3 Year Old Girls

What to buy for 3 Year Old Girls?

Are you looking for toys for 3 year old girls? This article gives lots of ideas of toys for 3 year old girls based on the toys my own 3 year old niece and nephews play with. I also have two boys of my own and know from experience the toys they love to play with too.

There are quite a few developmental milestones to bear in mind when choosing toys for 3 year old girls. They have left the toddler stage and are moving onto more sophisticated play. They are becoming more independent and can do much more on their own but at the same time are able to develop friendships and play with other children. They are able to learn to take turns and share to some extent. They are often engrossed in fantasy play and love to use their imagination. Their fine and gross motor skills are developing. They will be interested in gluing, sticking, painting and using scissors. They have more muscle control so will be able to jump, use a scooter and learn to pedal. Their speech is becoming clearer although there are still some thoughts and emotions which can't be expressed through language which may lead to some frustration.

Read on for more information about 3 year olds, their play and the toys they like best!

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Imaginative Toys

When I watch my 3 year old nieces and nephews play I am blown away by how much they spend using their imagination.

For example, the other day I was playing shop with my 3 year old niece. It was quite a simple game where she was the shopkeeper and I was paying money for items in her shop. But then she kept adding lots of different elements where the shop was locked and we needed keys to get in. Then she went off to catch spiders in the shop. She also plays going to work, doctors, puppet shows, dress up and lots more.

Here are some ideas of toys to facilitate this imaginative play :

Cash Register

Cash registers are a toy that last for a while. Kids who play with them learn about money and numbers. They are great for playing shop which kids love to do. .
This cash register is an fabulous toy from Learning Resources. It has very realistic money. We have this toy at home and every now and again one of the notes has been left on the floor and I think that it's real. I'm always disappointed to find out it's pretend money.
It's fantastic for role play, there's a card for card transactions.
The buttons are big and easy for little fingers to press.
It's solar powered so no worries about batteries.
It makes a satisfying cha ching noise when the till opens.

More Toys to Facilitate Imaginative Play

Doctors kit - a favorite role play game for kids through all the generations.
Puppets and puppet theater - My son used to love putting on puppet shows at this age with all his teddies and other props.
Dressing up clothes - Girls this age like to dress up as princesses, doctors, nurses, mummy and other role play outfits.
Cleaning sets - Girls this age like to copy their parents and pretend to clean.
Tea sets - Another fab idea is a tea set. My 3 year old niece loves having tea parties and gets her teddies and dolls involved too.

princess dress up

If she loves princesses she will love all the make believe play she can have with a princess dress up.

The set featured has 4 tops and 3 skirts for the different princesses.

It also has 3 bracelets, 3 rings, 1 necklace, 1 sticker sheet, 1 choker, 3 headbands and 1 soft goods tiara.

It comes packaged in a charming keepsake storage trunk

Princess shoes

Dressing up in grown up shoes is a really fun activity for young children.

This shoe set has four pairs of dress-up shoes in 4 styles:

The set also includes 3 bangles, 3 rings, 2 pairs of earrings, 1 crown and a storage box to store them all neatly.

Fun for hours of playtime.

Other role play costumes

Not all little girls want to be princess and Melissa and Doug do a great range of dress up play including firefighters, police officers, construction workers and doctors.

The firefighter costume featured includes a jacket, helmet, badge, fire extinguisher, working bullhorn and reusable name tag.

It's made of high quality and durable material. The jacket is machine washable and the accessories can be easily wiped clean.

Baby Alive Doll

3 years old is a great age to get a first doll and the interactive Baby Alive Doll is a great choice.

She has 80+ lifelike expressions, movements and real baby sounds like giggling, babbling and friendly, chatty noises. When kids talk to baby she babbles back!

She turns her head when kids call to her, naps when she is rocked, wiggles and giggles when she is tickled.

This baby doll has real baby sounds. She makes sweet feeding and sucking sounds when kids give baby her bottle (included).

She comes with beautiful baby care accessories, including removable outfit, hat, bib, blanket, pacifier, and bottle with disappearing milk

doctors kit

A doctors kit is an essential in the toy cupboard of any preschooler.

