20 Games for Preschoolers, Explained

The boys and girls who go to the nursery may be too young for some things, but of course you are never too young or too old to have fun.

Leisure is a fundamental aspect of the growth of every person, which is why here you will find 20 games for preschoolers to help little ones have fun while they are learning.

• Related article: "The 6 stages of childhood (physical and mental development)"

Fun games for preschool kids

Next we will see 20 games for preschool children, very fun, cheap and easy to prepare, which will surely amuse children and, also, adults.

1. musical chairs

The game of musical chairs helps children to resolve, peacefully, a problematic situation and, that to a certain extent, is unfair, although always friendly.

The game is simple to prepare: chairs are placed in a circle, facing out. The number of chairs that there should be must be less than the number of participants. For example, if there are 8 children playing, there should be a maximum of 7 chairs.

Music is played and, meanwhile, the children have to go around the chairs. Once the music stops playing, all the children must try to sit down.

The boy or girl who has been left without a chair is discarded and, after that, another chair is removed. This is done until there is only one chair and two participants left. Whoever is the last to get a site wins the game.

This game is ideal for teaching little ones how to deal with the frustration of having lost, that nothing happens for not having managed to win and that, sometimes, life is a bit unfair, but that's not why it's the end of the world.

2. Simon says…

The Simon Says game is ideal for helping children pay attention and take certain instructions into account. The game is quite simple, although its difficulty increases as the game progresses. A person, who can be the teacher or one of the children, orders to make a gesture, which can be very ordinary or very crazy.

But beware, children must pay attention to what is said as long as the instruction begins with "Simon says…". If the person in charge of ordering the instructions begins saying the order without using that crutch and someone does what he has said, he is ruled out.

For example, if "Simon says to touch your nose" is said, the children have to touch their noses, on the other hand, if the order is "Kick the air" and one of them does, they have lost. But not only doing something when the crutch is not used is penalized with declassification. Also not paying attention and not obeying when a "Simon says..." is ordered implies losing.

It is ideal for working mobility, in addition to encouraging children to be quieter and aware of who is leading the activity, without wanting to miss a single detail.

3. Row the boat!

Motor skills are a crucial aspect that must be developed correctly during early childhood. When they are still very young, little by little they become self-aware of their movements..

Learning how to manage motor skills is something very important, since through movement they are able to move and establish contact with the world around them, as well as increase their mobility, which they will use in sports when they are greater.

The activity consists of putting the children in pairs, facing each other, getting on their knees. It is preferable that they have a cushion underneath so that they are comfortable.

The teacher imitates the movements of a person rowing, and the children who look in his direction must imitate him. The other, who faces the other direction, must say all the time 'row the boat, row the boat!'. Then the roles are switched.

With this, they learn synchronization, improve their mobility and self-control, as well as learn how to encourage others.

• You may be interested in: "Intervention in Psychomotricity: what is this discipline?"

4. Hiding place

A classic but ideal to make preschool children have a great time. It is an ideal game for solving problems.

One or several children are in charge of catching while the rest have to hide. The child whose turn it was to look for the others has to count from one to ten. At that time, children who are hiding must look for good places to avoid being found. This works the brain of both who catches and who has to be caught. The one who catches must make the effort to think where the rest of his friends may have gone, while the other children have to work hard to find a good hiding place.

As they play more times, their imagination will grow, in addition to gaining experience hiding and looking for more innovative, less predictable places.

5. parachute games

Let's not get confused. These kinds of games don't involve the atrocities of throwing a kid out of a plane and skydiving. games with parachute are activities that use large blankets that children can get under.

These types of activities are ideal for learning to work as a team. The children stand around a circle, holding the parachute or a large sheet in the center.

When a ball, or any other type of playful object, is placed on the parachute, the children have to synchronize to make it move along the sheet. If they don't time it right, the ball can go wild and then it's game over.

This game is ideal for children to learn to work together, to carry out actions with a common objective and, of course, to have fun without fighting. They learn that to be successful, it is better to collaborate as a team.

6. chained words

This game It is more geared towards five-year-olds than younger ones. It's simple, and cheap. Basically, the children have to say words and the next one has to say one that begins with the last syllable or letter of the previous word.

While five-year-olds may not have much of a problem with this game, since some relationship with the letters is necessary, it's best to use the last syllable as the criteria.

For example: "house" - "sack" - "food - "dice"...

7. sleeping lions

The game of sleeping lions is ideal for teaching the little ones to stay focused even when there are distractions.

