Preschool Party: Dance Like a Lemur!
It's a dance party, and your littlest leaping lemurs are invited! Introducing the preschool communication and gross motor skills game, Dance Like a Lemur!
Why lemurs? Well, they sure are cute, but have you ever seen one boogie? Dance Like a Lemur engages preschoolers' imagination as they roll the foam die and flip over a puzzle piece to reveal what adorable animal they'll interact with next as they hop, dance, tell stories, giggle, and play!
Roll the die and select a puzzle piece:
- Will you moo like a cow?
- Describe a horse
- Leap like a frog?
- Tell a funny cat story?
- Or dance like a lemur with all your friends?
Be the first to collect and assemble your puzzle pieces to win the game!
Dance Like a Lemur: A Hilarious Path to Early Childhood Development
A roomful of giggles and silly animal noises is a fun way to play, but Dance Like a Lemur is also a powerhouse for cognitive development. Here are a few early childhood learning benefits you can expect with every round of gameplay!
Gross Motor Skills and Preschool Play
Gross motor skills are essential for little ones to build mobility, balance, and coordination, which are the building blocks that provide young children with independence as they age. Gross motor skills don't just offer physical benefits; they also support cognitive growth and strengthen the cerebellum in the brain, which is responsible for balance, movement, coordination, vision, and eye movements. Focusing on games that enhance gross motor skills is crucial in the first five years of a child's development, as the brain grows rapidly, reaching 90% of its total growth by age 5.
Learning to Follow Directions Through Games
Dance Like a Lemur is an early childhood learning game that teaches preschoolers to follow simple instructions while promoting fair play, sportsmanship, and the importance of taking turns.
By teaching small children a series of "what comes next" rules, they are building early cognitive development that supports executive function skills at an early age.
Building Early Executive Function Skills
Games that support executive function activities engage the frontal lobe and prefrontal cortex of a child's developing brain and can help them adopt early aptitudes in planning and organized thinking while regulating emotions and behaviors.
Early Communication Skills
In Dance Like a Lemur, children describe animals and tell unique stories about them. They also practice interacting with other players through verbal and non-verbal communication while strengthening social-emotional learning skills.
Memory Skills
In the game, players use their memory skills to remember which puzzle pieces other players have flipped over and placed back face down in the play area. By staying focused and utilizing their memory, children can select the puzzle pieces needed to complete their own puzzles based on their color.
What is included in the game!
- 1 Action Die
- 5 Circular Five-Piece Puzzles (1 of each color)
Each puzzle contains:
- 1 Numbered Starting Piece
- 4 Pieces with Animal Slots
- 4 Animal Inserts, placed in Animal Slots
Dance Like a Lemur Setup:
Ready to boogie with your littlest besties? Let's set-up Dance Like a Lemur and play!
1.) Choose an area with plenty of room to move about.
2.) Take out one circular five-piece puzzle for each player. Leave unused puzzles in the box. Disassemble the puzzles and sort them into two piles: one pile for pieces with animal inserts and one for pieces with a number.
3.) Take the pieces that have animals and shuffle them.
4.) Randomly scatter them around the play area, animal side down. All the puzzle pieces should look the same when face down.
5.) Next, take the puzzle pieces with numbers on them and shuffle them. Randomly give one to each player. Each piece has a different number and color. The color on that piece is the color of the puzzle that player needs to finish!
6.) The number on the starting puzzle piece determines the turn order for the game. The player who has the lowest number on their puzzle piece goes first! Then the player with the next lowest number, and so on.
7.) Take the action die from the box and give it to the first player.
Now We are Ready to Play Dance Like a Lemur!
The first player rolls the action die and then places it next to their starting puzzle piece to keep track of whose turn it is. The symbol rolled on the die decides the action for the turn. Next, the player picks a face-down puzzle piece to flip over. The animal on the flipped puzzle piece will be the theme for that action.
Action Die Symbols:
Looks Like: The player who rolled the die describes what the animal on the puzzle piece looks like. What color is your animal? Is it big or small? Does it have fur or scales? Does it run fast, swim or fly?
Sounds Like: The player who rolled the die makes noises like the animal on the puzzle piece. If you don't know how your animal sounds, make the sounds they might make while they move or invent a sound you think they should make!
Acts Like: The player who rolled the die moves their body and acts like the animal on the puzzle piece. If you don't know how your animal moves, get creative and guess!
Tell a Story: The player who rolled the die tells us something about the animal on the puzzle piece. Share about a time you saw this animal, or tell us where the animal lives, who is this animal's friend, etc.
Wild: The player who rolled the die may pick any side of the die and perform the action of their choice! Picking "any side" includes the Lemur Dance Party!
Dance Like a Lemur: When a player rolls a Dancing Lemur, all players join in! Starting with the player who rolled the dice, each player picks a puzzle piece and flips it over. All players then dance like how they think their animal would dance.
Origins of Dance Like a Lemur
The origins of Dance Like a Lemur were brought to SimplyFun by world-renowned game designer Reiner Knizia. His love for lemurs and imaginative gameplay shines through the game concept, encouraging small children to get moving and develop their early gross motor and memory skills. Once Dance Like a Lemur was officially licensed, our in-house game developers got to work on the artwork and gameplay with several rounds of game testing with small children to ensure it was fun, educational, and the game rules were simple for the youngest gamers to understand and get in on the fun.
Get Ready to Bust a Move with Dance Like a Lemur!
Preschool is a time of rapid learning, growing, and exploration. With every hop, dance, leap, and shuffle, your early learner is wiring essential connections that strengthen brain regions responsible for movement, coordination, and organized thinking. To children, Dance Like a Lemur is silly fun, but it's so much more than that. Those funny movements and stories help young children develop their creativity, communication, active listening, and executive function skills. So let's play our way to early childhood development, one dance party at a time, and Dance Like a Lemur!
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