Adventure"

It will require white cardboard, a felt-tip pen, cubes, chips and a great desire to reach the end of the game. The game is similar to any game - an adventure game: only here you don’t always have to roll the dice, and your ability to count will tell you how to move around the field.
If the example has a plus sign, then we move forward by the number of cells that the answer will be equal to. Accordingly, if the sign in the example is “minus”, then we move backward by the number of cells of the received answer.

There are also additional cells in the game: the “more” sign means we move forward along the indicated arrow, the “less” sign, unfortunately, we go back along the arrow; the "dice" sign - this gives the opportunity to throw a real die, the "equals + die" sign - skips a move, and then the move occurs using a die.

There is a “two dice” sign, we introduced it right in the game, when the player cannot get out of the cycle of “returns” through the cells, there is such a moment in the game.
The one who reaches the finish line first wins.


So, the game begins with you throwing the dice and moving the number of squares indicated on the side. And then you start counting)))))))))
Of course, you can come up with examples yourself, maybe introduce something new. I tried to keep the answers no larger than the number 6. Children like any adventure game: the spirit of competition and luck. I hope the math adventure game will be no exception. At least my son and I enjoy playing it).

Competition work No. 26. "Glass with gems"
To play, you need any plastic cups (yogurt, curds). It’s great if you have time to wrap them in shiny paper (after all, put the gems there), and if not, then that’s also good))))) the main thing is that you have time to play. You also need a cube, signs > and<, я их нарисовала на бумаге и приклеила к пластмассовым крышечкам. Нужны готовые цифры, их можно написать или использовать из магнитной азбуки. Ну и, конечно, самоцветы (это стеклянные камушки), которые используют для украшения в цветочных тарелочках, топиариях))).

The game begins with the words of the driver: “Morozko gave you gems. But now we’ll find out how much when you throw the dice.” The child throws the dice and puts the number of gems into his plate.
But then we begin to work with cups. In front of each cup there is a sign “ON” and a sign< или >.
The driver asks the question: “Now let’s find out what number will be in front of the largest glass?” (you can ask different questions, it all depends on what topic we want to touch on: shape, size, color or knowledge of English). The child rolls the dice and we place the number that appears in front of the given cup. We roll the dice as many times as there are cups on the table.

Now we begin to place the gems into cups. This is where the child will have to work hard.
For example: “Let’s find out how many gems are in the green cup???? And in it it is 3 > than yours. So how much? The child counts, you check.

Very good practice in mental counting, and most importantly, it’s very interesting to sort out semi-precious stones. We also turned the cups over and trained our memory. They twisted and turned and wanted to deceive each other. And then they tried to remember how many pebbles were under each of the glasses and immediately checked each other. They also laid out numbers from pebbles, but that’s a completely different story.

DIY math toys from Maria Sudakova

Competition work No. 27

My name is Maria. I am from the city of Kolchugino, Vladimir region. I am 32 years old. I am the mother of two boys, 10 years old and 2 years old. 10 months I made a math toy for youngest son.

I chose from 3 game options. Why did you choose this one? Pasha has recently become very fond of feeding animals. To maintain his interest, I decided to make such a game. The idea for the toy is not mine. I looked it up on the website http://shillopop.com/

Math game"Cheese and Mice"

The mice are made of fleece. The eyes and nose are ready, glued with glue. Made from porous rubber.

With this game you can introduce your child to the quantity, appearance of numbers, geometric shapes(circle, square, triangle), correlating quantities and numbers. It can also be used to develop thinking and logic.

How to play:

  1. Pasha and I played like this for now. They rolled a dice with numbers and gave the mice as many pieces of cheese as the number showed. I also said what shape the mouse wants the cheese.
  2. Roll a dice with numbers and give the mouse a piece with the same number of holes as the number.
  3. Roll a cube with dots and look for “cheese” with the same arrangement of dots.
  4. “The fourth odd one” (by shape, number of dots, color)
  5. “Post it the same way.” Here the mother lays out a sequence from one set, and the child tries to lay out a sequence from his own.

Acceptance of works has been completed. According to the terms of the competition, I ask you to help me choose one of the three winners by taking part in the voting. Please choose one competition entry that you consider the most exciting, understandable and visual for explaining mathematics to a child.

In April, I added to my collection of ideas for educational games made by myself. I was lucky enough to attend an amazing event organized by the site “Native Path”: a game meeting with Tatyana Aleksandrovna Barchan. She has an unusual story: a biochemist by profession, she worked at a research institute and did not think that she would come up with and create educational games for children with her own hands. But everything turned out differently: Tatyana was asked to work with gifted children 6-7 years old, and this is where her career as a teacher and inventor of educational games began. Now Tatyana runs the Rebus Center for Education and Creative Development, and is the author of many games that have been recognized by experts as one of the best (quality mark “Child Psychologists Recommend”).

DIY educational games

1) Box with tracks for magnet. The point is that for the game you need two magnets: one larger, it is hidden under the boxes (on the other side), the second is smaller, it will walk across the playing field. We move the small magnet with the help of a large one, which is not visible. Wonderful miracle for kids.

We take a small candy box as a “playing field” (so that it is comfortable for the child to hold in his hands), add a path, obstacles, and other elements. As a variant of the game situation: the car is driving on business, you need to stop at a gas station (which element), then across the bridge to a car wash (next element), etc.

2) A bone for the dog. You need several boxes, different in size, covered with different colored paper. There is a dog who is looking for a bone (we can easily change it to a character that you have at home). We hide the bone in one of the boxes and give a hint: “the bone is in the box between blue and red” or “in the box above the yellow one.” For older children, it can be more difficult: “not in red, but above blue.” Aerobatics - let the child hide the bone and ask such a puzzle for you.

3) Simple model thermometer. Everything ingenious is simple! A rectangle cut out of cardboard, numbers signed, a regular elastic band inserted, part of the elastic band painted over. If you pull the rubber band on the other side, the temperature on the thermometer rises; if you pull it in the other direction, it drops.

4) Another look at puzzles for kids: cut not a rectangular picture, but a circle into sectors. Such a mosaic is more difficult to assemble on one side, but easier on the other. In any case, a useful variety for training attention and thinking.

