40 Gifts and Toys for 5-Year-Old Girls

Two plush patients, a dog and a cat, come with this Melissa & Doug vet set, ready for the animal lover who stops to pet every pup she passes.

She can give each one a checkup and send it home with a dose of pretend medicine. After that, any toy with a sniffle can book an appointment.

Puffy stickers become characters on each page of these Melissa & Doug books, and she explains who everyone is and what they are up to.

Arranging toys into tiny scenes is her kind of game, and these books move it onto paper. With three books in the set, a fresh one is always waiting in reserve.

At the table while dinner cooks, a five-year-old who acts out her favorite cartoon can perch this character doll beside her plate.

Retelling scenes fills her play, and a familiar face in her hand gives those reruns a star to voice.

After kindergarten, a five-year-old who dreams up castles can press MAGNA-TILES Classic pieces together into walls on the playroom rug.

Her stories change halfway through, and the magnetic pieces pull apart easily, so a gate becomes a turret without help. The finished castle stands on the rug, home to whichever toy she crowns queen.

The VTech KidiZoom Smartwatch DX4 sits on a kindergartner's wrist so she can check the time just like her mom.

Copying grown-ups fills her play, so on a grocery run she taps through its screens and calls out the hour.

On the drive to kindergarten, she recites Frozen line by line from her car seat, and this Mattel Elsa doll puts the star of the movie in her hands.

The doll is dressed as Elsa appears in the first film. Some days the story sticks to the script, and some days Elsa rules Arendelle her own way.

Candles and a round of singing turn a tea party for her dolls into a birthday with this Melissa & Doug wooden cake.

Plates go out, and every doll at the table gets a serving. Because the toppings mix and match, the next doll's birthday cake can come out looking different.

You may not be ready for a real hamster yet.

This Pets Alive Hamstermania toy fills the gap as an electronic pet that makes sounds when she plays with it, and it comes with its own hamster ball. She names it and sets up a corner of her dresser for it, and nobody has a cage to clean.

Unicorns gallop through every picture a kindergartner draws, and this Barbie takes that creature off the paper and into her hands.

Sketches stay flat, but a doll she dresses and poses gives her horned favorite a voice and a plot. The figure waits on her windowsill between quests, ready for whatever adventure she dreams up next.

The Barbie Care Clinic gives a five-year-old pretend doctor a hospital playset for her dolls' checkups.

Playing doctor is her favorite game right now, so every doll in the house can line up as a patient. Her teddy bear with a scraped knee gets admitted too, chart and all.

This Bluey playset gives a 5-year-old fan several toys in one.

She flies the family off, then unfolds the plane into a resort or a boat. On a rainy afternoon, she can act out a whole vacation.

This weighted sloth plush gives a 5-year-old a heavy, huggable pal with long arms to drape over her shoulders.

She can settle in with it for a story on the couch. A carry bag comes along too.

This Braun salon set suits a 5-year-old who loves styling hair.

The little hairdryer blows cold air, and the kit adds a brush, a comb and a mirror. She can open her salon for a doll or a patient parent.

A fort set makes sense for a girl who already drapes blankets over the couch to make secret hideaways.

Now she can plan bigger shelters of her own, choosing where each wall and doorway goes. When a cousin sleeps over, she can tape a sign by the entrance and demand a password.

This gear set suits a 5-year-old who likes to take things apart and see how they work.

The pillars, connectors and crank handle let her plan a layout of rows, pyramids or zigzags. At the table, she can rebuild it a new way each time.

Jumbo cards printed with baby animals make this PlayMonster matching game easy for small hands to turn over.

Memory is one of the few games where a young player can beat a grown-up fair and square, so her wins are the real thing. Laid out face down, the cards cover a good stretch of floor.

Mermaids and fish fill every picture a kindergartner draws, so a game set on an undersea reef brings that ocean to the table.

Labeled for ages 3 to 8, it lets her move her own piece rather than watch from a grown-up's lap. Every win she claims gets announced to the whole family.

