Games for five year olds

What games for five year olds do you play? Does your child enjoy reading, writing, or number games? Memory games? Or maybe pretend play with puppets, pantomime characters or using favorite TV characters for inspiration!

Five year olds are pretty active, too! All that thinking has to be balanced by a good dose of energetic fun, as your child starts to learn to ride a bicycle or to swim, to play in teams and feel important in preschool sports...

...remember your first sack race at school - or that bean bag race? Ahhh, those were the days!

Watching your own child at this age and stage is a total pleasure, as you begin to see the huge progress he or she has made - and with new skills and experiences coming into play almost every day.

Games for five year olds to play at home

Band aid relay game
Have 2 lines of kids. Ask the first child in line to take ten big steps forward and turn around. The second child runs and sticks a band aid on the first child and then turns around to face the other children while the first child runs to the end of the line. Play continues until everyone has a band aid.
Anonymous

Matching letters game
I made index cards on which they had an upper case letter and a lower case letter. They had to match the bigger letter to the smaller letter. They love it.

It helps them to learn their letters and how to write them too!
Amanda, Michigan

Shadow tracing
When I nanny during the day and the sun is shining, I get big sheets of plain paper, sticky tape and colorful crayons.

I sticky tape the paper on the fence or a pole wherever is going to make the best shadow, then I get the children to use the crayons and trace the shadow.

Once the sun has gone the picture is still there and they can color it in!! It's great for the children to learn about how shadows can make things appear smaller or bigger.
Becc

Guess what's missing
You can start with only a few items, such as stuffed toys, small toys or other objects. This is a fun game with 4 or more people sitting in a circle.

First, you introduce the items by asking the children what they are (e.g. the green frog) then you place them in the centre of the circle.

Next, everyone has to close their eyes while you remove an object (or more) from the middle. Then they have to guess which one is missing.

This game gets more challenging by adding more objects or removing more as well and can easily be played with 3-5 year olds.

Christie, Canada

Zombie tag
This game is great for groups. You pick one person who is a zombie and they have to walk and chase the others with their hands out.

When they tag they also become a zombie. you continue this until everyone is a zombie or there is one "human" left then start over again.
Megan, United States

Fishing!
First you neeed a cardboard box. With the child or children paint the outside so it looks like an aquarium, on the inside put several paper fish.

Each paper fish should have a number and paper clip on it.

Using a "fishing pole" (stick with string and a magnet on the end) go fishing. When they catch a fish, put the number on a piece of paper and ask them to help you add them up each time they "catch" a fish.

The first person to get 50 points wins!!!
A reader from Canada

Make a robot
This is a fun craft I play with two five year olds I babysit.

All you do is get a box and tell them to make a robot. They can use paint, paper, googly eyes, glitter, markers or whatever else you have available.

Show them how to make it look like a robot.( e.g. folding the paper like an accordion to make antennas)

Then ask them what their robot does, and they will play with it for hours!
Whitney, United States

Shark and dolphin game
First you pick 1 or 2 people to be a shark - but it really depends how many people you have.

The shark has to get the penguins but the penguins are only allowed to waddle and the shark has to put their hand on their head like a fin.

If you get tagged you have to stand with one arm out - so to get freed you need some one to go under your arm!

You keep playing until there are no people left waddling.
Ella, New Zealand

Four corners with a twist
You pick a person (should have about 5 to how many people) and then that person gets in a different room and the other kids go in a corner (should name corners) and the other person from a different room stays in there and yells a number 1-4 and the people in that corner is out.

After that you turn the music up real loud and all the kids go in a different room except the person who is out. Than you hide a toy and play hot-cold. with makes it a fun game for everybody!
Alli, Florida

My thanks to everyone who contributed their ideas!