5) Children's library. We take 12 identical boxes, make them the same color, stick a number on the spine and a picture on the cover. By the way, the old calendar can be used as a source of numbers for this and other benefits. All books are stored in a large box for 12 books. There are a lot of options for games with such a library. You can develop speech by guessing from the picture on the cover what this book is about, what the plot is, what the story is. You can train the number series: collect books in order, find which book is missing, put them together reverse order, ask to submit “next to the fifth”, etc. As soon as I find suitable boxes, I will definitely make such a “library” for us.

6) Lotto for the difference between flat and three-dimensional figures. To do this, you will need sheets for filling and the actual volumetric figures. Tatyana made them herself from a special modeling mass. The players’ task is to determine what shape the object pulled out of the bag resembles (a button is a circle, a ball is a ball, etc.). It is very useful to pass all geometric concepts through your hands, to feel them in the literal sense of the word.


7) Comparison problems. Tatyana suggests interpreting the “more” and “less” signs as an arrow, which always points to the little one, to the baby, and recommends starting with pairs: mother and baby. I really like this positive “arrow” because it is usually supposed to represent a crocodile that eats those who are smaller. First we play with a full-fledged arrow: from mother-baby we move on to the number of objects, then to numbers. Then the arrow “loses” the stick and the “more”/”less” sign remains in its familiar form. Then we continue to play with cards with the usual sign.

8) Game “Capricious buyer”. We officially allow kids to be capricious :) To play, you need many different shapes of different colors. These are goods in a store where a capricious buyer comes. On his card it is indicated what he wants to buy, but something like this: not red, not round, but square. It is necessary to remove those cards that the buyer does not like and leave only those that meet the criteria. In this way, kids learn the basics of set theory without noticing it themselves.

I showed you only a small part of the games that we discussed at the game library (only those where I have photos). It is clear with what care and love for children all the benefits are made. In addition to ideas for developmental aids, Tatyana generously shared her gaming experience, tips on organizing games, making durable toys (her own creations passed through the hands of many children over several years), features of mastering mathematics, reading, and pedagogical tricks. Tatyana is an amazingly enthusiastic person; after the game library, all the participants came out with sparkling eyes and full shopping bags, because In addition to homemade games, there are already many “ready-to-play” games. I am absolutely delighted with some of the acquisitions, Pasha too :)

I was so fired up after the toy library that after a couple of days I made one of the toys, I’ll write a master class later. Now, while I was writing this article, my hands are itching to go and make something again.

What did you like most of the proposed ideas?

DIY games for children are made very simply from available materials. The ideas presented will help the development of children and older children.

Educational games for children 2–3 years old

At this age, it is important to train fine motor skills; the following pictures with lacing are perfect for this:

  1. Sun;
  2. cloud;
  3. flower;
  4. machine.


To make crafts of this format for children, you will need:
  • white and multi-colored plastic;
  • awl or screws;
  • scissors;
  • fishing line;
  • yellow lace.

If you don't have sheets of plastic, use white from an old plastic bucket. Small parts are made from colored containers of the same material. If you don't have any of these, use cardboard.


For the first game for children with your own hands or by asking someone, you need to cut out a square from white plastic, rounding its corners with scissors. Make a circle out of yellow, attach it to the main sheet with fishing line. To do this, make holes with an awl and then sew with transparent cord.

Cut out flowers from colored plastic and attach them in the same way. To make the sun's rays, the holes must be larger. You will do them using a heated self-tapping screw, which you will hold by the head with pliers.

When the holes have cooled, give the lace to the child and show him how to weave it to make rays. Your baby will love these educational games for children. The second is based on the same principle. Only for it, in addition to white, you need blue plastic. You will cut out a cloud from it and also attach it with fishing line.

Other educational games for kids are also interesting.


To make such a flower you will need:
  • empty shampoo bottles;
  • awl;
  • scissors;
  • lace;
  • cardboard.
Cut out blanks from shampoo bottles. Cover the core of the flower with petals from this material, use an awl to make holes that will pass through both elements. The child will be able to braid a cord and thereby develop fine motor skills.


Boys will definitely like this machine. To make it, enlarge the image, transfer it to a sheet of plastic, outline and cut it out. Make wheels from white plastic bottle from under the milk. Make holes with an awl, start weaving the lace, and let the child continue this interesting activity.

We can recommend other games for 2 year olds. They are based on the same manufacturing principle, but the toys are voluminous. Take a ketchup bottle cap and make a hole in it with a hot nail or a drill bit. Drop some glue into it, place a felt-tip pen, the upper part of which must first be bifurcated sharp knife. Attach the fly agaric cap into this crevice. It is carved from a red ketchup bottle. White circles can be made from a light milk bottle or you can take buttons of that color.

After making holes in the red plastic with an awl, attach white elements to this mushroom cap and fasten with lacing.

Exciting games for children 3–7 years old

Give a group of kids some fun fun. You can play “Fishing” with your family. It's easy to do it yourself. This children's game is not only fun, but also a useful activity that helps develop fine motor skills, coordination, and strengthen hand muscles.

Here are the materials you can use to make your own fish. From:

  • fabrics;
  • felt;
  • plastic;
  • thick cardboard.
For creativity you will also need auxiliary materials:
  • felt in a contrasting color;
  • ready-made eyes or beads for eyes;
  • for the fishing rod - a wooden stick;
  • paper clips;
  • magnet;
  • rope.

If you want the figures to be voluminous and colorful, then take colored fabric and cut out 2 blanks for each fish. Sew them in pairs, stuff them with padding polyester.


If you want to sew felt fish with your own hands, then first make paper blanks, attach them to this thick fabric, outline and cut them out. This way you can make fish from other materials, for example, plastic. Now you need to attach 2 eyes to each. To do this, first glue a felt circle and a bead onto it. You need to insert a paper clip into the nose of these inhabitants of the deep sea. It is these metal parts that will help the fishing rod be magnetized to them.

We make it as follows. To make a fishing rod, tie on one end wooden stick rope. In order for it to hold tightly, you can make a notch in this place with a knife in a circle, and then wind a string here, on the edge of which you need to tie a magnet, and the game for children, created with your own hands, is ready.