Children should lie down and pretend to sleep. So, a person walks among them, be it a child or an adult. This person, without touching the sleeping lions, must try to convince them to open their eyes. Thus, the children who believe what they are being told and wake up will lose, the last one still asleep being the winner.

This game encourages, on the one hand, the child who tries to wake up the lions to be original, imagining things so amazing that he forces his sleeping companions to wake up.

On the other hand, children who act as sleeping lions must make a great effort not to open their eyes, no matter how briefly they blink.

8. blind man's hen

The blind chicken is another classic among games for preschool children and, in addition, very easy to do, since it requires little material. All you need is a bandage or handkerchief and a space large enough so that you don't have any accidents.

One of the children has to blindfold himself with the aforementioned handkerchief. Once he can't see, he has to turn around (preferably with the help of an adult) to make it more difficult for him to orient himself later. The scarf cannot be removed.

When it has stopped spinning, he has to go looking for his companions while they are scattered around him. The other children can touch him and call him, but they must always avoid being caught.

If the boy with the scarf catches a partner, she must identify it with her sense of touch. If he succeeds, the roles are reversed.

9. Catch the ball

For this game, balls are needed, which can be of any size, and which will be distributed throughout the space. The children are scattered.

The teacher should shout 'balls!' and say what kind, if they are big or if they are small. Children will have to go for those of the size that has been ordered. The child who does not get the ball of the right size is eliminated.

The objective of this activity is to work on visual discrimination. A tip to do this activity is that the balls are well scattered around the place, and that there are less than participants, so some of the children will be left without, and that is the grace of the game.

10. handkerchief game

For this fun game you need scarves of various colors. The children are divided into two groups: one with scarves and the other without. Those who do not have a handkerchief will have to try to take it from their classmates who do.. Those who wear the scarf must have it hanging and clearly visible.

The funny thing is that all the handkerchiefs have been taken by the group that does not have them, and thus the game ends. The child who had a handkerchief at the beginning but has lost it is eliminated.

11. Someone like me

This game, although it is not so classic, is ideal for facilitating a good atmosphere of fellowship in the classroom, as well as facilitate the integration of boys and girls and get to know each other better.

To do this activity it is necessary for the children to be in a room large enough, where they can move freely. The necessary material will be sheets of paper and pencils for each boy and girl.

It is ideal to be used at the beginning of the course, when the classroom has just been formed and the children, who even did Little by little they only had contact with their parents, they feel very uncomfortable meeting new people, even if it is their own age.

The teacher or facilitator will ask them to try to draw a picture of something they really likeWhether it's food, a place, a cartoon character... It's important to give them time to draw everything they want.

Immediately afterwards, they must get up and compare the drawings of the rest of their classmates, to see if anyone has done the same as them. It is about seeing if there is someone who shares your same tastes, and trying to talk about it.

The adult should be aware of who the children hang out with, so that, after the activity, they can comment on what they have seen, for example: 'I've seen that Jorge and Pablo like Pokémon, which one do you like the most?' or 'Ana and María like to dance, can we tell them? do you teach?’

12. Let's sing good morning!

This game has the objective of teaching good manners to children, from an early age. Manners are something that, the sooner they manage to acquire, the better. In order to teach them to say hello when they enter the house or in class, and also to say goodbye and ask permission to speak, these types of activities are essential already in their earliest childhood.

It is because of that This song is perfect for them to get used to saying good morning when they enter the nursery, making them acquire the routine of being polite and cordial when entering a place, as well as showing affection and respect for their peers.

During the first few days, the teacher can take charge of singing the entire song, making sure that their students repeat it, but when you see that they have learned it, to make it more dynamic, you can have them do it. sing.

The song is the following:

Teacher or teacher: Good morning! Children, how are you? Children: Very good. Very good! Children: We will do our best to become more friends. Good morning! Teacher, how are you? Teacher: Very good

13. World of colors

This game It is basic for every boy and girl to learn the names of colors. For this we need toys, balls and other various objects, as well as cardboard, baskets and colored pencils.

The cardboards are placed on the table and the various objects scattered around the room. The teacher says 'what is green?' and the children have to find and paint the object that is that color and is in the room.

In addition, they must take the object of the color in question and put it in one of the baskets that will be found on the table, each of which will have a cardboard of a different color attached.

