Simplicity in a game is something that I cherish—a sentiment that is likely shared by anyone with a preschool-aged child! Complicated games that contain countless pieces are much more likely to end up gathering dust on a shelf instead of being frequently enjoyed. I’ve recently discovered a delightfully simple and extremely entertaining game called Hullabaloo.
The game consists of 16 colorful play pads in various colors and shapes, each with an image printed on it. The large audio console has one big red button—and that’s it! There are no small breakable pieces, and best of all, the game can be opened, set up, and played in just a matter of minutes. You won’t need to spend an extensive amount of time deciphering an instruction book while anxious preschoolers wait.
The children arrange the play pads around the room. Then each child steps on a hullabaloo1.JPG purple cranium pad and someone pushes the big red button. The console provides instructions, such as “crawl to a blue,” “spin to a square,” or “skip to a circle.” The winner is announced at the end of each sequence (“Is anyone standing on the piano?”), and the winner is given personal instructions, such as “take a bow” or “do a funky dance.” Then the game starts over again.
Hullabaloo is pleasingly simple, and children just love it; the game has been an instant hit with everyone I’ve introduced it to—even older children enjoy getting in on the action, which can make the game even more fun. Another great aspect of Hullabaloo is that any number of children can play. Multiple children can share the colored pads, and since each sequence of instructions is very short, new players can join in at any time.
This game has the fast-paced action that energy-filled preschoolers love, while still providing an opportunity to reinforce early learning skills. Hullabaloo helps children to effectively develop listening comprehension and the ability to follow instructions—important pre-reading skills! The game also reinforces color and shape recognition, and gives children practice in working together.
I have found Hullabaloo to be the type of game that is perfect to pull out when the weather isn’t cooperating with scheduled plans. I love watching a group of preschoolers as they all try to figure out how to be on one play pad at the same time. I’m happy to report that no child was ever injured in the process—although sporadic bursts of uncontrollable laughter have resulted!
About Kathy Paul
My children have played this game at their grandparent’s house. They love it! It is a wonderful way to learn colors, reading, shapes and many other great things!
This game sounds great for my preschooler and my grade oner!
Oh, I really think this would be good for my youngest daughter. She is on the spectrum and lots of repetition is needed to help her remember what we’ve covered already.
I’ve heard the name of this game before but never really paid attention to what it entailed. It seems that it could be a lot of fun. Knowing my kids, though, I find it hard to believe no one will get hurt. Ha!
This sounds like a great game for my little ones. They love playing games with me and this one has a learning factor which makes it all the better.
This sounds like a great game for my girls to play together while both learning. I need more activities like this for our school days.
I just added this to my “Wish list” on Amazon.
What a great game! We a couple of preschool-aged games but I have been surprised at how complicated the instructions can be. This sounds ideal!
Sounds like a great game that both my kids could play together.
This sounds great, I bet my kids would love it!
I love that this game is high energy for my very active preschool son and that it develops listening comprehension!
This looks really fun!
This will be great to try with my special needs son!
The game looks so much fun that I added it to my Amazon wishlist! Thanks for sharing your reivew, I would have most likely bypassed this game if I hadn’t read it.
My kids love this game. They get so excited when they get to do the silly dance and can’t seem to stop laughing throughout the game. Thanks for the review.
What a fun game! Thanks for the review, I know my family would love this one. What a great game to do on rainy days or when the kids are going stir crazy.
We own the Hullabaloo DVD game, which is just as much fun – the instructions are called out from the dvd. I like that my kids can play it if I’m busy with the baby, but we don’t have a tv in our main open living room, so it’s not always convenient. I think we need to pick up a copy of the regular game! Thanks for the review. :)
This sounds great! My 3 year old son is getting better at sitting still through games of candyland, but I think that he would much more enjoy the movement of this game. We will have to give it a try…or get grandma to buy it! :-)
I have not heard of this game but it seems like it would be a great game for my kids to all play together. There are not many games that you can give to your children where such a broad range of ages can play independently.
This sounds like a lot of fun! I tutor 4-5 year olds one day a week as part of a homeschool program my family participates in, and this would be great for them, as well as my own :)
My kids LOVE this game! We play it as part of PE and sometimes the whole family gets involved. My 3 year old sets the pieces all up in a row, and my 7 year old will spread them all out, either way it is a fun game and can easily entertain for 45 minutes!
This looks really interesting! I’m putting it straight on the wish list!
Thanks for the fun review. My grandkids and I used to love this game when they were younger. Thanks for your sweet reminder of those fun family memories.
Great Game… the whole family can play and is enjoyed by all.
This sounds like a fun game – I’ll be on the lookout!
I am always looking for new games to teach reading skills. Having fun AND learning is fantastic. I am putting this on my wish list.
This is one of my boys favorite games! It is an especially big hit with the younger ones!!
Love the idea! Thank you I am always looking for new games for my very energetic two year old! !
My two daughter loved this game so much that they spent their own money to buy it. I wish we still had it for our younger kids.
My kids love this game. It helps them learn to listen to instructions carefully and think quickly so they can get onto the correct pad.
We’ve had this game for years. It’s a great way to burn off that extra energy, especially when it’s cold and dreary outside!
My children love playing this game! Their father use to work for Cranium (the company that made Hullabaloo) and so they have had the opportunity to play test the new games as they were developed. Over the years many of the games we have ended up with have lost their interest, but Hullabaloo is still one they get out and enjoy playing together.
Love the idea! Both my 2 year old and 4 year old boys will enjoy playing the game and burning off some of their energy sans fighting!
