Preschool is certainly a prime time for fun-filled learning activities. While your preschoolers may be too young for traditional lessons, games and activities can be some of the most effective ways for them to practice forming different skill sets. Here is a list of 52 fun and educational activities for them to get stuck into. In this list, you will find activities that can support sorting skills, counting skills, motor skills, creativity, and more!
1. Color Sorting Train
This color sorting train is a great activity you can try to get your preschoolers to practice identifying and sorting colors. They can practice sorting the items into the correctly colored carts using whatever toys you provide.
Learn More: Fun Learning For Kids
2. Sort & Count Bottles
If sorting by color alone is too easy, you could use this activity to practice sorting by colors and numbers at the same time! In this exercise, your preschoolers can try to sort the correct number of fuzzy pom poms into the matching colored bottle.
Learn More: The Imagination Tree
3. Counting Flower Petals
I love a good reason to play outside! This flower petal activity involves outdoor exploration and doubles as a great counting exercise. Your preschoolers can practice their number skills by counting the number of petals on the flowers they find.
Learn More: Hands On As We Grow
4. Number Activity With Grain Bins
This number activity is a great fit for a farming or transportation theme lesson. Your preschoolers could practice their farming and counting skills as they unload the correct amount of “grain” into each container.
Learn More: Hands On As We Grow
5. Clothespin Counting Wheel
Playing with clothespins makes a great motor activity. This activity has learners using their fine motor skills to pinch and manipulate the numbered clothespins to match the correct section of the counting wheel.
Learn More: Keep Toddlers Busy
6. Alphabet Clothespin Activity
Instead of learning with numbers, this task uses clothespins in a letter activity. Your preschoolers can work together to pin the letters in the correct alphabetical order.
Learn More: What Do We Do All Day
7. Seashell Alphabet Activity
There are plenty of fun activity ideas that use these alphabet labeled seashells. While digging through the sand, your preschoolers can arrange the seashells into alphabetical order, practice pronouncing the letter sounds, or even practice spelling their names!
Learn More: Pre-K Pages
8. Fine Motor Pizza Shop
Who doesn’t love pizza? This activity may not be as satisfying as eating the real thing, but your preschoolers can still have fun making paper pizzas. This would also engage their fine motor skills whilst maneuvering the scissors to cut their toppings.
Learn More: Frugal Fun For Boys And Girls
9. Fizzing Dinosaur Eggs
Sensory play is a favorite of mine! You can make these easy, homemade fizzing dinosaur eggs (bath bombs) for your preschoolers to play with. Watch them in awe as the eggs hatch before their eyes.
Learn More: Frugal Fun For Boys And Girls
10. Construction-Themed Sensory Bin
Sensory bins are an amazing preschool activity that can be designed to fit any theme. Through sensory exploration, your kids get to play and learn in a hands-on manner. This construction-themed bin is a great option for preschoolers who like to build.
Learn More: Pre-K Pages
11. Space-Themed Sensory Bin
This space-themed moon sand sensory bin is a great addition to your preschool classroom. Your preschoolers can explore the texture of the moon sand and try to describe how it differs from regular sand.
Learn More: Little Bins For Little Hands
12. Earl The Squirrel Book & Sensory Bin
It’s always great when you can pair play with a story. You can read Earl the Squirrel, during circle time, before letting your kids explore the matching sensory bin. The story will give your preschoolers a purpose for their bin exploration.
Learn More: Little Bins For Little Hands
13. Edible Sensory Ice Cubes
There are many interesting ice activities for your learners to enjoy. This one fits great into a sense theme. Your preschoolers can enjoy the sensory experience of touching the melting ice, smelling the different aromas, and tasting the diverse flavors.
Learn More: Hands On As We Grow
14. Multi-Shaped Sensory Ice Blocks
You can create different shapes of sensory ice blocks to add to your preschooler’s experience. These might be a bit more difficult to make than the previous option, but it provides a good opportunity to start learning about shapes.
Learn More: Child’s Play ABC
15. Mixing Paint Colors
Mixing paint colors can be a simple yet fun and educational activity for preschoolers. This activity is the perfect opportunity to teach a brief lesson on color theory. Let learners guess what would happen when mixing specific colors together.
Learn More: Preschool Toolkit
16. Shake Paint Rock Snails
Process art activities are great for introducing a painting theme. In this activity, your preschoolers will shake containers containing paints and rocks. And with the help of your hot glue skills, they can turn these painted rocks into pet snails.
