Most four-year-olds love to tell stories, play dress-up, and play cooperative games. They can read more complicated picture books and create music with simple instruments. They are growing more expressive and are able to articulate their ideas and feelings and ask questions about the world around them.
This series of preschooler-friendly board games, hands-on sensory bin ideas, shape and color sorting activities, and physical challenges are sure to keep them entertained and learning for hours.
1. Make A Bubble Wrap Road
This simple activity is the perfect game for developing motor skills. It requires only recycled bubble wrap, painter's tape, and any toy cars or trucks your preschooler would like to take for a test run.
Learn more: Sunny Day Family
2. Build Color Recognition with a Rainbow Necklace
This vibrant rainbow necklace is a great way to develop your child's color recognition while strengthening their critical thinking skills through sorting the circles by size.
Learn more: Hands On As We Grow
3. Make Paper Tunnels For Toy Cars
This engaging game encourages toy car lovers to practice slow, controlled, and gentle movements to get their vehicles through the tunnels without crashing. It makes for a great way to develop motor skills and is sure to become a hit with your preschooler!
Learn more: Mama, Papa, Bubba
4. Play an Educational Board Game
This classic board game challenges young learners to match colors and create their own snakes from heads to tails while having fun with their friends. The player with the most snakes at the end of the game wins. It's a cooperative game that is sure to become a family favorite.
Learn more: Game Wright
5. Play With Gloop
Your preschooler is sure to love running their figures through this mixture and exploring its soft, gooey, and slimy texture. This is a great way to develop hand-eye coordination while using all five of their senses. It's also a wonderful way to build social skills when playing with friends and family.
Learn more: Learning 4 Kids
6. Play a Fun Memory Game
Develop focus, concentration, and memory skills with this DIY matching game. All you need are two egg cartons and pairs of small objects like pom poms, beads, or even beans.
Learn more: Hands On As We Grow
7. Make Your Own Sidewalk Chalk Paint
Learn more: Positively Splendid
8. Farm Animal Washing Station
This engaging and quick game is a wonderful way to develop fine motor skills. Kids will love playing in the dirt and bubbles and rubbing their favorite farm animals clean!
Learn more: Coffee Cups and Crayons
9. Play an Educational Video Game
This educational video game challenges kids to find animal pairs, match cute animal pictures with the foods they eat, and spot subtle differences in photos. It's a great way to develop an appreciation of the natural world while developing critical thinking skills.
Learn more: National Geographic
10. Blow Painting With Straws
The magic of this activity is that you will never get the same results each time. Your 4-year-old preschooler is sure to delight in creating a variety of different patterns and designs.
Learn more: Artful Parent
11. Develop Shape Recognition Skills With Playdough
This hands-on activity is great for developing shape recognition while building fine motor skills.
Learn more: Royal, Baloo
12. Learn the Alphabet with a Physical Activity
By kicking the ball at various letter cups, your preschooler will develop letter recognition skills, identify letter sounds and strengthen their balance and coordination.
Learn more: Fun Learning for Kids
13. Turn Handwriting into a Fun Game
Handwriting is an important skill that helps with literary and reading comprehension skills as well as fine motor skills like tying shoelaces. This sand activity makes it colorful and tactile for hours of learning fun.
Learn more: Active Littles
14. Make Fluffy Pet Rocks
Playing with these adorable fluffy pet rocks is sure to become a favorite game for your preschooler. They also make great gifts or a creative paperweight.
Learn more: The Craft Train
15. Develop Reading Skills
Kids love to ask why and this big book of answers makes for a fantastic way to satiate their curiosity and encourage their sense of wonder, all while developing core reading skills.
16. Have Fun With a Classic Game
Your young learner will love exploring shapes and colors with Dotty Dinosaur and his friends. The game rules are super simple, making for an easy and carefree time!
17. Play a Fun Card Game
The classic card game of Go Fish has been a family favorite for ages and with good reason. It's a fun way to develop social skills and strengthen basic math skills, all while building strategy skills and learning about patterns and pairs.
Learn more: Kid Spot
18. Play a Game Of Stink Bugs
This adorable game is an excellent way to develop color and shape recognition, strengthen memory skills and encourage cooperative play.
Learn more: Almost Practical
19. Practice Counting With Bears
These bear counters have multiple educational benefits for children and can be used to develop measuring, sorting, number recognition, and counting skills.
Learn more: Fun Learning for Kids
20. Make a Paper Plate Snake
This creative craft is an excellent fit for preschoolers. It makes for a fun way to reuse paper plates and bubble wrap to create a slithery snake they are sure to love.
Learn more: Crafty Morning
21. Learn About Wind With a STEM Activity
In this engaging STEM lesson, preschoolers learn about the impact of wind on a tower that they construct out of foam blocks. It's a great choice for families looking to expand their young learner's understanding of science and natural forces.
Learn more: No Time for Flashcards
22. Develop Basic Reading Skills With Green Eggs and Ham
Kids will love using dot stamp markers to color all the letters they recognize in this classic children's story. You could also laminate the cards to create a reusable center that your young learner will enjoy returning to again and again.
Learn more: Still Playing School
23. Make an Egg Carton Dinosaur Hat
Your preschooler will delight in transforming into a baby dinosaur with this vibrant hat. They can even help you put it together by painting the spikes in any color they choose.
Learn more: Crafty Morning
30 Teacher-Recommended IPad Educational Games for Kids