Did you know that three is when a child’s vocabulary typically explodes from 200 to nearly 1,000 words? This remarkable growth mirrors everything happening in a three-year-old girl’s world – from increasingly complex pretend play to blossoming social skills and emerging artistic expression.
Our expertly selected gifts embrace this developmental stage, offering opportunities for both independent exploration and interactive play. We continuously update these recommendations, ensuring each choice supports their rapid development while delivering pure, uncomplicated fun.
1.Hape Kids Wooden Toy Ukulele
The Hape Wooden Ukulele has nylon strings and is perfectly sized for little hands. It’s fully tunable so girls can play real music, not just strum. The ukulele teaches coordination, rhythm and music skills.
3-year-olds will have fun learning to strum and play their favorite songs. This ukulele develops auditory, motor and creative skills through musical play. It’s made of durable, non-toxic wood and child-safe paint. It’s a great screen-free musical toy that inspires a love of music.
- Fully tunable real instrument
- Develops music skills
- Perfect size for small hands
- Made of durable wood
- Non-toxic child-safe paint
- Requires adult assistance with tuning
- Nylon strings more delicate
2.Hape Checkout Register
The Hape Checkout Register is made of high-quality, non-toxic wood. It includes a working scanner, card reader, play money and credit cards for pretend shopping.
Playing cashier encourages social skills in 3-year-olds, as they interact with customers and handle transactions. Following step-by-step roles builds confidence and improves counting abilities. It’s an engaging screen-free toy that promotes socialization.
- Working scanner and card reader
- Encourages social skills
- Inspires imaginative play
- Counting with play money
- Easy to clean and store
- Adult assembly required
- Small pieces require supervision
3.Little Tikes Easy Score Basketball Set
It’s great to encourage an interest in sports and physical play as these early habits will be taken forward into children’s lives as they grow and get older and hopefully stand them in good stead for remaining active and healthy throughout their life.
The Little Tikes Easy Score Basketball Set is a kid-friendly basketball hoop and a junior-sized ball that is also height-adjustable so can grow with a child, or be made more challenging as a child’s skills develop. This set helps to develop specific basketball skills but also hand-eye coordination and spatial awareness too, important all-round skills.
- Encourage physical, active play
- Improves hand-eye coordination
- Builds interest in sports
- Develops spatial awareness
- Height adjustable
- Requires safe environment for throwing a ball
4.Disney Magnetic Dress-Up Dolls
Give the little girl you’re shopping for a way to get creative with fashion on her own with this gift. This dress-up doll set by Disney includes two wooden cutouts, one of Minnie Mouse and the other of Daisy Duck. The set also includes over 45 wooden clothing pieces and accessories that can be attached to the figures via magnets, easy enough to use for three-year-old girls.
The style possibilities for her dress-up dolls are endless and she’ll have fun expressing her personal style in as many ways as she can think of. The figures can be left on display once they’re dressed with the individual display stands, or they can all be packed away in the included organization tray. This is a great eco-friendly gift that is plastic-free and toxin-free. Little girls will love it as they discover their own style and build confidence.
- Develops problem-solving skills
- Encourages self-expression
- Eco-friendly and toxin-free
- Develops fine motor skills
- Small pieces- Supervision is recommended
- No lid to the storage tray
5.Hape Easel with Whiteboard and Chalkboard
An easel is a great way to encourage artistic skill as well as important pre-writing skills. Before children learn to write it is important that they have good motor skills, both gross motor skills which are large scale movements and fine motor skills which are small scale movements. Drawing on a vertical surface such as an easel works both gross motor skills and fine motor skills.
The Hape Easel with Whiteboard and Chalkboard is a double-sided easel with a magnetic whiteboard on one side and a chalkboard on the other, it even comes with paint pots and a roll of paper so there are plenty of ways to play and experiment with mark-making with this gift.
- Double-sided easel with magnetic whiteboard on one side, chalkboard on the other.
- Height- adjustable
- Includes easel, 3 paint pots and replaceable paper roll
- Develops creativity
- Encourages motor skills
- Large item requires space to store and play
6.Unicorn Backpack
The Unicorn Backpack is a plush unicorn toy with a detachable backpack. The soft unicorn is an ideal gift for girls ages 2-5 for play and travel.
The padded straps and zippered pouch make this unicorn great for toddlers to take on the go. It can also be a cuddly naptime companion or a friend for imaginative play. This unicorn stuffed animal encourages pretend play while being huggable and portable. It’s a unique gift that combines a toy and a functional backpack for preschoolers. Girls will love this magical unicorn pal.
- Plush unicorn as a cuddly toy
- Removable backpack
- Portable for travel and play
- Soft and huggable
- The surface is not machine washable
7.Kid K’Nex Budding Builders Set
Open-ended resources are important for improving children’s creativity and engineering skills. The Kid K’Nex Budding Builder Set is a great resource to support the emergence of these skills and is a ton of fun for 3-year-olds who enjoy being creative and making their own structures.
Whilst some suggestions are included in the Kid K’Nex Budding Builder Set there is plenty of space for open-ended play and construction. The pieces are made with younger children and smaller hands in mind but still represent a challenge and a chance to improve fine motor skills, fitting the pieces together. The set is compatible with other Kid K’Nex sets which means that play and construction can be expanded and comes with a storage box to keep everything together.