They love to "make people better". It's great for social play or they can play independently and work on teddies and dolls.

The kit featured has 19 pieces including a stethoscope, cell phone, forceps, 3 bandages, eyeglasses, name tag, scalpel, thermometer, tweezers, syringe, blood pressure cuff, scissors, reflex hammer, bedpan, ear scope, and dental mirror.

It can all be tidied away and carried around in a plastic carry case.

princess costume dress up

Age 3 is definitely an age where you can get dressed up like a princess.

And why not make the most of it with this beautiful, yellow Belle dress.

It is made of high quality fabric and with its tiered hem, this dress moves beautifully every time your girl walks, runs and dances.

You can purchase the dress with or without the accessories.

Leapfrog Scoop & Learn Ice Cream Cart

Kids love to play pretend ice cream play. For some reason, the love making ice creams, serving and selling them. They also love choosing the ice cream they want to have. This is why this ice cream cart is so popular.

As well as making ice creams with this cart, they will love pushing the cart around while they listen to upbeat sounds and music.

There can also count to ten along with the ice cream cart by pressing the syrup pump or coin button.

And the toy features phrases to introduce colors, numbers, flavors and more while exploring the six activity cards.

Construction Toys

Construction toys aren't just for boys. Girls love lego and other construction toys as well.
Lego duplo is perfect for this age as the bricks are bigger and easier for little hands to manipulate.
But there are other construction and building toys like the magformers below.

magformers

Magformers are a magnetic construction set suitable for kids aged 3 plus.

Kids can build 3D structures like a magic ball, house, tower and more.

There's a step-by-stem idea booklet to help you.

The set contains 30 pieces with shapes in teals, blues, pinks and purples.

Marble run

Marble runs are such fun construction toys.

Build a marble run and then have lots of fun running marbles down them.

It's a great toy for adults, siblings and kids to play with together.

It's a great toy that is super fun and encourages creativity.

Outdoor Toys

3 year olds have developed their gross motor skills enough to go on a wide range of outdoor toys.
They can climb, throw and catch a ball, pedal a trike, run, walk forward and backwards and more.
Here are some ideas of good outdoor toys for this age:
A scooter - get a 3 wheel scooters for 3 year olds.
A trike - 3 year olds should be able to pedal a trike.
A balance bike - I really recommend a balance bike for this age group. My son had one and at age 3 he just got on his balance bike and used it straight away. For more information on balance bikes, check out this article on bikes for 3 year olds.

Mini Micro Scooter

The mini micro scooter is an excellent choice for a 3 year old girl.
My son has one and I can honestly say it's one of the best gifts we have ever bought him as it get used so much, yet it hardly sees any wear and tear.
The scooter is slightly more expensive than other similar scooters but in this case it is certainly true that you get what you pay for.
The scooter is super lightweight making it really easy for young children to control. It's also easy for parents to pick up when their little one has had enough.
The polyurethane wheels offer a very smooth ride. There's no bumping up and down the cracks along the way. And this scooter (unlike other ones we've had) has no rattling - it's so durable. I would highly recommend.

balance bike

Balance bikes are perfect for 3 year olds. They have the co-ordination and ability to be able to learn how to ride them pretty quickly.

The bike featured has an adjustable seat and handlebar so you can adjust it to the right height for the child in question. To ride a balance bike the child's feet must be able to rest flat on the floor so they can push along the ground easily with their feet. If the seat is too heigh they will have difficulity in riding it.

The balance bike featured comes in different colors too.

Plasma car

A plasma car can be used indoors or outdoors (anywhere there's a flat smooth surface).

It can be used by kids from aged 3 to adults (the weight limit is 220 pounds). Just prop your feet up on the footrests and turn the steering wheel to get moving.

It can reach speeds of up to 6mph if older children fancy having a go.

It comes in different colors.

Radio Flyer Champion Interactive Horse Ride

This is such a cool toy. It's designed for kids between the ages of 2 to 6 years old.