This Uzzle bundle pairs a pattern race with a block-building game for a 5-year-old who likes puzzles.

She copies each challenge card with her blocks. Then she builds a structure of her own at the kitchen table.

Wearable crafts make sense for a girl who already raids the dress-up box to plan her own outfits.

Now she can design the accessory as well, picking how each band looks before she puts it on. Before her dance recital, she can choose a favorite headband to wear on stage.

Her name goes on every scrap of paper she can find, along with rows of doodles, so a Crayola travel board that wipes clean gives her a page that never runs out.

She can practice the same tricky letter over and over, erasing between tries. Packed into a tote, it comes along for the wait at the doctor's office.

These Crayola markers suit a 5-year-old who colors every page she finds.

The maker lists them for ages 3 and up, so they fit her age. On a rainy afternoon, she can spread her pages across the table.

Kinetic Sand's Sweet Station set gives a five-year-old who loves her play kitchen a candy counter to run.

Shaping sand into sweets fits the way she already cooks up pretend snacks for everyone. After dinner, she can take dessert orders and hand each person a sandy treat.

This Crayola kit packs crayons, markers, colored pencils, chalk and a glue stick into one storage tub for a 5-year-old with a daily drawing habit.

She colors a page, then glues and decorates a new project. The maker lists it for ages 5 and up.

Play-Doh modeling dough gives a five-year-old who sculpts pets and pretend snacks her own supply to shape.

Because dough squashes back into a ball, she can rework a lumpy rabbit until it looks right. At the kitchen table on a rainy afternoon, her dough zoo grows animal by animal.

Skillmatics' Storybook Art Kit in the Unicorns & Princesses edition lets a five-year-old storyteller make her own books.

She narrates tales all day, so here she draws the pictures while a parent writes her words down. The finished book can go on her shelf for reading aloud to the family.

Lights, music and a stream of bubbles all come out of this Little Kids Moana wand at once, which gives a fan of the movie a good reason to head out to the yard.

Bubble solution comes in the box, so the wand is ready the day it is unwrapped. At dusk the lights stand out most, so the back steps become her launch pad.

Micro's Maxi kick scooter fits a five-year-old who races her shadow up and down the driveway every evening.

Going fast is what every game of hers turns into at five, and a ride powered by her legs keeps pace. The chalk finish line she draws by the garage gets crossed again and again.

With this Stomp Rocket launcher, a five-year-old who never sits still gets rockets to send into the sky.

Outdoor play is where her energy goes, and here she does the launching herself instead of watching. At the park, she can shout the countdown and hand a friend the next turn.

Questions about everything fill a five-year-old's day, and National Geographic Kids' First Big Book of Why answers them.

The publisher rates it for ages 3 to 7, which puts her right in that range. After breakfast, she can pick a page and ask a parent to read it aloud.

Curious kindergartners can ride the city bus in Last Stop on Market Street by Matt de la Peña.

She reads it with a grandparent, pointing out the people on each page. Afterward, they talk about the neighbors they see on their own walks.

The Princess in Black suits a kindergarten girl hooked on princesses, as a story for reading together.

A grown-up reads it aloud on the sofa while she turns the pages. Later she can look back through it on her own.

Pizza and Taco: Who's the Best? brings comic panels and silly food characters to a five-year-old's bookshelf.

The publisher rates it for ages 5 to 8, so she starts at the very beginning of that range. At bedtime, a parent can read the speech bubbles while she points to each panel.

These jumbo tweezers give a 5-year-old a chunky tool for plucking up pompoms and beads.

She can sort them into bowls by color at the kitchen table, then count each pile aloud.

MathLink Builders is a set of linking cubes with an activity guide, made for a 5-year-old who likes to build.

She presses the cubes together into animals and objects. Then she pulls them apart for a new idea.

Her Barbie dolls head off on pretend outings daily, and this Hot Wheels SUV puts a five-year-old behind the remote.

She picks where every story moves next, and the handset sends the car across the room to that spot.