Mexico has an old tradition of making wooden toys painted with bright and bold colors colors, and is the world's third largest producer of toys. A bunch of these toys and games date back to the Pre-colombian era (before the 1500's) and are still played with and adored to this day-even with the existence of technology and videogames! Impressive!

So in this thread, we look at the popular toys that are loved by children! 

A card game where pieces of cardboard are used alongside the deck-with pictures that match the symbols on the cards. The first player to complete their piece of cardboard wins, and gets all the other players "money." A popular game played at family get togethers. 

Puppets that are made of wood, paper or fabric that can be played with either with string or without. They can represent anything, from characters from fairy tales to favorite cartoon characters. 

This toy is played with by having the user insert the stick into the hole in the wooden ball by balancing the it with one hand. It helps with dexterity, and is made up of a long wooden stick and ball, with a hole just big enough to fit the stick-joined together by a string.

A popular noise maker that can be seen in concerts, festivals and stadiums. You spin it, and it makes a very loud cranking sound. 

A Hexagon shaped top with different numbers painted on each side. Players take turns spinning it, whoever gets the highest score after a couple of turns wins. 

The most well known Mexican toy. It's a paper toy where candy or small toys are stuffed inside, and players take turns wacking it with a stick or other safe blunt object until it breaks, freeing the goodies for all to grab. They come in a variety of shapes-including animals, toys, and cartoon characters.

A wooden top that players spin by pulling a string wound around it. The most common way to play with them is to have two or more tops set spinning together at once and watch them wack against each other to see which one stays spinning the longest. 

Otherwise known as finger traps, these tubes made of braided palm leaves keep the fingers stuck in the tube when inserted if they try to remove them by force. The easiest way to free the fingers is to push the two ends as close together as possible, then slowly and gently remove them. The difference between this one and the more common form is that this one has only one open side of the tube, and the other end is attached to a string. 

Don't these look like fun? I'd totally still play with these as an adult. Now that you're all hyped up with the thought of fun toys, why not take a crack at this word search? Just PM the finished word search to me to get a prize! Do not post your finished puzzle in the thread! 

You have until the end of the festival, October 1st to get your entries in. Have fun!

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