How to make a finger theater?

Here is another entertainment that will make any holiday fun and diversify your leisure time. The finger theater will allow you to act out any fairy tale, and one person can play several roles.

Perhaps your child is a born actor. Then he will, changing his voice, its intonation, speak for different heroes of the action.


One of the most popular Russian heroines folk tales Mashenka. Sew it together with your daughter, after which she can try herself in an interesting role. To create this heroine game for children, you will need:
  • felt of different colors for: body, sundress, trim, scarf;
  • rope or yarn;
  • ribbons;
  • 2 beads for eyes;
  • threads;
  • scissors;
  • needle.


Looking at the following photos, you will learn how to sew a sundress. But first you need to cut it out. You need 2 similar parts, differing only in the neck cuts. It is smaller on the back than in the front.
In the photo, the sundress is cut out of yellow felt, the doll’s body is made of orange, and the frill of the sundress, pockets and scarf are made of red.

Please note that the doll's scarf consists of two parts: the front part with a cut-out round hole for the face and the back part.


Let's start sewing a sundress. Attach a pocket to its front part and sew it with thread. Light ones will become an interesting element of decoration. You need to sew the second pocket in the same way. Place the frill of the sundress on its reverse side, stitch it to the bottom of the front and back.


We continue to sew the Masha doll. Place the shelf on the front of the body, stitch both parts together along the neckline and armhole. Roll the thread as in the photo, lowering it onto the doll's face. Place the front part of the scarf on top, stitch it with the head along the inner circle.


Trim the bangs from the threads and sew on the eyes. 2 stitches of white thread will turn into the nose, and decorate the mouth with red.


We will continue to sew the doll with our own hands or with the involvement of children. Thread the thread into a needle with a thick eye, make a stitch on the back of the head, then attach a few more fragments of it on one side and the other of the back of the head in the same way. You should end up with 4 strands of braid, connect the 2 central ones together.


After adding the ribbons, start braiding. When you've almost reached the end, tie beautiful bow. Sew or glue the back part of the scarf to the head.


Now connect the back and front halves of the doll, sew them on the sides on all sides, except for the bottom.


Duplicate the scarf with the outer seam, after which the main character of the finger game for children is ready.

This is what the doll will look like from the back:


Using the same principle, you can sew other fairy tale characters:
  • bear;
  • hare;
  • kolobok;
  • mushroom.
Let the child wear these Stuffed Toys on his fingers, he will come up with a new interesting plot. Thus, developing your speech, vocabulary, imagination, thinking.

Home entertainment for the whole family

Children really like it when adults play with them. If your child is sick or the weather is bad outside and you don’t want to go for a walk, spend this time having fun together. There are many quiet games, because if children are unwell, active noisy fun is contraindicated for them at this time.

Teach your beloved children an ancient entertainment called “Fleas”. Such games are made with your own hands, literally, out of nothing. After all, every home has buttons, and you can get a cardboard box by removing a pair of shoes from it. The sides of this one need to be cut so that they become 5 cm high. A candy box will also do.

Use a felt-tip pen or marker to draw markings inside the container. It will resemble a football field. Draw a circle in the center, on the sides - opposite each other, two gates. You can first paste over the halves of the field with colored paper of two colors so that you know which one the “flea” will jump into.

If you are making entertainment for children at the dacha, then you can cut out “fleas” from wood. Linden is best suited for this. Grind down the edges of the circles, then you will get the same fun elements that were made in the old days.


For a game you made yourself, you can use the following attributes:
  • wooden circles;
  • buttons;
  • coins;
  • beans.
The latter “jump” very funny if you press on their edges with coins. Take beans of two colors - one for each competitor.

You can come up with the rules of the game on the fly. For example, whose flea will jump higher and further, or which one will end up in the goal or in the opponent’s half. In this case, you need to hit her with your “flea”, throwing it from above.

You can also compete in accuracy. Each player is given the same number of fleas. You need to hit your opponent's goal with your own. If the “flea” remains on the playing field of its color, the owner of the attribute takes it and uses it in the future. And if it doesn’t hit the goal and remains on the opponent’s field, he takes it for himself.

Whoever has the most of these trophies at the end of the game wins.

If you want to make another quick game for kids, then tic-tac-toe is for you. The field is drawn on paper, and the chips are made from bottle caps. On some of them you need to draw crosses, and on others - zeros.


When it is your turn, place a cover of a suitable design on the field, and then your opponent will place his. You can make chips not from lids, but from soft material. For these you need to prepare:
  • textile;
  • ribbons;
  • thread with a needle or glue.

It is better to use dense fabric that will hold its shape and will not fray. If it is thin, cut out 2 squares and sew them in pairs.


Sew ribbons folded in a cross to the front side of the fabric squares. Attach circles from the same braid to other blanks. They can either be sewn or glued.

If your baby won't let you cook in the kitchen, demanding your attention, figure out something to keep him occupied. Draw a game board on a piece of paper and attach it to the refrigerator with magnets. Connect the ice cream sticks with a cross, tying them together with a magnet. Toes can be made from felt or other suitable material. They are attached in the same way.

Intellectual games for children from 7 years old

Older children can be introduced to chess and checkers. A simple sheet of cardboard will do for the board. You need to draw vertical and horizontal stripes on it, shade it to make squares and apply symbols.

If you want to make a chessboard with your own hands so that it is large, then use a sheet of plywood. Apply masking tape to it vertically and horizontally. Cover the surface with dark paint. When it dries, peel off the tape and see what even squares you get.


Craftswomen can sew a field of thick dark-colored fabric onto which light squares are sewn.

Ordinary bottle caps or flat buttons are turned into checkers. Light ones are taken only for one player, dark ones for the other.


Attributes for chess are also easy to make. Draw knights, pawns, etc. on the lid with a marker or felt-tip pen. You can use circles of paper for this. Draw on it and then glue it to the lids.

You can also make dominoes yourself. To do this, dots are applied to pebbles or salt dough figures using a corrector.

When making dominoes with your own hands, follow this diagram:


As you can see, making games with your own hands is very simple. To do this, they use available materials that will help the development of children, teach them new things and allow them to spend their leisure time fun and usefully.