- Open-ended
- Encourages early engineering skills
- Improves fine motor skills
- Compatible with other Kid-K’Nex sets
- Comes with storage box
- Small pieces, need to be kept away from younger siblings
8.Barbie Malibu House Playset
Playhouses and dolls houses are a popular choice of gift for 3-year-old girls and with good reason! They promote all sorts of imaginative, creative role-play and allow children to develop their speech and language skills as they tell and narrate stories, and give characters speech within their play.
The Barbie Malibu House Playset can be used with other Barbie products and is perfectly sized for Barbie dolls. The 2-story house features 6 rooms and comes with 25 accessories to enhance play. This is a gift that is sure to keep a little girl very busy.
- Compatible with other Barbie products
- Encourages imaginative play
- Improves social skills
- 2 story house; 6 rooms
- 25 accessories included
- Larger item; requires space to store and play
9.Galt Toys Folding Trampoline
Keeping children active is really important for their overall health, impacting on their cardiovascular fitness, muscle strength and even bone density. 3-year-olds need plenty of physical activity in the day and finding different ways to achieve this is critical; the more varied you can make a child’s exercise the better.
The Galt Toys Folding Trampoline introduces a different kind of movement to a child’s daily activity and improves their core and leg strength and coordination. It can also be folded down for storing away making it slightly more practical to have at home. An ideal gift for a 3-year-old girl with heaps of energy!
- Handle screws off and legs fold down to help with storage
- Keeps children active and healthy
- Develops physical skills
- Improves core and leg strength
- Ideal for developing coordination
- Requires storage space and space to play
10.Melissa & Doug Slice and Bake Wooden Cookie Play Food Set
Melissa & Doug are a great brand offering an alternative to the heaps of plastic toys available so if you’re looking to be more eco-friendly in your purchases or simply prefer the sensory properties of wood then this is a great place to start; the Melissa & Doug Wooden Scoop & Serve Ice Cream set is a lovely toy allowing children to pretend to make and sell ice creams.
Playing with this set builds fine motor skills as kids slice the cookies and arrange the toppings. It introduces counting concepts as they add cookies and toppings. The durable construction is made to withstand frequent use. It’s an ideal gift for ages 3-5 for screen-free pretend play. Add other Melissa & Doug play food sets to round out the experience. Melissa & Doug products inspire creativity and imagination.
- Encourages pretend baking play
- Builds fine motor skills
- Durable construction
- Screen-free fun
- Small parts pose choking hazard
11.Melissa & Doug Take-Along Show-Horse Stable
This is a toy that is designed to be taken-along on all sorts of adventures. With a built-in carry handle the Melissa & Doug Take-Along Show-Horse Stable set is extremely portable and can move from room to room inside the house or taken along on playdates very easily. Made of wood, this stable represents an eco-friendlier alternative to all-plastic toys.
The Melissa & Doug Take-Along Show-Horse Stable encourages imaginative play and can be personalized with labels included to go over the horses’ stalls. Perfect for a little girl who likes small -world play or horses and horse-riding.
- Wooden toy; more eco friendly
- Carry handle; portable
- Can be personalized; includes labels for the horses
- Durable construction
- Encourages imaginative play
- Slightly larger item; may require a special storage spot
12.KidKraft Princess Table & Stool
3-year-old girls often enjoy imaginative, princess-themed role-play. This kind of creative play is great for developing important social skills as well as improving speech and language, as speech is used to explain or narrate what is going on in the play. This furniture set could make an ideal gift for a little girl who’s interested in princesses and dressing up.
KidKraft Princess Table & Stool is sure to make a great addition to a girl’s bedroom which will last many years and is very easy to assemble. This is a great gift for improving self-care skills as a 3-year-old girl will love sitting at her mirror brushing her hair or pretending to put on her make-up!
- Great addition to bedroom
- Encourages imaginative play
- Improves self-awareness, self-confidence and self-esteem
- Easy assembly
- Promotes self-care and independence
- Large item, requires space
13.Paw Patrol Skye’s Ultimate Rescue Helicopter
Children love to play based on what they know and are familiar with and many 3-year-olds are big fans of the popular Paw Patrol cartoon so this playset is ideal for them. The Paw Patrol Skye’s Ultimate Rescue Helicopter is a playset including two paw patrol character figures as well as a rescue vehicle allowing children to play out a range of scenarios.
Playing in this way develops children’s story-telling skills as they begin to narrate the storyline of their play and give the characters speech and voices. Perfect for a 3-year-old Paw Patrol fan!
- Based on the popular Paw Patrol cartoon
- Encourages imaginative play
- Develops storytelling skills
- 2 paw patrol figures included
- Made of plastic; less eco-friendly
14.Calico Critters Hopscotch Rabbit Family
Calico Critters is a range of toys for imaginative, small world play. There are plenty of different playsets, accessories and characters available, and they are all interchangeable and compatible so each set expands the play world further.
The Calico Critters Hopscotch Rabbit Family is a set of 4 characters for the Calico Critters world, complete with clothing items and outfits. The soft, sensory finish on the characters is sure to appeal to 3-year-olds who still need plenty of sensory input and encourage their imaginative role-play. As Calico Critters Characters come in family sets this also encourages role-play based on children’s experience of living in a family unit.
- Compatible with other Calico Critters products
- Encourages imaginative play
- Includes clothing items
- Soft, sensory finish
- Small pieces; easy to lose