This beautiful, realistically designed spring horse responds to your child’s motion with life-like sounds triggered by three levels of riding action: walking, trotting and galloping.

The spring horse also encourages imaginative play: the horse responds with eating sounds when 'fed' the carrot accessory, and the soft yarn mane can be brushed with the comb accessory.

nightlight

This nighlight looks amazing in a little girl's bedroom.

It projects a starry scene onto the walls and ceiling of the bedroom.

It has different color options and a timer, so you can set it to go off after a little one has normally gone to sleep.

Little kids are mesmerized by the light and it can help calm them and drop off to sleep.

Board Games

At 3 years old, kids are becoming more social. They are able to co-operate to some extent with family and friends and are developing more problem solving skills. Therefore it's a great age to introduce games.
With my eldest child, I found games at this age were great to demonstrate how you take turns. They start to learn how to let other people have their go first and then it will be their turn.
There are some great games designed for young children which also teach concepts such as numbers, colors, letters and more.

Sneaky Snacky Squirrel Game

This is the perfect first board game for a child.
It's extremely educational teaching matching, sorting, counting, and simple math skills but super fun too. It's also easy to learn how to play.
Spin the spinner, squeeze the matching colored acorn with your Squirrel Squeezers, and place it into your log. Be the first to fill your log with acorns, and you win.
You can also spin pick an acorn, steal an acorn, or lose an acorn, so be there's the opportunity to be strategic too.
The use of tweezers (or squeezers) are also great for helping 3 year olds develop the fine motor skills that they will need for writing and other tasks later on.
It's also a quick game that completes in a short amount of time. This keeps the kids attention but it also doesn't get too boring for adults either.

candyland - The World of Sweets Game

This a version of the classic beginner game, a perfect first game for 3 year olds that has stood the test of time.

This version of the classic Candyland game features the colored cards and fun illustrations that kids love, with different destinations like Cupcake Commons and the chunky Chocolate Mountains.

Choose your cards, move your pawn and let your imagination soar as you make your way to the castle to win!

Arts and Creative Toys

My niece loves art and crafts.
One of her favorite activities is cutting pictures out of magazines (she has some help with this!) and then gluing lots of different pictures onto a piece of paper.
She also has an easel which has magnetic letters on which she loves to play with. There is also a chalkboard for chalking. She uses it outside on a sunny day to do painting and they do a lot of drawing inside.

Crayola Ultimate Crayon Collection

This is a 151 piece crayon set which will have lots of colors every girl needs to create some masterpieces!

It also features a crayon sharpener.

The crayons look fantastic in their storage caddy which is obviously fantastic for taking the crayons wherever you want as well as storing them and keeping them organised.

There's also a place for every item when drawing to help keep organised and tidy. It's never too young to install these values in a child!

And the internal storage in the art desk helps with easy portability.

Play-Doh Kitchen Creations Magical Oven

The Play-doh kitchen creation mixes a bit of creative play with imaginative play.

Use the play-doh, rollers, cutters, moulds and shapes included to make pretend foods like make-believe muffins, play pizzas, and crazy cakes.

Then put your creation in the oven to "bake".

Lots of fun pretending to be a chef or just enjoying creating with the play-doh.

Melissa and doug Double-Sided Magnetic Tabletop Art Easel

This tabletop easel is a fab toy that facilitates lots of educational and art and craft activities.

Use the 36 letter and number magnets to practice learning letters and spelling first words.

Draw pictures with the paper roll included.

There is a chalkboard and chalk.

The easel works well on the table and is easily moved around when needed. Use outdoors in the summer and indoors in the winter.
It's a good option of easel for a small space as well.

Frozen Art desk

This is a really nice little art desk.

There is a handy cup holder on the desk which provides storage for colored pencils, crayons or markers.

Under the seat there is a fabric bin with handle. It can fit small toys, papers and art supplies. So you can keep all her drawing stuff ready for each drawing session. And it means a quick tidy up as well.

It could also be used to do other activities and eat snacks and meals too.

Crayola Color Wonder Mess Free Coloring Activity Set

This set is brilliant for drawing at home and on the go. It's perfect for putting in a bag so your kids can use it when you go to a friend's house or have to entertain kids in a waiting room.