Learn More: Kids Craft Room
17. Bounce Paint Process Art
This bounce paint activity can even double as a physical activity! Using paint and bouncy balls wrapped in yarn, your preschoolers can bounce the balls to create a beautiful art piece. This works best with a big canvas, such as butcher paper.
Learn More: Days With Grey
18. Salad Spinner Art
Salad spinners aren’t just for making salads. They can make beautiful abstract art too! All you have to do is cut out paper to fit the bowl, add paint, and then spin away to create a mixture of beautiful colors.
Learn More: Artful Parent
19. Marble Painting
Just like we’ve learned with the last three activities, we don’t need brushes to paint. Rolling paint-covered marbles on a blank piece of paper can create a wonderful abstract art piece. Be sure to have the paper towels ready for clean up afterwards!
Learn More: Artful Parent
20. Balloon Painting
Here’s another one. Painting with balloons! Painting with all of these various tools can provide a different sensory experience during each process. Simply dip inflated balloons into paint before dotting them onto a piece of paper.
Learn More: Teaching Ideas
21. Car Track Painting
Do your preschoolers love playing with toy cars? Have they ever tried painting with them? This activity can be an interesting artistic experience as the wheels of the car create a unique texture on the piece of paper.
Learn More: First Palette
22. Painting on Foil
This activity switches up the typical painting surface rather than switching up the tool. Painting on the foil can be a supplemental activity to your painting theme. Your preschoolers can enjoy a unique experience painting on a slippery surface like tin foil.
Learn More: Taming Little Monsters
23. Sandbox Imaginative Play
You don’t need to go to the beach to have a fun time with sand. You can get a sandbox for your preschoolers to build sandcastles, construction sites, or whatever their imaginations desire. Imaginative play is awesome for getting the creative juices flowing.
Learn More: Nature of Early Play
24. Make a Stuffed Animal House
Stuffed animals can be used in plenty of activities for preschool and fit great with a pet theme. Your preschoolers can use their building skills to construct and decorate a home for their stuffed pet animal.
Learn More: Toddler Approved
25. Stuffed Animal Freeze Dance
You can add a twist to the classic freeze dance activity by adding a stuffed animal into the mix. Throwing and catching stuffed animals during the dance can help engage your preschoolers’ motor skills while they are also having a fun time.
Learn More: The Spruce
26. Popsicle Stick Farm Critters
Look at how cute these fun animal crafts are! If you want to add to this activity, you could run a show & tell activity and have your preschoolers present their decorated popsicle animals while mimicking the animal movements and sounds.
Learn More: Make and Takes
27. Playdough Play – Roll a Ball or Snake
Developing fine motor skills is one of the many benefits of playdough activities. Rolling playdough into a ball or snake is a great beginner activity for your preschoolers who are just being introduced to the unique material.
Learn More: Mama OT
28. Playdough Play – Build a Letter
Here is another playdough starter activity that doubles as an excellent letter craft. Your preschoolers can be challenged to build the first letter of their name. I encourage showing different examples before letting your kids do it themselves.
Learn More: Mama OT
29. Playdough Cupcakes
If your preschoolers are ready to take their playdough skills to the next level, they can try their hand at making these colorful cupcakes! These can be great crafts to make at a preschool birthday party. Simply press playdough into muffin molds and decorate using short straws, beads, and other fun objects.
Learn More: Childcare Land
30. Cactus Playdough Activity
Here is another more advanced playdough craft for your little ones to enjoy! This build-your-own cactus activity pairs well with a fun preschool theme of plants and will generate cute crafts to decorate your classroom with. All you need is a flowerpot, green playdough, and toothpicks for the thorns!
Learn More: Homeschool AEC
31. Sort Stickers By Size
It’s no secret that preschoolers love stickers! Sorting by size is a wonderful activity to get your preschoolers engaging in their size recognition skills. Simply draw two circles on a piece of paper, one small and one large. Then have your learners sort their stickers!
Learn More: Days With Grey
32. Sticker Sorting By Category
Size isn’t the only thing that your preschoolers can practice their sorting skills with. The categories you can sort with are almost endless! In an animal theme lesson plan, you can try having your preschoolers sort by animal type.
Learn More: Keep Toddlers Busy
33. Snail Sticker Craft
This sticker activity is a bit easier than the others. Your preschooler’s goal is to simply fill their snail with stickers. For some added difficulty, get them to try to follow a specific color pattern.
Learn More: Messy Little Monster
34. Alphabet Sticker Matchup
This one uses stickers for a letter activity. Your preschoolers can exercise their letter recognition skills by matching the stickers (labeled with letters) to the correctly labeled stars on the worksheet.
