Guessing games are a great way to get your child thinking and chatting.
They will develop their problem solving and reasoning skills, and the descriptive words you use will expand their vocabularies too.
What's in the box?
This game encourages your child to use their sense of touch, and to describe what they feel.
- Put an object in a box or bag. It could be a toy or something from around your home, like a piece of clothing, food or an object. Make sure your child can’t see what it is.
- Then encourage your child to put their hand in the box to feel the object. Can they guess what’s in there? To support their thinking encourage them to describe what they can feel. Is it soft or hard? Round or square? What do they think it's made of? What do they think it could be?
Then, let them pull the item out of the box. Did they guess right?
Take turns at hiding an object in the box and guessing what it is. Think aloud and show your child how to use describing words when it's your turn to guess.
I'm thinking of a ...
This game is a little more challenging, but can be played anywhere. It's a great distraction in the car or on the bus.
- Choose a theme. Animals works well.
- Pick an animal.
- Encourage your child to think of questions to ask you to help them work out which animal you're thinking of. For example, Does it have fur? Can it be a pet? Does it live in a cold place? It will take practice for your child to learn to ask the right sort of questions.
- Take it in turns picking the animal and asking questions.
- If they're struggling give them a clue ... you can use this as an opportunity to model descriptive language to them, for example, I'm thinking of an animal that has a shell for a home.
Good to know
Games like this build your child’s thinking and reasoning skills as well as their bank of descriptive words. This will help them with reading, writing and telling stories as they get older.
