Tower of Books Preschool Game

By Charlene Haukom

Need a preschool game in a pinch? The Tower of Books Preschool Game is perfect when you need a game in a hurry. All you need is a stack of books! It’s easy to set up, easy to play, and provides plenty of fun for preschoolers!

What You Will Need

Books of various size (preferably children’s books)

How to Play

1. Build a tower of books. Put a couple of big books on the bottom for stability. Large, hardcover picture books work well. Throw a smaller one in the middle of the tower to provide a challenge.

2. Have your preschooler pull a book out of the center of the tower – but don’t let the tower fall! This is a great game to teach preschoolers all about gravity and balance.

Show your preschooler how to press lightly on the center of the top book to keep the tower stable. Then nudge the center book out just a wee bit at a time. As long as they’re moving slowly, preschoolers will be able to feel when the tower of books becomes unstable.

They’ll also begin to learn how to shift the hand pressing on the top book to keep it from toppling over. If the tower topples, just build it back up and play again.

3. If your preschooler is able to remove the center book without toppling the tower, keep going! Repeat step 2 until your preschooler has removed all of the books from the tower.

4. Stack the removed books as you go so you’ll have a new tower of books when you’re done.
 
5. Play again and again!

Make Tower of Books Preschool Game More Educational

Turn this Indoor Preschool Game into an Educational Preschool Game! If you’re playing with children’s books, reward your preschooler’s success by reading the books your preschooler pulls from the stack. Encourage preschool reading skills by having your preschooler read at least one word from each page. If your preschooler is just starting to read, choose a 2 or 3 letter word, like “in” or “and”. Depending on the book, you may be able to choose the same word on each page. This repetition will help with phonics as well as word recognition.

You can also turn the Tower of Books Preschool Game into a preschool math lesson! Count the books as you pull them out, and also count the books remaining in the stack. Go beyond a simple counting lesson and introduce preschool subtraction. Count the number of books in your tower, then focus on subtraction. When your preschooler removes a book, say something like, “We had a tower of FIVE books. You just took ONE book away. How many books are left?”

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