Learn More: Two Pink Peonies
35. Golf Tee Hammering
Golf tees can be used for various fine motor preschool activities. This exercise gets your preschoolers practicing their hammer skills using a mallet and modeling clay.
Learn More: Montessori From The Heart
36. Hammering Golf Tees
Get pressing those fine motor skills with this next one. Give your kiddos a selection of golf tees and a styrofoam block and let them have fun hammering each of their tees in! You could also have your preschoolers work with a trickier shape and use an apple to increase the difficulty!
Learn More: My Baba
37. Parachute Play- The Hello Game
Parachute games make awesome physical activities for your younger kids. The Hello Game will familiarize your preschoolers with handling the parachute and only requires lifting the parachute and saying hello to each other!
Learn More: Teach Preschool
38. Parachute Play – Popcorn Game
This popcorn game would get your students shaking and wiggling while they attempt to get all the balls (popcorn) off the parachute. It’s the perfect opportunity to encourage collaborative action and teamwork!
Learn More: Mrs. Carly Glanzman
39. Parachute Play – Cat & Mouse
This is a classic parachute activity for school. One kid can be the cat, and another can be the mouse. While everyone else is shaking the parachute, the cat will try to chase the mouse while atop the parachute as the mouse scurries beneath.
Learn More: PhysEd Games
40. Parachute Play – Merry Go Round
This favorite activity will get your preschoolers moving and practicing following instructions. You can give instructions to change directions, change speed, jump, hop, or stop!
Learn More: Mrs. Carly Glanzman
41. The Parachute Dance Song
This parachute game is similar to the merry-go-round activity but comes with a special song! Your preschoolers can have fun dancing along and following the instructions from the lyrics. Jump, walk, run, stop!
Learn More: Maple Leaf Learning
42. Parachute Play – Hair Stylist
Here’s a parachute activity that can teach your kids about static electricity. One kid can go under the parachute while everyone else pulls back and forth on the parachute against the kid’s hair. Then, everyone can lift the parachute and watch the kid’s fancy, upward hairstyle.
Learn More: Kid Activities
43. Camping Banana Boats
Cooking is a basic skill that is never too early to start learning. If your kids have a sweet tooth, they could have a blast making these delicious banana boats. After they customize their toppings, you can give the boats a quick 10-minute bake in some aluminum foil.
Learn More: Create Kid’s Club
44. PB&J Bird Seed Ornaments
Here is another recipe-based activity that some lucky birds will benefit from. Your preschoolers can help combine the ingredients (peanut butter, birdseed, gelatin, & water) and press the mixture into cookie cutters. You could try this activity in a bird theme unit.
Learn More: Sugar Spice And Glitter
45. The Toothpaste Lesson
Preschool is the perfect time to teach your kids about kindness. This lesson can teach them about the power of words. When you say something mean, you can’t take it back. Similarly, you cannot put the toothpaste back into the tube once it has been squeezed out.
Learn More: Inspired Elementary
46. Kind Words Sensory Activity
This is another activity about kind versus mean words. You can get your preschoolers to describe and compare the textures of the materials. The soft, fluffy cotton balls could be related to kind words, whereas the rough, gritty sandpaper could be connected to mean words.
Learn More: Preschool Powol Packets
47. Playdough Face Mats
Learning to be kind can go hand-in-hand with learning to be empathetic. A part of empathy is learning to recognize different emotions. These playdough mats can be great for getting your preschoolers to work with their hands and practice identifying emotions.
Learn More: Very Special Tales
48. Feelings Hop Game
This feelings hop game can also teach emotion recognition. As they hop to the different emotions, they will also engage their body awareness as they practice keeping balance.
Learn More: Kiddie Matters
49. Rubber Glove Science Experiment
Science experiments are among my favorite activities for preschool kids. I love seeing the captivation of my students as they do their experiments. In this science activity, your preschoolers will watch the rubber gloves become inflated with air as they blow into their straws.
Learn More: Teachers Mag
50. Skittles Rainbow Science Experiment
This science experiment is super cool and can even fit into a colors-themed lesson. The candy colors will leak when the skittles are paired with water to create a beautiful rainbow pattern.
Learn More: Fun With Mama’s Kids
51. Floating Foil Boat Experiment
This can be the perfect activity for teaching your little ones the concepts of floating and sinking. They can test how many stones it takes to make their foil boats sink.
Learn More: Messy Little Monster
52. DIY Interactive Learning Board
Learning boards can be a great educational resource. You can make learning boards with the weather, insects, the arctic, or whatever beloved preschool theme best fits your lessons. Making them interactive can make them more engaging for your preschoolers.
Learn More: Everything AJA
