Best toys and games featured at Chicago Toy and Game Fair 2011

Visitors to the 2011 Chicago Toy and Game Fair could try out many of the most interesting new games and toys. From creative building systems to pretend-play toys to family games, these playthings make great holiday presents.

Read below and check out the slideshow to learn more about some of the best products on display at ChiTAG this year.

Best toys at ChiTAG

View slideshow: Best toys and games at Chicago Toy and Game Fair 2011

Artterro art kits - Lovely eco-friendly art kits that encourage creativity by providing children with the supplies needed to complete various projects, such as decoupaging tissue paper to cardboard shapes to make ornaments or using wires and beads to create jewelry. (Find them locally at Geppetto's Toy Box.)
nanoblocks - Micro-sized building blocks with which young builders can construct models of animals and famous buildings. One of ASTRA's Best Toys for Kids for 2011. (Read our review.)
CitiBlocs - Precision-cut wooden building planks that allow for building an infinite variety of structures, now available in hot and cool colors, as well as new camouflage colors and a glow-in-the-dark version. (Read our reviews of classic CitiBlocs and the camouflage color set.)
BrickStix - Clever themed reusable cling decals that can be used to decorate LEGO and other plastic brick creations. (Find them locally at play.)
Doodle Roll - A compact and inexpensive travel toy packaged in a handy and eco-friendly dispenser that holds the roll of paper in place and doubles as a crayon tray. (Read our review.)
Playfoam Remoldable Sculpting Beads - A creative modeling material from Educational Insights that is colorful, lightweight, and reusable.
American Dollhouses - Rooms, playmats, and accessories designed to be used with 18-inch dolls, including detailed backdrops for setting up an Ice Cream Shoppe, a barn, and a regular house. All rooms and accessories are made in the United States, either in the Chicago area or in other states. (Available online at the American Dollhouses store.)

Best games at ChiTAG

Richard Scarry Busytown Busy, Busy Airport Game - A cute family-friendly game from The Wonder Forge for kids ages 3 and up in which players fly planes full of popular Busytown characters to destinations set up around the room to collect various souvenirs.
The Sneaky, Snacky Squirrel Game - A cute game for preschoolers from Educational Insights that develops fine-motor and logic skills as kids work to collect food for their squirrels.
Slooooks! - A portable I Spy game that can easily be played anywhere on the go in which kids ages 3 and up spin a color and letter for the item they will search for.
Buck Buck Moose! - A fast-paced card game from Educational Insights for kids ages 4 and up that requires players to race to win cards by slapping the deck with cards of the matching color.
Hoot Owl Hoot - An award-winning cooperative game from Peaceable Kingdom that develops good teamwork and logic skills as players work together to move the owls home before the sun sets. (Other great cooperative Peaceable Kingdom games at ChiTAG included Count Your Chickens, Mermaid Island, Stone Soup, and Lost Puppies.)
What Am I? Magnetic Charades Game - A creative game from Dowling Magnets for players ages 4 and up in which players try to guess what pictures is being constructed from the included foam magnets. (Other cute Mr. Magnet Games at ChiTAG included Counting Rainbows, Monkey Dominoes, Froggie Checkers, and Hat Stackers Party.)
Snack Attack! - A family-friendly game from ThinkFun for players ages 4 and up that requires kids to use memory and concentration skills as they match and stack food tokens on their plates.
Taiga - A fun and educational game from FoxMind for players ages 5 and up that requires players to use memory and deduction skills to flip over wooden discs to find different kinds of animals.
Find It! Games - A line of portable I Spy games consisting of clear tubes filled with tiny plastic pellets and various themed objects that players must try to spot by turning, twisting, and shaking the tubes.
Cartoon It! - A family-friendly memory game from ThinkFun for players ages 6 and up that requires players to draw a picture from memory and win points for each detail they remember and copy.
Pajaggle! - A challenging puzzle game for players ages 8 and up that can be played over 13 different ways and with multiple boards as players try to match various shapes into different spaces. (Find it locally at Marbles: The Brain Store.)
Swish - A card game from ThinkFun for ages 8 and up that develops spatial reasoning skills by requiring players to layer transparent cards to match up balls and hoops of the same color.
Oh, Really! - A family game for players 8 and up that requires family and friends to guess each other's opinions on various topics.
PathWords - A new logic game from ThinkFun that requires players ages 12 and up to place translucent Tetris-like tiles over groups of letters on a grid to highlight different words. One of ASTRA's Best Toys for Kids for 2011.
Telestrations - A funny game from USAopoly for players ages 12 and up that is like a visual game of Telephone where players take turns sketching and guessing what is being sketched.
Perplexus Maze Games - Various 3-D puzzle games from PlaSmart including the popular regular version and the new Rookie and Epic versions.