• Outdoor toys for 6-year-olds enhance an interest in activity and exercise.chew toy image by Undy from Fotolia.com
  
  The Strong National Museum of Play features a National Hall of Fame for classic toys at the Rochester, New York location. Many of the classic toys in the museum's display continue in popularity for modern six-year-old gift recipients. The basic toy colors may have changed, but the designs continue to provide a high element of kid interest and possibility for future play.
  
  

Role Playing Toys

• The Toy Industry Association notes that children between the ages of three and six enjoy make believe. This age group wants toys allowing dress-up as grown-ups or use of child-sized items normally used by adults for play. Male and female children both enjoy playing with small pots and pans and kitchen equipment. Occupation-focused dress-up costumes that allow small fries to "be" firefighters, police officers and doctors also appeal to the six-year-old set. While not actual occupations, six-year-old girls often enjoy make-believe as princesses and fairies, complete with shoes, wings and crown jewels.
  
  

Stuffed Animals & Dolls

• Six-year-old children fall into a cusp category for dolls and stuffed animals. Some children focus on fluffy stuffed toys, while others the same age have moved into doll toys incorporating action figures and fashion dolls, according to the Toy Industry Association. Dolls held the fourth highest sales and plush toys the sixth largest amount in the third quarter of 2010, as reported by the NPD Group/Consumer Tracking Service. Fashion figure and dolls resembling famous singers and television cartoon personalities sold well in 2010. Popular sellers for young gift recipients included major motion picture film action dolls and plush toys tied to animated films.
  
  

Arts & Craft Toys

• The Toy Industry Association also cites arts and craft toys as high interest gifts for the three- to six-year-old age group. Craft supplies accounted for the second largest category of U.S. toy sales as reported by the NPD Group/Consumer Tracking Service in the third quarter of 2010. Toys integrating arts and crafts include drawing sets with colored crayons and marking pens, colored dough model makers and toys integrating basic computerized elements to create art projects.
  
  

Building Toys

• Many six-year-olds, both male and female, enjoy playing with plastic and wood interconnecting block sets. The most popular block and building components integrate other action elements, such as small cars, to combine two favorite six-year-old gifts. Construction toys integrating trains, with a focus on a famous group of locomotives with human names, top the young male popularity charts. Toys that morph into animals, as well as vehicles, continue to attract interest from six-year-old girls and boys.
  
  

Board Games & Puzzles

• Strategy games, including board and building games, also interest six-year-olds. Board games and puzzles sold the fifth largest amount in dollars in the third reporting period in 2010, according to the NPD Group/Consumer Tracking Service. Traditional board games with tie-ins to classic literature continue to be top sellers for six-year-olds. Other well-received gifts feature jigsaw and wooden puzzles integrating images of popular animated films and television programs.