14. Making the five senses work

Children of such an early age must learn what the senses are, and become familiar with each of them and what they are used for. This activity is a bit complex, since all kinds of stimulation will be needed that involves activating the five most prototypical senses: taste, touch, smell, sight and hearing.

All kinds of objects can be used for materials: candies of different flavors, jars of different scents, scented candles, different colored fabrics, cardboard with different roughness, instruments several…

Each sense is assigned a station, which can be a table with a sign and the objects associated with the sense in question: the taste station, the touch station...

The children are blindfolded and led through each of the stations, manipulating all kinds of stimuli to find out what it is and what emotion it evokes. It can be a nice sensation, like candy, or something they don't like, like a lemon.

For the sight station, it is clear that the eyes should not be blindfolded. They will see the shapes of different objects and have to indicate what they are, or they can also associate a color with something in the room.

15. Learn numbers with balls and paddles

To encourage children's numerical skills, we can use balls and paddles, a game that will make them count and acquire some familiarity with calculation. The material to do this activity are wooden pallets, plasticine and tables. At the top of the popsicles we will put a number from 1 to 10 and we will give them to the children.

Children they will have to put on the paddles the number of balls indicated by the number that is written on them. This way they will learn, in a more applied way, the physical representation of each value.

Once they have become familiar with the first ten, they can try to do with higher numbers, but without forgetting that they are still children between the ages of 3 and 5 years.

16. Memory with numbers

Related to the previous activity, we have a game in which mnemonic abilities and counting numbers are improved. They learn how to put into practice a cognitive capacity as important as memory in a fun way.

To do this activity you will need colored cardboard, scissors, markers and a table. We will divide the cardboard in half, putting numbers from top to bottom on the left side.

On the right side we will draw the number of objects that would correspond to the number of the row on the other side. For example, a 4 on the left side and four balls on the right side. Then, each pair of numbers and objects are cut, until they form cards of two and have the finished memory. The children will have to uncover each pair of numbers and objects, until they form the cards of two and complete the activity. If they uncover two tiles that are not, they go to the next turn. The goal is to uncover as many pairs of tiles as possible..

17. assemble the human body

So that already at an early age they become familiar with the parts of the human body we have this interesting activity.

The necessary material is cardboard, scissors and glue or something that serves to paste. The idea is to assemble a drawing human body, more or less life-size, in which the children will place different parts.. These parts must be according to their level of knowledge, that is, basic parts such as the mouth, ears, head, arms...

While they assemble each part, the coordinator of the activity will indicate what each part is for or, to arouse the interest of the children, ask themselves if they know what it is for and have them show it to the rest of their companions.

18. The search for the lost treasure

This game is similar to hide and seek. Children are always curious to discover things, and what an amazing item to discover than real pirate treasure.

The adult must prepare, with rolls of toilet paper, boxes, cardboard tiles and various objects, the sarcophagus of a treasure that he will hide somewhere in the classroom or on the patio. Throughout the space, the coordinator of the activity will place the instructions on cardboard. (preferably in the form of drawings rather than writing) of where the following card is located.

Each cardboard will lead to another until you reach where the lost treasure is.

The key to this is that the children learn to collaborate together, deciphering the hieroglyphics that the adult has drawn on the papers, so that, using their intelligence and agreeing on what they mean, they end up managing to find the treasure.

19. alphabet on tiles

Children from 3 to 5 years old still do not know how to read. They will begin to master that from the age of 6, when they do their first year in primary education. However, should become familiar with the letters of the alphabet, and this activity is ideal for it.

As material, we need cardboard of different colors, scissors, markers and pencils. The activity must be done in a table room. Chips are made by cutting the cardboard and on each of them the letters of the alphabet are placed, while in the other half there are drawings of animals, food or things in general that begin with that letter.

The funny thing is that each child has his turn to take a token, say the name of the animal or thing that is represented and try to think with which letter it begins. This way they will become phonologically aware of the sounds of their language and the letters that represent them.

20. i am a mug

Very simple, but at the same time very dynamic. It's about singing the string of "I am a cup". The ideal thing about this song is that children can be made to move while singing it., making gestures as if they were a cup, making figures with his body.

Children can try to coordinate while imitating the gestures of the teacher or adult in charge of the activity. Then, when they have learned them, one of them is asked to try to lead the rest, and so on... We just have to know the lyrics of the song:

I am a cup, a teapot, a spoon, a fork.

I am a knife, a deep plate, a flat plate, a ladle.

I am a salt shaker, a sugar bowl, the mixer, an express pot. Chu chu chu.