The best place for your child to learn is often right inside your home. With these fun preschool activities, you’ll be sure to have an easy and fun learning experience with your kids!
Have you ever wondered why keeping a preschool-age kid engaged and entertained is so difficult? It’s most likely because their little minds are moving so fast trying to soak up everything in their world.
Kids want to learn! With a growing brain and an even faster growing curiosity, it makes sense that as moms we hear the question “why?” a million times a day.
The best thing is you don’t need to send your kids to school to satisfy that curiosity with some great learning activities! Whether it’s science, language, art, or math activities for preschoolers, there are some awesome things that you can easily do right at home.
The Power of Play
First, let’s talk about the number one thing that you can do to help your kids learn and develop.
Let your kids play!
Play is the key to a child’s learning, especially during their preschool years. Through play, your child will learn social techniques, motor skills, math, listening, science, language, and so many other important things.
When you’re planning a preschool activity, don’t worry about creating a big structured lesson, just think about how you can incorporate some more learning into their play.
Preschool Activities You Can Do at Home
Ready for the list? Here’s my very favorite preschool activities you can do at home!
Number & Math Activities for Preschoolers
Math really is in everything we do, and these math activities for preschoolers are a simple way to get them started learning about everything math!
Play Uno. Grab those Uno cards out and play a favorite childhood game. Uno helps preschoolers recognize numbers better, as well as count when they are trying to get all the cards they need!
Number Tracing. Fine motor skills and math skills! Grab a number tracing book or make your own tracing sheets for them to practice writing their numbers.
Counting scavenger hunt. This is one of my family favorites! Pick a number and have your child get however many items you say. For example, ask them to grab 5 stuffed animals. If your preschooler likes a challenge, break out a timer and see how fast they can go!
Fingerprint graph. A classic fun math activity for your preschooler is to have them make a graph out of fingerprints. Use child-safe paint and let them stamp however many fingerprints in the correct column.
Number puzzles. You can’t go wrong with puzzles! Try out a simple number-learning puzzle, or work on counting skills with a matching puzzle.
Science Activities for Preschoolers
Embrace the curious side with some fun experiments! Make sure that you are using any protective gear that your child may need to stay safe.
Make slime or playdough. Messy? Absolutely. But making playdough, silly putty, or slime with your kids is a great scientific activity that will leave them with a really fun toy to play with too.
Science lab. Making sure to use safe products, place out a few bowls with different ingredients for them to experiment with. This is a good activity to raid your pantry and see what will react when put together.
Marshmallow engineering. Use toothpicks and marshmallows to try to build anything that your child can imagine. If they are struggling to know what to build, give them tasks like seeing how tall they can make a structure. For a healthier version use grapes, cheese, or other fun snacks instead.
Hidden Colors. This is such a fun one! Place a drop or two of food coloring at the bottom of a muffin tin and cover with baking soda. Have a bowl or squeeze bottle of vinegar your child can use to pour on the soda and reveal the colors.
Plant a garden. Planting and caring for a garden helps your preschooler to use so many skills! They’ll have to be patient and learn to work hard, and the scientific results of a flower or food growing will blow their minds!
Fine Motor Activities for Preschoolers
Improve those detailed skills and get your child ready for writing, buttoning, feeding, and more with these fine motor activities for preschoolers.
Straw bead jewelry. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve done this activity with kids. It’s a big hit! Use any piece of yarn or string and tape one end to a table. Cut straws into bead size and have your child thread the beads on to make a lovely new accessory.
Tracing. Tracing is a great activity to boost fine motor skills. Print out some dotted shapes and lines and have your child trace over them with a crayon or marker.
Shape threading. Cut a shape out of a thick piece of paper and punch holes around the outside. Have your preschooler thread a piece of yarn back and forth through the holes. You could even practice knots and bows this way too. To make threading easier, try taping around one end of the yarn.
Pasta stacking. Another fun idea is to grab some playdough and stick spaghetti noodles into it. Using penne pasta or other pasta rings, feed the rings onto the spaghetti noodles. You could also use beads, cheerios, or anything else you have around!
Tweezer sorting. Did you know they make big plastic tweezers for kids? They can be used for endless fun, and a simple fine motor activity is to have your child sort beads, buttons, cereal, or anything else into colors or shapes using only the treezers.
Gross Motor Activities for Preschoolers
Preschool kids love to move! Not only are these gross motor activities a great developmental activity but they’ll likely become family favorites.
Movement hopscotch. For a great yard activity, draw a hopscotch court and label each box with a movement. Your child will have a blast stretching to the sky, doing a jumping jack, or spinning around 3 times.
Animal. Another favorite in my house is playing “animal”. You can make your own animal cards, but I love using the cards from Yoohoo Can You Moo. Simply pick an animal and talk about their body and try to act just like they would! If your child gets bored of this, try adding commands like “jump like an elephant” “eat like a kitty”, etc.
Red light green light. There’s a reason that this game is still around after all these years. It’s also great for learning self-regulation and self-control. Your preschooler will work on their gross motor skills and move their body and also learn how to listen and stop in their tracks.
Soccer bowling. To play soccer bowling, set up some plastic cups in a pyramid and let your child kick a ball (any ball will work) and try to knock over the pins!
Freeze dance. Don’t underestimate the fun of a good dance party! Help your child use their body by playing music and pausing it. Whoever moves when they are supposed to freeze is out.
Language Activities for Preschoolers
Get an early start on language and reading with these simple and fun activities!
Letter matching. Put a few papers or a large sheet of butcher paper on your wall with a little wall-safe tape and draw letters on it. For younger kids, you’ll want to start with 3-4 letters but your older preschoolers could do the whole alphabet. Draw the letters on stickers or labels and have your child match the label to the letter on the wall.
Reading. There’s nothing more powerful than reading with your child. This activity takes no planning and it not only boosts language skills but also gives a great chance for quality time together. Try reading one of your favorite chapter books or stick to picture books.
Word scavenger hunt. Without your child peeking, hang up or hide words all over the house. Start simple with your little ones! Make a matching list of the words and have them search around the house to find everything on the list.
Letter sensory bin. I’m a big fan of sensory bins, and I love throwing in some letter magnets with my rice or cereal pieces for extra language practice. You can have them search and find letters, try to spell words, or just play and work on recognition.
Letter of the week. I love having a theme each week to guide learning and play, and having a letter of the week is always really helpful. Make everything start with the letter of the week, finding books, foods, games, etc. that will help them remember the look and sound of the letter.
I hope you and your family love this list of preschool activities you can do at home. Let us know which one is your favorite!