We love this game at our house. We got it several years ago when our son was 4. He’s now almost 10 and our 2 and 4 year old daughters love to play it. It is so well made that all the pieces still look great.
We love this game. My 2 year old plays it alone sometimes!! It is a great way for the whole family to be silly together also!
We like to give this game as a birthday gift. On several occasions the children have unwrapped and played this game at the party! It’s always a hit.
This sounds like such a fun game! We’ll have to add this to the Birthday Lists this year for our boys!
I love all the products. I use the tiles almost every day with my grand children. In my training with dyslexic students, several programs teach the importance of using tiles. For me the most important feature of the tiles is that they are affordable to parents when I recommend them for their children. Using tiles saves students the frustration of having to erase when they might choose the wrong letter for the word that they are working on. Thanks.
I saw your review about Hullabaloo, bought the game, and adapted it to my kindergarten class. I turned the pads over and chose 4 phonograms that we were working on. I taped them on and wrote my own script, having the kids jump, skip, crawl, tiptoe, swim to the correct phonogram. They had a ball and so did I. It was a good way to get out the wiggles on a rainy day.
I would buy level 3 and one set of tiles for each child in my Kindergarten class!
I can’t wait to own this game….I have it on my Amazon Wish List
I have never heard of this game, but it sounds fantastic. I think I’m going to have to go check it out on Amazon since it sounds like something my 3.5 year old would really enjoy.
And I definitely second the whole no small, breakable pieces and easy set-up as key desirables in any game for preschoolers!
This seems like a fun game. I’m going to see if I can find it on Amazon. Thanks for the recommendation!
This game sounds great for my kiddos. I have several preschoolers that are on a different learning level and a grade one student. I think they can all have fun with this. I am going on a Hullabaloo hunt!
Sounds like so much fun! Can’t wait to try it!
I love Hullabaloo! It is WONDERFUL for a small group of kiddos in the middle of winter when its too cold to go outside (although with the way winter has been this year in WI it hasn’t been too many days!)
this sounds like a game my daughter would really like. I’ll have to put it on our wishlist!
This sounds like a great game. I’ll have to add that one to my list of gift ideas for my kids! Thanks!
My girls LOVE this game! We have a blast playing this as a family!
I love cranium products! They encourage creative thinking and having fun while teaching important skills at the same time!
Always interested in new games for our kids to play—gee, its not just for the kids though :). The smiles on all of our faces when we engage in funny activities sure does a world of.good for our relationships! Thanks.for the review!
i would love to play this game with my kids!
This sounds like such a great game to play with my 6, 4 and 2 yr old. I’ve been looking for it but cant find it in stores. Maybe only online?
Looks like a fun way to get the wiggles out between lessons!
We love this game at our house also. In fact, I have even changed it up a little to make it fit our lessons. I make paper pads with numbers and then I’ll call out the instructions such as Jump to a multiple of 5, spin to an even number, etc. It’s a great to energize a math lesson. I could see this working with sight words also!
Yes, the possibilities are endless. I use it in my kindergarten class with the phonograms. The kids love it.
always looking for new games to play. Will be trying this one out.
I have this in a box somewhere and you have inspired me to pull it out and play with it again. :D
We’ve had this game for 3 years, and we still love it!
I got this game for $1 at a consignment sale and it is one of our most-played! Even the toddler likes to get in on the action.
I think my son would love this game! Sometimes the simplest things are best. :)
My kids love this game too! Grandma has it at her house and it helps with my more wiggly toddler/grade school kids. My older kids love to play it too and it’s nice to have a game that many age groups can enjoy together!
This looks interesting and fun. Thanks for sharing!
We love Hullabaloo! Even my big kids like to play!
This sounds like a great game to introduce to my kids (6, 4 and 18 months). Hmmm… yet another thing on the wish list. :)
My children loved this game when they were younger. We introduced many friends to it!
We love this game at our house! Even our 2yo can join in on the fun!
This sounds like a game my 5 year old son would love!
I really am enjoying my little preschoolers right now! And I love the simplicity of the games…but I enjoy watching their excitment more! It is great watching their confedence build!
This is my littles FAVORITE game. Fun thing is that they can play it together and without much adult interference so I am able to clean or lesson plan while they are playing. :)
I had this game when my boys (11 and 8) were little, and now that we have a little caboose (18 months), I wish we had kept it. So much fun, plus I love that the olders can play with the youngers easily.
My daughter is 8 and still loves to pull this out to play every now and then. It is one of our most played games.
We love hullabaloo too. Have been playing it for years with our littles and bigs ages 1.5 and up!!
My kids love this game! It is now my favorite purchase for gift-giving!
We have had this game sitting on a shelf unopened for a while. I just may have to pull it out and play with the kids this week :)
Our library has this and we’ve never checked it out. I think we will do just that this week!
Thanks for your posts. They are so helpful!
This looks like a great game for my little ones. I hate games with lots of little pieces as they always get lost.
We love this game!
We love this game too. It’s great for multiple children.
Our kids have this game and really like it, especially the little ones.
We have never played that game. It sounds fun! :)
We LOVE Hullabaloo! My kids are 6 and 9 and still like to play it, especially when friends come over.
We LOVE Hullabaloo!
We have this game! It has been a long time since we have played it. Thanks for reminding me of it. We now have a 3 year old who would enjoy this.
I must get this game. Is it still in print or do I need to search the used market? I have a 3 yr old and a 6 yr old who would both love it.