Best Stacking Games to Play!
Written by Claudia Nistor, a member of SimplyFun's Marketing Team
Do stacking games evoke nostalgic memories of your childhood? You're not alone! Some of my fondest memories involved playing dexterity stacking games with friends and family. Whether played on warm summer nights on the patio or snowed-in winter days, I can honestly say that stacking games played a key role in my childhood happiness.
Although I didn't realize it then, those fun hours playing a stacking game also helped strengthen my early cognitive development, dexterity, and social-emotional learning skills. They also snuck in an early introduction to the laws of physics. Of course, at the age of eight, my only criteria for gameplay was 'fun,' and successfully stacking a block on a swaying tower (knowing the next player would make it come crashing down) delivered all the fun and laughter a kid could ask for!
Fun and excitement aside, stacking games may be a key classroom activity to help students develop focus and concentration skills. They may also support occupational therapy for players looking to strengthen cognitive functions and fine motor mobility. In this blog post, we go beyond the surface level and explore the benefits of stacking games and the educational and therapeutic opportunities they may provide.
The Many Educational Benefits of Stacking Games
Stacking Games Help Players Build Problem-Solving Skills
As players use the laws of physics to stack, balance, and assess risk and reward, they strengthen their decision-making skills.
Stacking Games Build Concentration Skills in Children and Adults
Knowing the perfect shape and placement to avoid a tumbling tower in a stacking game requires agility and strategy and challenges one's ability to focus on the task at hand.
Stacking Games Provide a Priceless Lesson in Perseverance for Kids
Even the most seasoned tabletop gamer can cause a towering stack to take a dramatic fall. The beauty of stacking games is that they normalize winning AND losing for kids. The best way to help children understand good sportsmanship is through games where they can experience winning and losing in a safe and supportive environment, such as playing a tabletop game!
Stacking Games Help Children and Adults Develop Dexterity Skills
Whether you are an occupational therapist looking for a stacking game for your patients with mobility challenges or a parent looking to help your children practice their fine motor skills, stacking games should be considered essential in your educational toolbox.
When to Play Stacking Games
Stacking Games in the Classroom
Stacking games are a fun introduction to STEAM education, as students learn about physics, strategy, and creative problem-solving. Hands-on learning has been proven to be an effective way for students to engage their active listening skills, enabling them to learn soft skills like cooperation while also gaining hard skills like physics and STEAM thinking. For more STEM and STEAM games, click here.
Stacking Games for Occupational Therapy
Stacking games can also be incredibly useful in occupational therapy. When patients with mobility limitations practice stacking, they strengthen their fine motor skills, coordination, and concentration while engaging both the left and right hemispheres of the brain. Furthermore, fun stacking games can help provide mobility therapy in an enjoyable way and help reduce frustration.
Stacking Games for Family Game Night
Stacking games are perfect for family game nights, as their simple rules and set-up make them enjoyable for all ages and skill levels. With games like Ice Tumble, the rules are fairly simple while still providing a fun challenge with strategy twists in the game for a fun update on classic stacking games.
Stacking Games for Adult Brain Health
Our brains need strengthening and conditioning to promote brain health as we age. Sure, we can play a crossword puzzle, but lesser-known brain-strengthening exercises for adults and seniors focus on spatial reasoning, dexterity, and social engagement, which stacking games provide.
Go Beyond the Classics with These Fun Stacking Games!
Ice Tumble
Do you have what it takes to stack the slippery ice sculpture? Then let's play stacking game, Ice Tumble! The blocks are slippery, so be careful or the sculpture may come tumbling down.
How to Play:
Players take turns rolling the die and collecting ice blocks. Then they stack their blocks carefully to make an ice sculpture without any tumbling off. The first player to successfully place all their ice blocks and their fox pawn on the sculpture wins the game.
2-4 players • 15 min • 7 & up
Raise the Roofs
How high can you build it? Roll different dice combinations to build towers and earn bonus blocks in the stacking game Raise the Roofs!
How to Play:
Players take turns rolling the dice up to three times to create different combinations. These combinations are then used to build new towers, add blocks to existing towers, or reduce the height of an opponent's tower. Once gameplay ends, each player combines their towers into a single tower, and the player with the tallest tower wins!
2-4 players • 30 min • 8 & up
Feats of Cheese
Physics and fine motor skills are put to the test in this silly stacking game. Take turns stacking cheese wedges to create tall towers. The taller the tower, the more points you earn. It takes a careful hand and an eye for balance to accomplish this feat.
How to Play:
Stack a cheese wedge on the matching color platform and add a mouse if you can. If you knock over the tower, your opponents score points and you score nothing! To score, players multiply the number of mice in the tower by the number of cheese wedges that match the platform. The player with the most points at the end wins!
2-4 players • 10 min • 7 & up
Let's Play a Stacking Game!
Stacking games are the obvious choice for a fun party game, but now that we've 'stacked up' all the brain-building benefits they provide, like early physics, strategy, and STEM skills, while helping us become better collaborators, communicators, and creative problem-solvers, we know that they do so much more than entertain. So, let's give future generations the joy and laughter of face-to-face gameplay with stacking games that aid in brain development and make for a happy childhood filled with laughter and play!
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