Unless you’ve been enjoying a glorious few weeks on a deserted tropical island somewhere, you would probably be aware of the Woolworths Pixar Domino Stars craze.

It sounds cute doesn’t it? Some little plastic dominoes with friendly cartoon characters on the back – Adorable! What’s not to love? Hang on, what’s that? Oh it’s just another hysterical child throwing themselves on the floor and screaming, because they got Buzz AGAIN! And over there… yep, you guessed it! Another parent shamelessly flirting with the cashier, in the hopes of securing a few more precious purple packs once the transaction has been completed.

My goddaughter was filling me in on the intense politics of the dominoes trading scheme at school. You see, she only needed two more dominoes to complete her set. She had some doubles to trade and found the people who needed the goods. BUT those cunning kids at school conspired together and decided not to go ahead with the deal, because it would mean that she would complete her set before them. Those are some pretty cold switched on 7 year olds!

I think it’s time for a domino intervention. People – this is not a drill! Wait a minute… what’s that you say? The promotion ends today?

Happy days are here again!

Hmmmm. So now that it’s all over what do we do with these treasured dominoes? Option 1 – you could keep them in the collector’s case and store them away in a time capsule to be reopened in 50 years and taken to the set of Antiques Roadshow. Option 2 – you could play with them!

For those of you who would like to go with option 2 here are 10 games you can play with your dominoes if you don’t want to play, you know, actual dominoes.

  1. Guess who – The first player picks one domino and does not let the other players know which character they have chosen. The other players take turns asking questions (E.g., Does your character live in the ocean?) to try and guess which character it is.
  2. Build a story – The dominoes are divided evenly between all players. The first player chooses a domino and places it on the floor (character side facing up) where everyone can see it. They start the story by making up a short sentence about their character such as, “Lightning McQueen was usually a fast car, but today he had a problem”. The second player then places their domino next to the first and continues the story, “Mike Wozowski had asked Lightning to meet him at the Monsters Inc factory, but McQueen was running late”. Play continues with each player adding a new domino to the chain and extending the story.
  3. Following directions – Give your child instructions on where to put the dominoes by using concepts such as before and after, first and next, in between, in front and behind. You can make your instructions simple such as, “Put Merida next to Dory” or complex, for example, “Put Nemo between Buzz and Woody”, or “Place Mr Incredible under Sully, after you put Wall E next to Buzz”.
  4. Category counting – Choose a domino and help your child think of a category that is connected to the character. For example if your child chooses the Nemo character, your category might be “Things you find under the sea”. Whereas if your child chose Mrs Incredible, your category might be “Different types of superpowers”. Once you have picked a category turn the domino over and see how many dots are on the other side. That is the number of items you need to think of. For instance if Nemo has 6 dots, your child needs to think of 6 things you find under the sea. If Mrs Incredible has 3 dots your child needs to think of 3 superpowers.
  5. Same and different – Place the dominoes character side down. Turn 2 over and think of something that is the same about them and something that is different. For example when comparing Mater and Merida you could say the thing that is the same is that they both start with the “M” sound and the thing that is different is Merida is a human and Mater is a car.
  6. Make a rhyme – Help your child create little rhymes about the characters. For example, “Rex wants to be a scary dinosaur, but no one is afraid of his little roar”. If your child finds this too difficult simplify it by asking them to make up a silly word that rhymes with the character’s name. E.g. Edna – Medna
  7. Three clues – In this game the child chooses 3 different characters and places them next to each other. They then give the other players 3 clues to describe one of the 3 characters. For example, “I chose someone who is small, furry and loves to cook”. The other players need to remember and repeat all 3 clues before they can have their guess… It’s Remy!
  8. A different ending – This is a game you can play if your child is familiar with the movies. Place all of the dominoes into a bag and ask the child to close their eyes and draw a character out. Now ask them to retell the story but add a different ending.
  9. Who starts with the sound… – Spread the dominoes out so your child can see the characters clearly. Choose a sound and ask them to find everyone whose name starts with that sound. For instance, “Find everyone who starts with the b sound” – Buzz, Bullseye, Bruce, Boo and the Bear Triplets. Remember to say the sound as in “b”, not the name of the letter as in “bee”.
  10. Who did I see? – This is a listening and memory game. Choose 10 characters and spread them out so the child can see them. Now start off with “I went for a walk and I saw (name 3 characters) and then I went home.” Make sure your child waits until you have said “then I went home” before they start collecting the 3 characters mentioned out of the 10 in front of them. To make the task more difficult ask the child to pick up the dominoes in the same order that you named them. If they pick the 3 characters correctly, put them back with the others and start again, this time naming 4 characters. Keep increasing the number each time to see how many your child can remember.

So there you have it! 10 games that you can play with your dominoes that you worked so hard to collect! Best of all, these games cover a wide range of speech and language skills so your child will be learning without even realising it!

And now while most of us can get back to our normal lives let’s just spare a thought for the parents and grandparents who are at their wits end truly committed to the cause, and are still scouring Facebook, eBay and Gumtree to complete their sets. Good luck! Oh and by the way does anyone have a spare number 10?

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