Activities for three year oldsThis list of activities for three year olds is a wonderful resource - and all the ideas were submitted by visitors to the site. You're certainly an imaginative bunch! Plenty of inspiration here, if you're finding it tough to amuse your busy three year old today! There are animal games, jumping games, games using colors, numbers and alphabet - and of course some treasure hunt style games. "Where's Tigger?"
Then say "wheeeere's Tigger?" and whoever did the counting tries to find the toy. Thanks Beverly, I have put in a pic of one of our favorite animals - we call him Naughty Monkey. This toy is also used in another of our soft animal games. My son stands next to me, then he starts to run, I count out loud quickly, 1, 2, 3, and then I throw the monkey at him and try to hit him! This results in a ton of giggles :) Cushion play
Hide some smaller soft toys and get the kids to roll, climb & manouevere over them. It works their balance, co-ordination & large muscle strengths. It gets heaps of laughs especially when they find their toys squashed in amongst it! Dance parties We love to have dance parties. They imitate me, and eventually began coming up with their own moves. They have their favorite songs and get excited when they first hear the beat. Garden activities Car driving Corner You call out a corner number and whoever was standing in that corner sits down and you keep going till there is only one child standing. It's a very fun activity for kids' parties. Snake snake We run after each other and even attracted the cats as well. Then I teach him to use a stick to move the rope on floor when the cat is involved in the game. What did I hide?
Then I ask her to open her eyes and discover which toy I've hidden. She loves it a lot, and it strengthens her memorizing ability. Thanks for that idea Nada, I've collected some items from around the house for my picture here - and we always called this game "What's Missing?" - an activity also known as Kim's game. Pirate ship colours You use hula-hoops of different colours and pretend they are a pirate ships. The teacher or one of the kids is a shark. So the shark (or the teacher) has to say a colour and the kids have to go in the hoop of that colour before the shark eats them. If a pirate gets bitten by a shark they become a shark and have to get the other pirates. This game can also be used for primary. Kids clay cooking class I bought clay, all different colours. What we do first is look at pictures of what we want to cook. Then we have to make the food using the clay. After you finished making your carrots, meat, beetroot, etc, you can start your cooking class. The kids will have lots of fun chopping and dicing up the food. Make sure you use plastic knives and forks. Jumping circles Fill up the circles with either 12345 or ABCDE and JUMP while counting or singing the alphabet. Alphabet or number treasure hunt
Hide one set and ask the kid to search and match up with another set laid on the table/floor and annouce it loud. This is fun to see them running around looking for the hidden card and then matching. Salt dough We baked it til hard in the oven and then for months later, the pieces were used for pretend play - feeding the dolls, as dog biscuits for our pretend dog (my husband), as items for sale in our pretend bakery etc. Frogs and alligators The other children are frogs and stand on a rug or space you desinate as the lily pad. The alligator counts to 10. On 10 the frogs have to leave the lily pad and get to the other lily pad before the alligator tags him. (Chosen area) If the frog is caught he will join the alligator as an alligator. There will eventually be all alligators. Game over. Start the game again. Safari time
We walk through the house with binoculars and every 5 steps or so one of us says "Look over here!" Then we say an animal name and tell all we know about it. This is a great way for her to learn about animals and expand her vocabulary. Ooblick One of the favorites is ooblick, a mixture of about equal parts cornstarch and water that has properties of a liquid and a solid. We add food coloring, plastic bugs and frogs. The kids love it, and we do too. This is a pretty messy one so it's best for outside. Just use a shallow disposable baking dish and have a hose ready and cleanup will be a breeze. Animal guessing game
You can make it a little more challenging by saying where they come from like "Africa" or "rain forest" as the first clue. I usually do this with our plastic animals and Casey points to the animal and names it. Singing while climbing the stairs Pretend to be in an aeroplane Me and my 3 year old daughter pretend to be in a plane, pretending all the things which happens in the plane like putting on seat belts, announcements, getting food, listening to music etc. It becomes easy to feed her food saying air hostess aunty brought this food. Hope your kids too enjoy this ! Jump and learn If you are learning shapes, cut several of each shape (large) out of construction paper and laminate. Spread them out on the floor. Call out "circle!" and everyone has to jump on a circle. Whoever gets there first is the winner. Make sure your child wins a good portion of the time. This will build up confidence too. If your child is having trouble, start with 2 shapes and as he masters them add more. This game works for colors, shapes, numbers, letters, multiplications tables, spelling words........ Pick a color game One person will say "Tip e tip e tap, what colour u want?" ...and then the other will tell the colour. Then both of them or the group will have to touch an object of that colour. The person who touches first wins the game. Alphabet cutouts
I was curious to teach him letters so I draw big letters on a big piece of paper and only when he can tell me the letter does he get to cut it out. Not sure if he's learning any letters for sure but I know he loves cutting out paper. Leaves costume activity We can take photographs with their leaves clothes on. Find the shapes
Tell your three year old to wait while you hide them in a room (at their height level). Give them a bucket or any container and tell them to go find the shapes. As they collect, help them count to find the correct number. When the three year old has collected all the shapes, take them to a table and one by one count, name the shape, and name the color. This is extra fun with more than one child because then they can compare and start to understand competition and sportsmanship. This game has many educational factors in it, and it is fun!
Many thanks to all the visitors who sent in their tips for playing with three year olds!
 Copyright © Little Kids Games Online 2004 - 2012 PRIVACY POLICY - TERMS OF USE - ABOUT - CONTACT PARTNER AND ADVERTISER DISCLOSURE |
