By age three, most preschoolers are able to sort objects by size and can understand longer sentences. They are ready to ride a tricycle, kick a ball or play catch. They are also able to play simple board games, develop sight word vocabulary and practice typing skills.
This series of educational online games, creative activities, painting and drawing ideas, engaging memory puzzles and fun physical activities will help sharpen their growing literacy and numeracy skills while keeping their energetic bodies moving.
1. Have Some Family Quality Time with a Cooperative Board Game
Count Your Chickens is a classic board game that challenges young learners to gather all their chickens into a coop. It makes for a fun way to teach counting and cooperation skills.
2. Play Follow the Leader
Follow the leader is a classic game that teaches many skills including following directions, sharpening concentration, developing cooperative skills as well as strengthening physical skills such as speed, balance, agility, and motor coordination.
Learn more: Empowered Parents
3. Make Sparkly Slime
Most kids are slime and glitter obsessed, so why not combine the two with a simple recipe? They can add magical unicorns, trucks, or any toys of their choice for hours of fun playtime!
Learn More: See Vanessa Craft
4. Make a Lego Table
Although made up of small pieces, Legos are safe for three-year-olds and provide hours of enjoyable playtime. They help preschoolers develop problem-solving and logic skills while expressing their creativity and supporting their motor skill development and hand-eye coordination.
Learn More: Sunny Day Family
5. Felt Cookie Busy Bag
If You Give a Mouse a Cookie is a hilarious children’s book that goes very well with this crafty activity. Your toddler is sure to have plenty of fun getting creative with patterns and inventing colorful designs for their cookies.
Learn More: Views From a Step Stool
6. Have Fun with a Fishing Game
This engaging game combines sensory play and fine motor skills! It's an easy way to develop color recognition, counting, and memory skills.
Learn More: 7 Days of Play
7. Play the Matching Bug-Building Game
This matching bug-building game challenges kids to build a Cootie bug from lots of colorful bug bodies, heads, and other fun parts, making for hours of creative playtime.
8. Play a Rainbow Counting Game
This bright printable game gives kids plenty of practice with number recognition, counting, estimating, and simple addition.
Learn More: Pickle Bums
9. Go on a Jello Dig
This slimy, squishy and super fun activity requires nothing more than Jello and some toys and loose parts for your toddler to discover!
Learn More: Busy Toddler
10. Construct a Bubble Pop Road
This reusable activity requires only bubble wrap on the floor and boxes for hills. Then it's your preschooler's turn to test out different cars and trucks and see which ones will pop the bubble wrap!
Learn More: Hands-on as we Grow
11. Play a Counting and Matching Online Game
This free, online educational game provides plenty of counting and matching games that teach the numbers to 20, using ten frames, counting, and number recognition practice.
Learn More: Top Marks
12. Play Peek-A-Boo with Farm Animals
This free farm animals printable makes for a fun game of peek-a-boo. Your preschooler is sure to love playing hide and seek with their choice of pigs, sheep, cows, or horses!
Learn More: Buggy and Buddy
13. Play a Cooking and Baking Game
Why not let your young learner get creative by helping with easy recipes such as fruit kebabs or decorating cupcakes? It's a great way to sharpen their cooking skills for later in life as well as being a fun family game.
Learn More: Cook Republic
14. Sort Apples and Oranges
This sorting activity can also be practiced with red and blueberries, cereal, small crackers, or even items from nature such as pebbles and leaves. it's a great way to develop math skills such as sorting and counting as well as discussing the concept of same and different.
Learn More: Zero to Three
15. Develop Geometry Skills With a Fun Learning Game
What better way to learn about shapes than making silly faces? Kids can let their imaginations run wild, combing bananas, pizza, and candy corn to make the funniest faces they can come up with!
Learn More: Education.com
16. Loose Parts Play
Loose pieces can range from recycled items to tile pieces to rocks, pebbles, and beads. It's a great way to expose your preschooler to different textures and materials and help them gain a better understanding of the natural world around them.
Learn More: Fantastic Fun and Learning
17. Engage in Bubble Wrap Learning
Kids love bubblewrap so it makes for an easy choice for developing their counting skills or word recognition and comprehension skills.
Learn More: Meaningful Mama
18. Cotton Ball Fun
This simple activity requires only cotton balls and makes for a great way to develop fine motor skills as well as discuss relevant vocabulary such as 'soft, squishy, and white'.
Learn More: The Stay-At-Home Mom Survival Guide
19. Make a Block Tower
There are so many ways to incorporate learning with blocks. Kids can match base colors, practice their counting skills or just let their imagination run wild while developing color recognition and matching skills.
Learn More: Kidadl
20. Try Painting With Rolling Pins
Rolling pins and bubble wrap combine to create a fun, inventive, and super engaging art activity for your preschooler. The final effect is textured and vibrant, making for a beautiful display or keepsake.
Learn More: Teaching 2 and 3-year-olds
30 Fun and Inventive Games for Two-Year-Olds