We think you might be interested to see how to make games for children using original ideas. To do this, we suggest that you familiarize yourself with the following videos:

Playing in kindergarten is an integral part of children's lives. The game educates, entertains, brings peace, and calms. Each teacher strives to make the educational play environment of his group richer and richer. What games are most relevant in different age groups and how to make them without spending a lot of time and effort?

Carrying out games in kindergarten

The phenomenon of play has attracted the attention of teachers and psychologists at all times. At first, a child’s play was considered an action aimed solely at obtaining pleasure, joy, serving for entertainment and amusement. But serious scientific research by leading experts in the field of pedagogy and child psychology has proven: play is a powerful tool that can solve the most complex problems of education, upbringing and development of children. Moreover, the lack of games and play activities leads to the most unpleasant consequences: inhibition of intellectual processes, difficulties in socialization, and even stress in children.

In preschool educational institutions, games accompany children almost all the time: in the first and second half of the day, at different regime moments, during classes and walks. This helps not only to fulfill software requirements, but also helps strengthen physical and mental health pupils.

Play is vital for a child, almost like sleep and food.

Contents and objectives of play activities in different periods of childhood

Since the psychology of early (third year of life), younger (fourth-fifth) and older (sixth-seventh year) children preschool age has its own characteristics, then the organization of games during these periods pursues slightly different tasks, which expand and become more complex as children grow older.

Features of play activities of children of the third year of life

In the third year of life, the child’s leading activity is still subject-based, which is gradually replaced by play, so the basis of games is a variety of practical actions with objects. Story-based games begin their development with display games - reflecting what the child sees in the real world. The main types of games at this age are:

  • Plot-representative - based on the repetition of adult actions:
    • “The doll is sick”;
    • “We’ll treat the dolls to delicious cakes”;
    • “Let’s dress the doll Dasha for a walk”;
    • "Let's go for a ride in the car."
  • Imitation games based on poems, songs, fairy tales:
    • “The bunnies scattered across the forest lawn”;
    • "I love my horse";
    • “Birds fly, preen their feathers, peck grains.”
  • Construction - children, with the help of a teacher, build simple structures based on models and play with them using small figures of animals, dolls, cars:
    • “Sofa and table for dolls”;
    • "Slide and swing";
    • "Dog House";
    • "Road and Bridge".
  • Directing - the child does not take on the role, but controls the actions of the toys and voices them:
    • the doll rolled down the hill, fell, cried: “Ah-ah!”, you have to feel sorry for her;
    • a dog and a cat sit near the house, drink milk from a bowl, go into the house, fall asleep in it, etc.
  • Didactic - introduce children to the game task and the rules that must be followed in order to achieve the result:
    • Subject. Usually these are games to consolidate sensory standards (color, shape, size). They use all kinds of nesting dolls, turrets, sleeves of different colors and shapes, beads for stringing, pyramids, balls, colored clothespins, toys:
      • “Put the balls into boxes by color”;
      • “Fold a pyramid”;
      • “Mushrooms and Christmas trees”;
      • "Give the sun some rays."
    • Desktop-printed. This is a large mosaic, cubes, pictures:
      • “Find the cub”;
      • “Fold the picture”;
      • "Find a match."
  • Games with water and sand:
    • "Footprints in the Sand";
    • "Sand Mill";
    • "Caught a fish!"
  • Mobile - contribute to the development of physical qualities, dexterity, speed, spatial orientation skills, improve coordination of movements:
    • "Run after me"
    • “Walk through and don’t touch me”
    • “Who will raise the flag first?”
  • Finger - contribute to the development of fine motor skills and finger dexterity, develop speech, teach to coordinate the actions of both hands:
    • "Let's cook some porridge"
    • “Doo-doo-doo, pipe,”
    • “This finger is grandpa.”
  • Dramatization games - children, using masks or clothing items from the dressing room (handkerchiefs, hats, aprons), transform into characters from fairy tales and cartoons.

Tasks play activity V early age(according to educational program"Childhood"):

  1. Develop the gaming experience of every child.
  2. Contribute to the reflection of ideas about the surrounding reality in the game.
  3. Support children's first creative expressions.
  4. Foster a desire for playful communication with peers.
  5. Arouse interest and cultivate a desire to participate in aesthetic games.

Early childhood is characterized by:

  1. “Games nearby” - children do not yet interact with each other, but they can share toys with peers, show a friend the result of the game, and are interested in his actions.
  2. The course of the game depends on the adult - on their own, children are not yet able to conceive the plot of the game and support its development, provide enrichment with new elements.
  3. Small inclusion of fantasy, imaginary elements - what is seen in real life, tested from personal experience.
  4. Animation of inanimate things, assignment of non-existent properties to objects - not on the basis of fantasy, but due to a lack of information about phenomena and objects. Children “feed” their favorite car with porridge from a plate in an independent director’s game, they can “plant” a bunny on a tree, since they do not yet know that hares do not know how to climb trees. In such cases, you should not correct the children or interrupt the game. The child has the right to express his imagination, even if it is based on a lack of life experience. But the teacher should play with him a game that reflects the real properties of the objects: “Let’s roll the car along the path, here it is carrying cubes, here we are unloading them,” “The bunny is jumping on the lawn, and the squirrel is sitting on the Christmas tree and gnawing on a pine cone. They saw each other, the squirrel jumped down, and the animals were playing.”

Young children play nearby but do not interact with each other

Play in early preschool age (4–5 years old)

Junior preschool age is unthinkable without games. This is reflected in their significant diversity compared to the stage of early childhood. The tasks of play activities at this age become more complex and include:

  1. Enriching the themes and types of games, expanding the range of gaming activities. The role-playing game comes to the fore. Children learn to assign roles, follow them, establish relationships in play, create an environment using attributes, substitute objects, and perform actions according to real and imaginary situations.
  2. Development of creative abilities, experimentation, creative approach.
  3. Teaching children to more strictly follow the rules, the ability to accept defeat in a competitive game, and not to laugh at the loser.
  4. Fostering friendly, friendly relationships, the ability to share toys, give in, and understand that other children may have a different opinion that must be respected.

