Did you enjoy playing a detective as a child? You can make an amazingly simple detective game with your kids that’s going to be both fun and educational. Everything you need you probably already have at home.
It’s a lot of fun watching the kids put their detective skills to use and figure out which animal left the mysterious traces on the ground (read: play dough). 😉
All you need is some play dough and a few plastic (animal) toys.
Press some play dough on the flat surface with your hand, than ask your child to close their eyes while you make an impression of an animal’s foot in the play dough. You can also make impressions of the other parts of the animal, like the tail, ear, head,…
Place all the toys in a lineup and let your little detective figure out which animal is responsible for the mysterious impressions.
Adjust the game depending on the age of your child. Use simpler impressions and less “suspects” for younger children. Older kids can try to identify the suspect from partial prints alone and with lots of possible culprits. The game is very versatile and you can switch roles and become the detective, while your child makes the impressions. In our experience, that is just as fun. 🙂
This game gained a lot of popularity in our house. We had to play with these interesting and mysterious animal traces more times then I can count and my daughter still finds it interesting.
You can use different objects or toys to make the impressions. Let your imagination loose and find other creative versions of the game. This way your child is developing creativity, problem solving abilities as well as his need to explore. 🙂
Pit It for Later
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