But the best thing about this set is that the crayola markers come out clear if they are used on a wall or a piece of furniture. They only work on the color wonder paper. This means you don't have to worry about 3 year olds drawing on the wall or furniture.

The set includes color wonder ink stamp pad, 4 stamps, stamp holder, 24 page blank color wonder book, 3 sticker sheets and 5 color wonder markers.

Tara Toy Disney Princess Necklace Activity

This necklace activity set is aimed at kids aged 3 plus.

Slide the beads and character charms onto the silicone necklaces to make your jewelry.

It's a great activity to hone fine motor skills and improve coordinations as well as inspire creativity in young children.

Everything fits neatly inside a plastic storage case for easy storage and portability.

Educational Toys

There are lots of educational toys and games which are perfect for 3 year old girls. Ideas include:
Jigsaw Puzzles - My niece can do puzzles of around 12 to 24 pieces although I think she gets a bit of help with the bigger puzzles. Puzzles are great for developing problem solving skills, spatial awareness, social skills (when you work on them with more than one person), independent learning (when you finish one on your own) and lots more.
Sticker books - 3 year olds love stickers. I remember my own son was sticker mad at age 3. There are lots of great sticker books that help teach numbers, colors, the alphabet and more.
Lacing kits - great for improving fine motor skills. Lace beads and other objects onto a string

Melissa and Doug See and Spell

This is a fantastic toy which is very educational on lots of different levels.
It features several wooden puzzles, which have a picture on them and the word next to it. The idea is to find the wooden letters to complete the word puzzles next to the picture.
The wooden letters can also be used to teach letters on their own. The puzzles are great for introducing young children to letters, simple words and their spelling.
It's also fantastic for developing fine motor skills as children try to fit the letters in the puzzles.

Both my boys have played and loved this toy.
It's a great adult and child activity to do together but as they get older they will love to fill in the puzzles on their own too.
I think 3 year old girls would love these word jigsaws.

Alex toys ready, set school!

3 years old is a great age to think about getting her school ready and this set is perfect for helping her learn some skills which will give her a head start.

There's a huge array of items, wipe away books with markers, finger crayons, safety scissors, 2 stencils, 15 activity pages, 75 stickers and a shoelace.

She will learn how to cut, how to tie a shoelace, write the alphabet and lots more!

Create and write

Create and write is a fantastic toy to introduce drawing, writing to preschoolers.

It is a magnetic drawing board which has animated demonstrations that allow children to follow along and learn proper stroke order for uppercase and lowercase letters

She can start also just use the board to draw anything she wants and create her own designs with the stamps and stencils provided.

Green Toys Build-a-Bouquet Stacking Set

This is a unique toy that's great for building, sorting and matching as well as giving little ones the ability to develop their creative side.

The vibrant lilies, petunias, and daisies stack interchangeably in the assorted stems for limitless fun.

It's also great for developing fine motor skills and finger strength, while also encouraging creative, imaginative play.

The best thing about the toy is that it's made from 100% recycled plastic milk jugs in the USA. The company uses a tight, local supply chain that minimizes transportation emissions and supports the domestic economy.

Popular Toys

What's popular with 3 year old girls at the moment? Frozen, Paw patrol and Mini Mouse are all very much liked.
Little girls will love themed toys of the popular TV shows and movies that they enjoy.
Check out a couple of ideas below.

Lego duplo Minnie's birthday party

Many 3 year olds love Minnie Mouse and if so she will love this lego duplo set.

It's an easy to build 21 piece set that features a buildable toy car, a Minnie mouse figure and a cat, so there's lots of opportunity for imaginative play.

Building the toy is great for honing fine motor skills and there is lots of play value to be had after the building is complete.

paw patrol

Paw Patrol is a very popular TV program with young children so any paw patrol toys can be really popular too.