Children of the fourth year of life are already learning to share toys and respect other people’s interests

Types of games in early preschool age:

  • Plot-role-playing - children participate in choosing and thinking about the plot of the game, are able to maintain interest in the plot for 12–18 minutes, and sometimes longer, take on and act out simplified roles (the doctor listens to the child, the nurse gave an injection, the mother bought something in the store products). The game is accompanied by verbal explanations: “Our daughters slept, now we will feed them and take them for a walk.” Children can use ready-made play space(garage, hairdresser, room at home), as well as change and supplement it, using substitute items, combine items from two playing spaces.
  • Director's - they acquire a more complex plot, the number of characters increases, now there is not one, but two or more “directors” in the game, who rather harmoniously and amicably build the overall course of the game. There is a desire to demonstrate your game to the audience (teacher, other children).
  • Improvisation and theatricalization are a favorite type of games in early preschool age. The rapid development of fantasy encourages the child to imagine himself with everything he sees around him, to imitate and imitate. This is natural, since play is the fulfillment of desires (according to L. S. Vygotsky), and children at this age want to try themselves in the most different roles: sunshine, rain, forest animals, and fairy tale heroes.

    Primary preschool age is characterized by rapid and high-quality development of role-playing games

  • Experimentation games are based on children's awakening interest in the world around them and its secrets. Games include:
    • With natural material(sand, water, snow, ice);
    • with natural objects (sunny bunnies, soap bubbles, wind);
    • with glass (in a safe form);
    • with light and shadow;
    • with sounds;
    • with paper.
  • Didactic - their importance is increasing, they are used in every lesson and at other routine moments, performing various educational tasks, promoting the development of thought processes, speech, attention, logic.
  • Construction games - the types and forms of buildings become significantly more complex, construction games are combined with other types of games (for example, a house for dolls is being built, in which the director's game "Family" then takes place).
  • Movable and finger - include more complex movements and rules, are distinguished by the appearance of leading roles that can be performed not only by the teacher, but also by the child.

Senior preschool age - time to prepare for school

Leading psychologists have proven that it is the game that promotes the rapid and correct formation of life competencies, which will simplify the process of adaptation to school life and help the child in the future:

  • ability to collaborate;
  • learning ability, rapid acquisition of new knowledge and skills;
  • communication skills;
  • ability to take responsibility;
  • ability to apply knowledge in practice;
  • persistent overcoming difficulties;
  • the ability to establish connections between events.

Given the increased requirements, the tasks assigned to gaming activities are also becoming more complicated:

  1. Develop the ability to conceive and implement the plot of a game (first based on familiar fairy tales and stories, then with the introduction of partial changes, and by the beginning of the seventh year of life - create a new plot, showing creativity and imagination).
  2. Enrich and expand the range of subjects (farm, bank, museum, supermarket, travel agency).
  3. Improve the ability to follow the rules, communicate your opinion during the course and development of the game, listen to your partner, and come to a common opinion.
  4. Stimulate children's activity, independence and creativity, encourage the creation of new rules.
  5. Develop relationships between children in play, gaming cooperation.

Fantasy games are added to the games used in early preschool age. They imitate not real-life adults with a certain profession (driver, astronaut, builder), but characters from fairy tales and legends, endowed with properties that children would like to have: a fairy, a wizard, a giant, a mermaid.

Such games have great potential for developing creativity and imagination, but equally important moral education. Heroes endowed with special abilities must still remain kind: the giant does not break, but helps to build beautiful city, the wizard does only good miracles. If a child shows aggression in a fantasy game and strives for destruction, this is a signal for the teacher to contact a psychologist.

Techniques for managing children's play in preschool educational institutions

Techniques for organizing and directing children's play are divided into three groups. The first includes those related to enriching children with the necessary knowledge about the world around them, human activities, the variety of professions and relationships between people:

  • excursions;
  • observation;
  • meetings with people of different professions;
  • reading fiction;
  • story;
  • conversation;
  • display of photographs, illustrations, paintings;
  • dramatizations of literary works.

An excursion for preschoolers to a pharmacy, store, or bank will provide valuable experience that children use in story games

The second group includes techniques that are aimed at directly developing and shaping gaming activity:

  • showing an example as a teacher (how to play, what actions to perform), it is especially important at an early age;
  • advice - a suggestion on what plot to use, what attributes are best suited;
  • reminder of the rules, procedures;
  • assignment;
  • clarification;
  • encouragement

The third group includes techniques related to the manufacture gaming materials, equipment, items for games:

  • demonstration of design techniques and making crafts;
  • joint implementation of buildings, attributes (books for a toy library, notebooks for a doll school);
  • examination of the sample;
  • display of diagrams, tables.

Of particular importance in the senior and preparatory groups are games related to the development of intelligence and the mental sphere:

  • brain teaser;
  • to attention;
  • memory;
  • the ability to find a non-standard solution, change the situation, and show a creative approach.

The variety and richness of children’s play activities primarily depends on the teacher, on whether he is creative and passionate about his work. After all, it is these qualities that help the teacher create in the group space that very educational play environment that will stimulate the development of the child and encourage kids to play.

Homemade games for children of all ages

For the youngest children, the teacher can create games with their own hands, combining various objects, as well as using them in an unusual way. For the most part, these are games for the development of sensory perception and fine motor skills. As children grow, games become more complex; game aids may already be designed for role-playing processes, different types theatricalization, etc.

Games with clothespins

Kids love funny games with clothespins. These are the easiest to make:

  1. The main image on which the clothespins will be attached is selected.
  2. It is printed and covered with a protective transparent film to prevent damage and contamination.
  3. Then the clothespins are selected according to color according to the plan.

Photo gallery: templates for games with clothespins

Games with plastic bottle caps

The caps can be screwed onto the tops of bottles with necks that are cut off and glued onto a picture. You can make holes in them and use them for stringing, like large beads, and also arrange them by color.

Photo gallery: games with lids

Items for screwing on the lids can be very diverse Bright plastic lids are also easy to clean The lids can also be arranged in cups by color

Laces

Here the playing field consists of an image and parts that need to be “laced” to it - attached with laces or thick threads.

