Game Ideas for Mini

Tic Tac Toe

• Benefits: This game promotes logical and strategic thinking as well as concentration and endurance
• You need: from 6 Stapelstein® Original Mini Elements
• Playmates: 2 players
• Special feature: Works with the Stapelstein® App Inspire: Tool - Feel Time

For game preparation, you need a grid with 3x3 squares. You can draw the grid with chalk or lay it with ropes. Now, each participating child selects three Stapelstein® Original Mini Elements and draws their symbol on the convex side of the element with chalk. One child might choose circles, and the other child might choose crosses or stars.

Now, decide who starts and take turns making moves. Child A places their element on a free space, then Child B comes and chooses any available space, and so on. The goal is to place three of your own elements horizontally, vertically, or diagonally without having an element of the other child in your row. But keep your eyes open, make sure not to make it too easy for your opponent to win. For more moves, each child selects five Original Mini Elements.

Pack Mule

• Benefits: This game requires skill and balance
• You need: from 6 Stapelstein® Original Mini Elements
• Playmates: from 2 players
• Special feature: Works with the Stapelstein® App Inspire: Tool - Feel Time

Depending on how many children are playing, sit in a circle. One child takes on the role of the pack mule and moves on all fours in the circle. Each child receives one or more Mini Elements. As soon as the pack mule stops at a child, that child may stack a Mini Element on the back of the pack mule. The pack mule continues to wander. Who wins: the children if the stack falls off the back of the pack mule, or the pack mule if it manages to keep all Mini Elements on its back until the end?

Game Ideas for Grow

Burnball

• Benefits: This popular throwing, catching, and running game promotes speed, hand-eye coordination, and team spirit
• You need: from 4 Stapelstein® Original Grow Elements, 1 hoop, 1 ball
• Playmates: from 6 players

Two teams play against each other. A square playing field is marked with a Grow at each corner (distance: 8–12 steps). One corner serves as the start and endpoint, and a hoop lies in the playing field as the target for the burnball.

Team A are the runner kids, Team B the catcher kids. Team B spreads out at fixed positions in the playing field, with one near the hoop.

The game begins with a runner kid from Team A throwing the ball into the playing field from the starting point, ideally making it difficult to catch. While Team B quickly passes the ball among themselves without leaving their positions to eventually place it in the hoop, the runner kid tries to get from one Grow to the next. It can stay on a Grow as soon as it realizes that the ball is about to reach the hoop. As long as the ball is being passed, it may continue to run. continue running and pass as many elements as possible until reaching the goal.

If the ball reaches the hoop while the runner child is between the grows, they are out, and Team B gets a point. Then, the next member of Team A takes their turn. Runner children already standing on a grow can continue running. A maximum of two children can stand on each grow. After all members of Team A have thrown, the teams switch roles. Each successful round earns the respective team a point.

Tip: To make the game even more dynamic, add additional Boards as hurdles between the elements or use different throwing objects, such as mini, Inside elements, soft, rubber, or perforated balls with different flight characteristics.

Rolling Competition

• Benefits: A game that trains both coordination and spatial awareness as well as power control.
• You need: from 1 Stapelstein® Original Grow Element, stopwatch or sand timer
• Playmates: from 1 player, 1 game leader

An outdoor area in the garden, park, yard, or on a meadow is particularly suitable as a playing field. If the area has a small hill, include it – this makes the game even more dynamic and exciting. First, a starting line is set. Each child receives a Grow Element. At a distance of about 10 paces or more, depending on the age of the children, you mark a turning point. The Grow Element is placed sideways and rolled. At a start signal, the children run off and roll their element in front of them, once around the turning point and back. The time can be stopped, or you can play in teams against each other.

Game Ideas for Grow & Mini

Cat and Mouse

• Benefits: This fun game focuses particularly on reaction ability, speed, and balance.
• You need: from 1 Stapelstein® Original Grow Element, several Mini Elements
• Playmates: from 4 players

One child plays the cat. All other children are mice. The cat sleeps in its “basket,” the Grow Element in the middle of the room. Mini Elements are distributed on the floor in the corners of the room as mouse holes. They sneak around the cat and tickle, spin, and tease it. Suddenly, the cat wakes up! All mice run into their mouse hole by standing on a Mini Element. If they reach their hiding places before the cat touches them, they can continue teasing in the next round. All caught mice are out. The last mouse not caught becomes the new cat.

Hot Hat

• Benefits: This game is primarily about balance, strength, and speed
• You need: from 1 Stapelstein® Original Grow Element, several Mini Elements, stopwatch or sand timer
• Playmates: from 1 player

Build a balance path with Mini Elements. Set a starting line and a goal. A Grow Element is worn as a 'hot hat' over the head (like a large mushroom hat) and must be safely balanced to the other shore. Set a stopwatch or, if multiple children are playing, compete against each other. Who can complete this task the fastest?

For younger children, the path can be built with Grow Elements. The goal is to transport and stack as many Mini Elements as possible from one side to the other. For older children, the path can be adjusted by balancing the Mini Elements on the head without using hands.

Top Tip: These game ideas can be modularly combined with Stapelstein® Original and Inside.

You can find many more game and movement ideas in our extensive Stapelstein® Play. All our games, developed for Original and Inside, can of course be supplemented or even replaced with Grow & Mini Elements. Get creative, let your imagination run wild, and create unique favorite games for you and your family.