🧸 The Magic Toy Shop: facilitator kit
Kids 4–8 · 15–25 minutes · Level: Easy · 6 stages
Opening story: You got locked in the toy shop after closing time, and at midnight all the toys woke up! To get out, you need to solve their riddles and find the door code. The toys aren’t scary at all; they just love playing riddle games.
Setup
- Some dolls and soft toys from home
- A ball
- Blue and yellow building blocks
- A “Closed” sign for the door
- Print the 6 stage cards and put them in order, or hide each card around the room so every answer leads to the next one.
- Read the opening story to the group and start a timer.
- When the group gets stuck, give one hint from the table, one at a time.
- Sit 10 teddies on a sofa, and take 2 down while you read station 1.
- Build a real tower of blue and yellow blocks and let the children add the next block.
- In the last station the children can march like robots and count out loud.
Answers and hints (facilitator only)
| Stage | Answer / code | Hints |
|---|---|---|
| 1. The teddy party | 8 | Hold up 10 fingers, now fold down 2. |
| 2. The ball’s riddle | circle | Draw a shape in the air with no corners at all. |
| 3. The block tower | yellow | After every blue comes… |
| 4. Warm-up route · Counting the stars | 4 | Point at each star and say a number out loud. · Start at 1 and keep going to the last star. |
| 5. Warm-up route · The color lock | red | Think of a tomato. What color is it? · 🍅 |
| 6. The robot and the door | 86 | 3 plus 3. · Write the number of teddies left first. |
Read at the end: The door is open! The toys waved goodbye, and the littlest teddy whispered: “Will you come and play again tomorrow night?”