Photo gallery: pictures for lacing

You can then give kind and cute pictures like the sun to your mother. The child must remember that a car needs wheels. The task of attaching apples to an apple tree can be used in a lesson about nature. A cloud and rain are a good illustration for a travel story. Droplets.

Finger puppets

This is a guide for finger games does not require material costs and special labor. You just need to print ready-made character templates with holes for your fingers. Children put the doll on their fingers and “walk” with them, performing actions according to the words of the game.

Paper dolls with finger holes make exercise a fun game

There is a second version of finger puppets: they are sewn from fabric similar to thimbles. They can be used for games, gymnastics, and theatrical performances.

Homemade finger puppets based on the fairy tale “Turnip” will captivate kids and arouse interest in the theatrical production

Sensory boxes: varieties, what to fill, what themes to choose

This innovative play equipment gives limitless scope to the imagination of both the teacher organizing the game and the child. It consists of a spacious plastic container without cracks or holes, filled with:

  • coarse sand;
  • buttons;
  • beads;
  • small stones;
  • cereal;
  • all kinds of objects.

All this can be buried and dug up, rearranged at your discretion, and arranged.

The delight of children involved in the sensory box, their enthusiasm is hard to imagine. The kids are simply happy to have such a benefit at their disposal. After all, their field of activity and variety of actions here truly has no boundaries. Sensory boxes for younger children are made with fewer items (8–10), for older children up to 20.

The use of sensory boxes should be carried out under the strict supervision of the teacher so that children cannot swallow or put parts of the filler into their nose or ear: cereals, buttons, etc. The boxes are kept closed and access to them is limited for children.

Young children are offered boxes in which objects are not united by a theme. For older children, you can come up with boxes of different themes:

  • junior and middle groups:
    • “At Grandma’s in the Village”;
    • "Forest Friends";
    • "Marine life";
    • "Adventures in the Zoo";
  • senior group:
    • "Space Travel";
    • "In the land of fairies."

Photo gallery: sensory boxes of different themes

The “Grandma’s in the Village” sensory box will allow children to play with summer experiences. The “Gifts of Autumn” sensory box will fit perfectly into an activity dedicated to the seasons. And the “Beach Vacation” box will appeal to older children who have an understanding of the sea. The “African Animals” box will help children master knowledge. about the fauna of the hot continent The “Space Adventures” box spurs imagination and encourages interest in astronomy

DIY equipment for role-playing games

Of course, most of the equipment and items for story games They are purchased ready-made in stores. These are all kinds of transport, construction sets, strollers, dolls, doll furniture and dishes, toys depicting animals, etc. Without them, creation gaming environment unthinkable.

In specialized stores you can now buy a toy pharmacy, a supermarket, and a parking lot. Children love these toys and enjoy using them. But also great joy they experience from homemade play equipment, especially if they themselves took part in its manufacture.

Nowadays you won’t surprise anyone in a kindergarten with the role-playing game “Hospital”, “Kindergarten”, “School”. But coming up with and implementing the games “Bank”, “Atelier”, “Cafe”, “Mail” is another question. Many educators, especially young ones, believe that it is very difficult to make equipment for such games, but this is not so.

Organization of the story game "Bank"

For this game you will need the following equipment and attributes:

  • ATM and cash registers;
  • plastic cards;
  • banknotes;
  • check books;
  • contract forms;
  • telephones;
  • calculators;
  • “branded” items of clothing for “bank” employees:
    • ties;
    • handkerchiefs;
    • emblems.

An ATM is easy to make from large cardboard boxes, as is a cashier's station. You can draw banknotes with your children after examining real banknotes. A distinctive feature of all banknotes is a large image of an object in the center (an architectural monument, a portrait). Taking this feature into account, children can depict the symbol of their group (dwarf, Snow White, bell) on homemade bills. This will give the game originality: the group will have its own currency.

Getting money from a toy ATM is interesting for all “clients”

It should be remembered that the role-playing game “Bank” in itself will not bring serious benefits, since children will only learn a narrow range of actions (withdraw money from a card, take it and give it out at the cash register). It is important to convey to children that they take money from the bank not just for any purchases, but to open any business, a large business of their own: a store, a farm, construction.

The next day after playing in the bank, children should be invited to play in a cafe, studio, or building a house, emphasizing that the money to buy the necessary equipment (display window, transport, building materials) was taken from the bank yesterday.

After some time, the game in the bank should be repeated, changing the game tasks - now the “clients” no longer take, but return the loans, telling how they made a profit, what kind of business they opened, for example: Olya, Tanya and Katya set up a cafe, made and sold a lot pastries and cakes, now they return the money to the bank, because that was the agreement from the very beginning.

It’s too early to talk about loan interest for preschoolers; they are offered simplified rules for the game: take it and return the same amount.

The cultural and aesthetic side of the game is of great importance: children need to be reminded that bank employees always look neat, friendly and patient with visitors. It will be great if the tables " bank workers“will be decorated with flowers and “advertising brochures”, which the children themselves will also draw.

The cashier is very polite to his customer

Making the game "Mail"

Equipment for the game “Mail” is also made from scrap materials:

  1. In essence, there are only one or two large items in the game, these are the windows for issuing mail.
  2. The rest: parcels, postcards, envelopes, magazines, newspapers - can be easily made or assembled; many parents have stocks of old postcards and magazines at home that they will be happy to share.
  3. You can ask handicraft mothers to sew attributes from fabric (bags and postman uniforms).

Making attributes for role-playing game"Mail" will not require large expenses

How to make a game "Atelier"

Responsive parents of kids will also help you make equipment and attributes for the game “Atelier”. Dads are quite capable of making “hangers” from wire and simple mannequins, and mothers and grandmothers can sew a dozen elegant dresses. Scraps of brightly colored fabrics and fashion magazines will complement the play environment. But how to play in the studio? Even children can cut and cut fabric preparatory group It is difficult, and also quite expensive, to constantly update game materials.

Parents of children will help create a beautiful studio for dolls

The solution is simple: use cutting and decorating dresses for paper dolls in the game. Let children model, invent styles, paint clothes for dolls - but for paper dolls and on paper. You can play it like this: “mother” (a large voluminous doll) brought her “daughter” ( paper doll) so that they could sew her an elegant dress.

