Animal Toss Preschool Game

By Charlene Haukom

The Animal Toss Preschool Game helps preschoolers be enthusiastic about cleaning their rooms! Your preschooler probably wouldn't jump up and cheer if you said, “Let’s go clean your room!” But, what if you threw a laundry basket over your head and shouted, “Let’s go play Animal Toss!”? Chances are you’d have a preschooler racing down the hall to clean his/her room!

What You Will Need

Laundry Basket or Plastic Bin
Homeless Stuffed Animals

How to Play

1. Grab an empty laundry basket or large plastic storage bin and head for the room with the most homeless stuffed animals. If you can, keep the basket or bin as a designated home for stuffed animals. Laundry baskets and plastic bins are less expensive than toy chests, and they tuck easily away in the closet.

2. Plop the basket or bin in the middle of the room.

3. Preschoolers will have fun searching out homeless animals and tossing them into the bin. If they miss the first time, they toss again from wherever the animal landed. Keep going until all animals have found their way home.

Make Animal Toss an Educational Preschool Game

This Indoor Preschool Game is also an Educational Preschool Game. You may not be teaching your preschooler about numbers or letters, but you will be teaching important skills.

1. Overcoming challenges – you’ll be teaching your preschooler how to break down challenges into manageable tasks. A messy room can be overwhelming to a preschooler. A phrase like “clean your room” can set preschoolers up for failure. Set them up for success instead by giving them a manageable task - like putting all the stuffed animals into one bin. Show them how this concept applies to other areas of life, like reading. If a sentence is daunting, just focus on word at a time. Or if a word is daunting, then just focus on one letter at a time and build from there.

2. Unclear concepts like “enough” – When your preschooler asks you to buy another toy, does s/he understand when you say, “You already have enough”? Preschoolers can see when the animal/block/toy bin is full. The next time they beg for something new as you push your shopping cart past the toy aisle, don’t say no – but don’t say yes, either. Ask them what they're willing to give up to make room for the new toy. If they actually go home and choose something to donate or throw away, you’ll know they really want that new toy. If you decide to buy it, have them earn it by cleaning their room!

3. Keeping their rooms clean – Yes, that’s right. You can teach your preschooler to keep his/her room clean! Set up rules as you play to make future clean ups easy. For example, only one bin can be out at a time. Only allow as many toys as can fit in a bin – blocks in one, animals in another, cars in another, etc. If a bin is full, new toys have to replace old ones. This assures that everything has a place to go when it’s time to clean up.

Variations of Animal Toss Preschool Game

This Indoor Preschool Game works for all toys. Make it Block Toss, Toy Toss, Ball Toss, etc.

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