Quiet Games for Preschoolers & Toddlers

Listening Game

• Involving different senses is a great way to change or adapt a game so that it becomes a quiet game. The game "I Spy" can be adapted by asking children to close their eyes and listen for sounds instead of looking for an object. Children have to guess which sound in the background that the child is thinking about. Whispering the answer makes this even more fun. Touching things that are hidden in socks is another way to involve different senses. Closing your eyes while putting your hand into a sock filled with items and identifying at least one background noise is a great way to make sure that everyone is quiet. Children have to name the object in the sock and imitate a sound they heard.

Memory Games

• Playing memory games where you have to concentrate and remember things often lead to a peaceful and quiet environment. Use a tray where you display a wide selection of objects, and let the children invent a story to remember the objects. Cover the tray with a tea cloth, and let the children whisper all the things they can remember by using the story to prompt their memory. Memorizing what the room looks like is another quiet game. Let the children sit on the floor and close their eyes while you move one object. The task is to point, without talking, to the object that has been moved.

Voice and Whispering Games

• Changing the volume of the voice is an exciting way to play games. Little children love to imitate you, so use either a normal or a whispering voice and let the toddlers imitate you. Tell a short rhyme or story and change the volume of your voice as the toddlers hold up signs that indicate whether the reader should talk normally or whisper. Preschoolers can play a whispering game where they sit in a circle and whisper a message to the child sitting beside them. The last child in the line announces the message. You can also whisper an animal name to a child and he has to act out the character of the animal without making a noise. The other children have to guess what sort of animal it is, and only whispering answers are allowed.

Thinking Games

• Thinking games where you invent new characters are a great way to spend some quiet time together while you are waiting in a line or traveling in the car. Make up stories about fairies or monsters living in the garden or underneath the floorboards. Mood games are also quiet. Take turn saying things that make you happy, sad or angry. Or, draw a large shape and ask children to transform the shape into something else; for example, draw eyes or a mouth in the middle and make a face. You can also cover a picture with puzzle pieces and let the children guess what is underneath. Remove one piece at a time until a child correctly guesses what is on the picture.