Little fashion designers will be happy to make paper clothes for dolls and decorate them according to their own imagination.

Creating a motivating environment

In addition to a rich gaming environment, it is necessary to create an environment in the group room that develops and motivates to play. So, in order to encourage children to play games that imitate the professional activities of adults, in the area of ​​story games you can place photographs of people of different specialties in elegant frames: a pilot, an astronaut, a sailor, a builder, a teacher, a grain grower. The colorful panel “City of Craftsmen” will decorate the group and will greatly benefit the development of children, which will depict various houses, and in their windows - people engaged in one kind of work or another (baker, seamstress, florist).

The house where the doctor and seamstress live will become part of the City of Craftsmen

Equipment for improvisational, directing and theatrical games

The attributes for imitation and theatrical performances are figurines of fairy-tale characters, as well as hats and masks of various heroes, animals, the sun, clouds, etc. The teacher can print them out by finding templates on the Internet, but can also display Creative skills and draw it yourself. These same hats and masks can be used for outdoor games. It is not difficult to make various types of theaters with your own hands: mitten theater, on cones, box theater, on spoons.

For director's games, sets of small animals, baby dolls, dolls, as well as furniture and vehicles of the appropriate size are quite suitable. These toys can be taken from sensory boxes and stored separately in open containers for children to have access to.

It is convenient to store attributes for director's games in plastic containers or boxes

Attributes for director's games should not have dangerous small parts; you should also regularly check whether the wheels of the cars, the arms and legs of small dolls and other parts of the toys are firmly in place.

Making educational games with your own hands

For a complete educational activities requires varied and interesting didactic games, appropriate to the age of children and conducive to solving educational problems. These are the games:

  • on speech development;
  • on the study of natural phenomena;
  • on the formation of mathematical concepts;
  • on familiarization with the objective world;
  • other educational games.

Most of them are desktop-printed; the teacher can make them using the Word text editor or draw them by hand. They are valuable because:

  • can be used in a lesson with all children (frontal);
  • brightly and aesthetically decorated;
  • present complex material in a form accessible to children;
  • They also carry a developmental and educational load - they cultivate a love for nature, for animals, a caring attitude toward man-made objects, and friendly relationships (many require working in pairs).

Natural history lotto “Seasons” (from the middle group)

  1. It is necessary to print out the playing fields (4 or 8 if two subgroups of children are playing), as well as a set of cards depicting seasonal phenomena (yellow autumn leaf, drops, flowering apple tree branch, strawberries).
  2. The playing fields are distributed to children sitting around the table; you can give one sheet per table (for a couple of children).
  3. Pictures with seasonal phenomena lie in the center of the common table, or they are shown and voiced by the teacher.
  4. Children fill out the fields according to the classic lotto rules. The winner is the one who fills his playing field first.

Photo gallery: playing fields “Seasons”

The winner with a “winter” field can be asked to read a poem on the New Year theme. The game can be included in the lesson plan for directly educational activities on the change of seasons. The winner with a summer card can be asked to come up with a story about summer. Can be played several times, changing the fields for children

Educational game “Living, inanimate, man-made” (senior and preparatory group)

Before the game, children have a series of conversations about the origin of objects around us. Children are told that everything around them either belongs to the natural world or was created by human hands. To consolidate this information and check whether everyone has learned it, you can play a game on the ability to classify objects by source of origin. Children are given playing fields on which clue objects are depicted. The game task is to place a set of pictures on the playing fields in accordance with whether they belong to inanimate or living nature or are made by human hands.

Photo gallery: playing fields “Living, inanimate, man-made”

You can check whether children understand what “Living” means (plants and animals) “Non-living” - cards with weather phenomena and inanimate objects In essence, the game is simple, but useful for mastering the concept of “Man-made”, etc.

Game for mastering literacy “Catch the first sound” (senior and preparatory groups)

  1. The playing fields consist of stripes, at the beginning of which there is an icon corresponding to the designation of the sound during sound analysis (a hard consonant is a blue square, a soft one is green, a vowel sound is red).
  2. Children are also given a set of pictures.
  3. Game task: highlight the first sound in a word, determine what it is (vowel, consonant, hard or soft) and put the picture on the corresponding strip.

In the game “Catch the First Sound,” kids not only learn to divide sounds into vowels and consonants, but also to determine the hardness and softness of consonants

Game for mastering literacy “Two Baskets” (for the preparatory group)

  1. The teacher says that in the park not far from kindergarten There live two gnomes. Dwarves collect pictures that begin with the first letter of their name. Friends sent them sets of pictures.
  2. Children must help the gnomes arrange the pictures into two baskets, focusing on the first letter of the name.
  3. Children are given one playing field per table (work in pairs) and sets of pictures in envelopes (4 for each sound).
  4. The playing fields contain images of two baskets, onto which a transparent pocket is attached using tape, where different letters can be inserted. For example, if the gnomes are called Button and Eraser, then the letters in the pockets will be “K” and “L”, and the pictures in the envelopes will be: cat, candy, pan, potato, fox, watering can, lamp, leaf. The game can have a large number of variations.

The game “Two Baskets” teaches older preschoolers to identify not only the first sound in a word, but also the first letter in its spelling

Mathematical game for the middle group “Count and find the right number”

Three (or two at the beginning of the year) stripes depict a certain number of objects. Children count them and put the required number in a special window.

In the window on the right, children put the desired number

Attention game for the second younger group “Place the toys in their places”

  1. The playing field consists of two stripes.
  2. Toys (3–5) are drawn on the top, the bottom part of the sheet (shelf) is empty.
  3. The child must arrange the images of toys according to how they stand at the top.

This game develops memory, attention, and fosters a love of order.

Logic games and puzzles (for older groups)

In each group of senior preschool age it is desirable to have a “bank logic games"in a separate folder or box. These are search games:

  • sequences;
  • compliance;
  • deliberate mistake;
  • discrepancies in two images, etc.

