We asked kindergarten teacher Hannah Brown Tronske, @kinderqueen123, to share her educator-approved holiday gift product picks to help support your child's learning. Here's what she had to say:
I have created this Melissa & Doug gift guide of my top 10 toys that are not only exciting to unwrap, but also encourage creative, hands-on play and important developmental skills. These are the kinds of gifts that bring lots of excitement during the holidays and will continue to be loved long after!
Top 10 Toy & Gift Picks from a Kindergarten Teacher
A great gift for little builders! Kids can stack, connect, and build while practicing fine motor skills, hand-eye coordination, problem-solving, and creativity. They can use their imagination and create something new every time! Available play sets include Farm, Safari, and All Around Town themes.
Teacher Tip: Encourage your child to practice independence while following directions. Give them a building challenge and let them work through it independently before offering help. This works on listening skills while completing a fun activity.
A creative gift that keeps little hands busy! Kids can draw, write, play with magnets, and create on both sides of the easel, all while building early writing and art skills.
Teacher Tip: Children can practice many skills with this easel like reading, writing, math, and drawing! Use the magnetic letters alongside the dry erase board to practice letter formation. Draw pictures and encourage kids to use the letters to sound out the words.
This pretend-play set lets little ones scoop, serve, and create their own ice cream treats while building fine motor skills, plus imagination, language, and social skills. It’s such a fun way to encourage creative pretend play and let their personalities shine!
Teacher Tip: Use pretend ice cream orders to practice counting, colors, and following directions! You can even introduce addition as your child scoops different ice cream flavors and counts them altogether.
A classic gift that grows with your child! Little builders can stack, balance, and create their own structures while developing fine motor skills, spatial awareness, problem-solving, and creativity. I love how open-ended they are because there’s always something new to build!
Teacher Tip: Encourage kids to measure their buildings while using the words “taller, shorter, equal, more, and less.” They can even use positional words such as “above, below, next to, beside, under, and behind.”
A fun way to bring pretend play to life! Little ones can sort and stock their vending machines while developing a variety of skills such as letter and number recognition, matching, counting, and fine motor skills.
Teacher Tip: Fill with other small toys or packaged food! Have your child work on counting and one-to-one correspondence as they stock each item in the vending machine.
The perfect gift for on-the-go fun! Kids can doodle, color, and explore without the mess of traditional art supplies. Stay entertained anywhere with four double sided cards with water scenes, search-and-find games, drawing guides, and a blank rainbow board for free drawing. Don’t worry, the pen is tethered to the board to prevent it from getting lost!
Teacher Tip: Introduce pre-writing skills in a mess-free, portable way! Have your child practice how to properly hold a pencil as they trace the pictures, lines, and shapes. This helps strengthen their fine motor skills, which are important to develop before they start writing.
A sweet little world of pretend play that kids can really make their own! This unique open-top play set is designed for top-down play with easy access, perfect for younger kids. Cheery Lane encourages imagination, storytelling, language, and social emotional skills as little ones create stories, act out everyday experiences, and explore different roles.The compact size and nesting pieces make it easy to store and move around, too!
Teacher Tip: Practice everyday skills with Cheery Lane. Have your child go through their morning routine of waking up, brushing teeth, getting dressed and starting the day!
A gift that turns puzzle time into creative play! Kids can put the pieces together and design their own railroad adventure while building problem-solving skills, spatial awareness, and hand-eye coordination. Once it’s built, wind up the trains and watch them zoom around the tracks for endless imaginative train play!
Teacher Tip: Introduce spatial reasoning by asking your child to rotate and move the pieces until they find how the tracks connect, building an understanding of how objects fit together. This can also build early STEM skills as your child experiments with designing their own track set ups.
A mess-free activity that makes a great gift! The fun sticker stamper makes it easy for little hands to place themed stickers across the activity pads that feature counting, matching, and search-and-find games. Available in various themes and some of your favorite characters, there is one for every kid.
Teacher Tip: Practice one-to-one correspondence by asking your child to put a sticker in each designated spot. Then they can practice counting how many stickers they’ve put down altogether. This will help your child match numbers to quantities.
The perfect gift for your little chef! Kids can build their own pizzas, choose their toppings, and “serve” their creations while practicing fine motor skills, creativity, sequencing, and pretend-play skills. It’s a fun, hands-on way to encourage imagination—and one they’ll want to play with again and again.
Teacher Tip: Introduce fractions and division in a super digestible, age-appropriate way! Ask your child to slice the pizza into "equal halves" (two pieces) or "quarters" (four pieces) so they can share it equally with you or favorite stuffed animals.
