Great Games for Young Children: Over 100 Games to Develop Self-Confidence, Problem-Solving Skills, and Cooperation

Get ready for fun! These new and classic games, each with a noncompetitive twist, are sure to get children up and moving. You'll find everything you need to know to play over 100 great games, including outside games, musical games, circle games, concept games, and cooperative games. Every game provides benefits for the whole child by supporting cognitive, social/emotional, and physical development. Perfect for rainy days, sunny days, and every day, each game in this book offers heart rate raising, team-building, friend-filled fun!

Games Include:

• The Igloo
• Light as a Feather
• Hole in One
• Let it Snow
• Home Base
• Number Ball
• Body-Part Boogie
• Musical Magical Hoops
• Rhythm Mimic
• Beanbag Freeze
• Footsie Rolls
• Reverse Tag
• Wall Ball
• Picture This

New and classic games (with a non-competitive twist) that get everybody moving, laughing, and learning!

Children's Literature

A game ought to be fun, not humiliating, not embarrassing and not hurtful, Rae Pica maintains. Toward that end, she presents over a hundred games for early childhood professionals (and parents, it is to be hoped) to encourage youngsters to work cooperatively, not competitively. Games that teach rejection, competition, failure, and humiliation, as well as those that teach exclusion and embarrassment are absent from the collection or totally reworked. For example, Pica s version of Musical Chairs challenges kids to cooperate and figure out how they can all fit on one of the remaining chairs. In short, this is a well-illustrated collection of easy and easy-going activities. The description of each game includes Why It s a Great Game and identifies developmental goals (e.g., cognitive, affective, physical). Pica mentions her Hall of Shame of Games: Dodgeball, Duck Duck Goose, Messy Backyard, Kickball, Musical Chairs, Relay Races, Steal the Bacon, Line Soccer, Red Rover, Simon Says, Spud, and Tag. She reworks several of these to be inclusive and affirming. Games are organized into five sections: Circle Games, Concept Games, Musical Games, Cooperative Games, and Outdoor Games. Most can be played in 5 to 15 minutes, and some even less. Some use a parachute or hula hoop; most just require children and a leader. There is a brief section on playing games with special needs children, for which resources are included. Includes an index and a glossary. Reviewer: Gwynne Spencer

Rae Pica has been a children's movement specialist since 1980. She is the founder/director of Moving and Learning, a company offering services and materials related to physical activity for children from birth to age eight. A popular speaker and workshop leader, she is also co-creator and host of the radio program "Body, Mind, and Child."