These can be printouts of tasks from the Internet, as well as a variety of cut-out pictures, boards with buttons and other items that you can make yourself - often not just games, but full-fledged ones methodological manuals for the development of thinking and logic. It is better if the children study with them under the supervision of a teacher (and regarding the boards, this is generally a necessity)

Photo gallery: examples of logical tasks and games for older children

It is better for a child to do logical tasks under the supervision of a teacher. Task “Which house is next?” will make your child think Logic tasks can be supplemented with attentive tasks Many children love to draw, and this is the key to awakening their interest in logical tasks A board with buttons and rubber bands helps children plunge into the world of geometry A board with buttons and an elastic band will also be useful in mathematics classes

Structure and time plan of the didactic game

The didactic game does not have a strict time frame, but it does have a certain logical structure. Taking into account the use of educational time and the degree of complexity of the game action, there are miniature games that take 3–5 minutes, episodic games — 5–10 minutes, and lesson games lasting up to 20 minutes.

Structure of the didactic game:

  1. Introductory part. Message of the theme and game task. Explanation of the rules of the game. It should not be delayed, otherwise children will lose interest in the game.
  2. Main part. Performing play actions (at an early age they are repeated 2-3 times, in junior preschool 3-4 times, in older ones 5-6 times).
  3. Final part. Summing up the game, analyzing the results.

Table: summary of the didactic creative game-activity “Bring the figure to life” for children of the preparatory group

Game-activity stageContents of the stage
Tasks
  • To promote the development of imagination, fantasy, and the ability to transform images based on knowledge about the shape of natural objects and the objective world.
  • Improve your drawing skills with felt-tip pens, wax crayons, and cut-out appliqué.
  • Develop fine motor skills, eye, creativity, and the ability to see the similarity of objects.
  • Bring up friendly relations, mutual assistance, the ability to bring the job started to the end.
Materials
  • Audio recording;
  • landscape sheets of paper with glued geometric shapes of different colors (1 per sheet);
  • colour pencils;
  • wax crayons;
  • markers;
  • colored paper blanks:
    • stripes,
    • circles,
    • squares,
    • triangles.
Introductory partEducator:
- Guys, this morning I walked past our kindergarten and saw two sorceresses. They were talking about us! I managed to record their conversation, listen to what they argued about.
Audio recording.
First sorceress: - I like this one kindergarten. The guys here are so funny, inventors, dreamers, they can and know a lot of interesting things!
Second sorceress: - I don’t believe that they know how to fantasize, they are still small! They probably don’t know how to draw or do crafts!
Educator:
- Of course, I came up and stood up for the children from our kindergarten, because they really can and know a lot. But the mistrustful sorceress wanted to test you and gave our group a difficult task. Do you want to know which one? (Shows the students sheets of paper with geometric shapes). She gave me these geometric figures and said that only the very best dreamers and wizards would be able to turn them into objects or even animals. Do you guys think we can bring these figures to life? How can this be done?
Children read a poem:
  • It's very, very easy to animate a figure.
    You can make a small gnome.
    Spruce - from a triangle, from a circle - a bug.
    Or even an apple, or a worm.
    Let's call on our imagination to help.
    And the pictures will surprise everyone.
Main partEducator:
- Amazing! This means we can do the job easily. But let's remember the rules of the game:
  • on the sheet you can only complete parts of the image, and not whole objects;
  • The work must be done very carefully so that it looks beautiful and elegant;
  • the one who finishes the work first does not make any noise, but takes another piece of paper and makes a second picture or helps a neighbor;
  • It’s more important not to do the job first, but for all the guys to cope with it.

Let's get our fingers ready for work.
Finger gymnastics “Fingers are not afraid of work”:

  • Our fingers played (flashlights),
    Now it’s time to work (clasp your fingers, squeeze and unclench).
    They are not afraid of work (wag your finger),
    They want to work hard (tapping fist on fist).
    They know how to make pies (imitation of modeling)
    And they play the pipe (imitation of playing the pipe).
    And they drive the car (simulation of steering wheel control),
    And the flowers are watered (they pour imaginary water from folded palms).

Now that we have stretched our fingers, we can complete the task. Choose your shapes and get to work.
To the accompaniment of quiet, cheerful music, children carry out work, bringing geometric shapes to life, adding details or doing them using the cut-out appliqué technique.

  1. From a circle you can make:
    • fish,
    • Sun,
    • bug,
    • pig,
    • chicken,
    • hedgehog,
    • apple.
  2. From the square:
    • house,
    • rug,
    • TV,
    • a car with a body.
  3. From the triangle:
    • gnome in a cap,
    • Christmas tree,
    • boat,
    • ice cream.
  4. From the rectangle:
    • mushroom (rectangle - stem),
    • multi-storey building,
    • tree with branches and leaves,
    • wardrobe with shelves.
Final partThe teacher, together with the children, examines the work, discusses it, asks the children about their ideas, and praises them for their imagination.
Children's works are designed in the form of a decorative frieze and displayed at the bottom of the group's windows, "so that the incredulous sorceress can see them."
Logical conclusionThe logical conclusion of the lesson is the work of the teacher the next day. The teacher brings a bright box to the group and tells the kids that she has met an incredulous sorceress. She saw beautiful pictures, which were “revived” by the children, and I realized that the guys are real dreamers and masters. The sorceress asks the children for forgiveness for her distrust and gives them gifts. The box contains medals with the image of a cheerful man and the inscription “To the best dreamer.”
Medals and sheets with geometric figures need to be made in excess. Since the game was played in free mode, as an independent artistic activity, some children might refuse to play it. Also, children who were not there yesterday may come to the group. Naturally, after such a continuation of events, they will also want to make a “living figure” and receive a medal from the sorceress. The teacher must provide all children who have not previously participated in the game with this opportunity. And those who have already completed the task will help their comrades.

Childhood is a time of joy and wonderful discoveries. It’s great if it takes place in a game: useful, exciting, educational. Employees of preschool educational institutions make every effort to make every day of the child’s stay in the garden bright, unforgettable and fun. And they are helped in this by a variety of games, sometimes unusual and magical, as well as imagination and pedagogical skill. With a teacher who fills the space of his group with a variety of materials for games that stimulate children's thinking and creativity, the students grow up to be real skillful and inquisitive.