‘Toadstool’ lacing game

About the game

The forest gnome has guests today! Bees, a frog, a ladybird and butterflies have come to visit his colourful mushroom. Each has brought a present, and the child needs to help decorate this fairy-tale home.

The child threads the figures onto the string, matches colours, creates patterns using the cards or makes up their own — and invents a story about the gnome’s guests.

In this way, simple stringing turns into a story that can be continued in a new way every time.

In the set

• a mushroom-shaped base featuring a forest character and holes, 26 × 19 cm
• three-dimensional figures: flowers, insects, animals, leaves
• activity cards with examples
• a string for threading

How to play

1. Look at the mushroom and all its guests with your child.
2. Choose a card — your child threads the figures onto the string and decorates the mushroom as shown in the example.
3. Create your own pattern — either by colour or every other one.

Where to start

Start with a few large figures and a short piece of string. Then add the sample cards and the whole mushroom set.

Game variations

• ‘Decorate the mushroom’: flowers, insects, leaves;
• ‘The Gnome’s Tale’: who came to visit;
• In pairs: one describes, the other threads;
• ‘Count and Take It in Turns’: by colour, symmetrically, every other one.

What children can practise

• fine motor skills, coordination and precision
• working from a model
• colours and the theme of ‘nature’
• speech and imagination

Who it’s for

Children aged 3 and over; at home, at kindergarten, or during lessons with a teacher.

Material

Wood-based board (pressed wood), bright print.