The paw patrol 2 in 1 transforming jet is awesome with lots of play value.
Press the button on the Mighty Jet’s engine to activate lights & sounds.
Switch from deluxe jet into a mobile command headquarters
But perhaps the most fun thing about it, is loading the launcher with 5 included discs and pushing the button to release them in the Mighty Jet or Ryder's mini jet.

Great for imaginative Paw Patrol play

paw patrol Mighty Pups Super Paws Chase’s Deluxe Vehicl

Fans of the paw patrol show are going to love collecting all the vehicles and characters they see on TV.

Chase's police cruiser is great for paw patrol imaginative play.

Press the button on the front to activate real lights and sounds.

Great toys to bring to live kid's imagination with rescue and adventure play.

vtech Camera

A toy which is really popular with 3 year olds and has been around for quite a few years now is the Vtech camera.

The camera is designed to be simple for very young children to use. It's also really durable to withstand the play of preschoolers.

She can take real digital photos with the 2mp camera but there's so much more she can do to. The camera includes four built-in games add to the fun; includes a video recorder and voice recorder for more creative ways to play.

She can take selfies, there's photo effects she can use to enhance her photos with more than 35 fun photo effects and 4 creative apps.

It's also really fun for adults to see the kinds of photos 3 year olds take. It gives an insight to life from their perspective.

barbie mermaid doll

Barbies are a popular choice of doll for girls of all ages.

This barbie is aimed at children aged 3 plus.
It makes a great doll to play with at bathtime, but can also be played with out of the water too.

Dip Barbie in water, perhaps in the bath or a pool and watch her tail light up. You can also press the sides of her tail to start a swimming motion in the tail

On land, press the buttons on the side to start a light show.

Press the button in Barbie doll’s necklace to switch her to “on” mode, and dip her into the tub or pool to activate a light show.

Books

Being a princess if often pushed onto little girls. They like watching movies like Frozen and playing with Disney Princesses.

This is a great book as it lets little girls know that it's okay to like being a princess but princesses might have lots of other different interests and hobbies too.

Do princesses ride tricycles, climb trees, do chores, or have to eat the crusts of their bread? This book lets little girls know that being like a princess has to do with what we are on the inside.

rosie revere Engineer

This is a brilliant book, adored by both adults and children because of the powerful messages that lie within.

Rosie, a shy girl is always making things out of odds and ends. She keeps her inventions underneath her bed, because she is scared of failure.

That is until Great, great aunt Rose (aka Rosie the Riveter) comes to visit. And explains to Rosie that her first flop isn't something to fear but something to celebrate. And the only way to fail is to quit.

Great illustrations and a beautiful story keep little ones enthralled by this best selling book.

Car Play

The remote control cars are another fun option.

They features an easy to operate remote with the perfect controller for little hands.

The polic car makes realistic police siren sounds and hey both make honking sounds, music and flashing headlights

It includes 2 vehicles: 1 police car with 2 removable police man action figures and remote control and 1 racing car .

Super fun for a 3 year old girl.

Mini Mouse remote control car

The mini mouse remote control car is the perfect car for little hands.

It's super fun, as well as moving forward, it spins!

The car works best on hard surfaces rather than carpet.

A great first R/C car.

Dollshouse

This is an amazing dollshouse and it can give many years of play.

It is huge and very spacious with nine rooms.

It comes with 30 lifestyle accessories including hand-painted wooden furniture and accessories for healthy living.
There are movable features - including the working elevator, the opening garage doors and the - which encourage interaction,.

The lights turn and and the toilet flushes.

It's large enough that multiple children can play at once.

Play tent

Play tents are lots of fun for small children. Many play tents can be used indoors and outdoors and can facilitate all kinds of imaginative play.

The play tent featured can fit up to 3 kids for social play. It is also great for reading, playing solo and relaxing.

It comes with fairy lights, so looks fantastic in a bedroom.

It's easy to set up and take down.

unicorn robe

This is a super soft cute and cuddly unicorn robe.

It's perfect for after bath time or for just cuddling up at home.

There is a hood and two pockets at the front as well.

It comes in different sizes, colors and designs.

Comfortable, great for use on cold mornings too.

​What to buy for 3 Year Old Girls?

​Imaginative Toys