Preschool Learning Activities 3 Year Olds

Fun And Easy Learning Activities For 3

Finding activities for 3-year-olds should be easy, but thats not always the case.

Maybe youve planned a few fun games to keep your child entertained during the day. These were activities they loved last week, so surely theyll still find them entertaining. Not today.

For some reason, these games no longer hit the sweet spot, and your child looks at you as if to say, Is this all youve got?

Weve been there! So what can you do?

Fear not. Weve compiled a list of creative and engaging activities to keep your three-year-old entertained at home.

Word Families With Ping

Teach simple word families with this activity suggested by Fun-A-Day. Golf tees stuck in a Styrofoam base create the perfect platform to interchange different letters written on ping-pong balls. Dig becomes pig with just one switch! This game lends itself to giggling and throwing the ping-pong balls, and all shenanigans can count as literacy training.

Shillerlearning Math Kit I

The ShillerLearning Math Kit I – everything you need in a single box! No lesson preparation required by parents!Your package contains over a dozen different manipulatives based on Dr. Maria Montessori’s method developed over a hundred years ago. Includes a balance, number cards, number tiles, operator set, foam ball, wood dominoes, a US/metric ruler, wooden shapes, dice, measuring cups, and probability bag. You also receive a wide range of decimal material, including 100 unit cubes, 27 ten rods, 27 hundred rod, and 17 thousand cubes along with a wooden decimal tray.

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Teaching With Play Dough

What three year old doesnt love playing with play dough? Although the messiness of play dough can sometimes feel burdensome for parents, this colorful clay offers TONS of unique learning opportunities for your preschool child.

Help them practice with the alphabet by forming letters out of play dough and asking your child to identify the letter. Give them objects, such as beads or buttons, to add to their play dough.

The act of burying and digging out these small objects will give your three year olds hand muscles a good workout and will increase fine motor skills.

Finally, simply letting your child play, build, and create with play dough gives their little brains a chance to be creative and imaginative and is the perfect thing to add to this list of activities for 3 year olds.

Build Letters That Come To Life With Abcs : Activities To Do With 3 Year Olds

In the abc games for 3 year olds from Osmos Little Genius Starter Kit, your child builds letters using squishy sticks and rings, then watches the letters come to life. Mo the friendly monster is there to help the letter recognition games for preschoolers, the shapes and sounds of letters. ABCs also expand kids vocabulary. ABCs is one of Osmos many indoor games for kids that will get your child excited about learning.

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Be A Helper And Doing Chores

Little kids LOVE to help grown-ups. They want to do everything that youre doing because theyre starting to gain this growing confidence and independence. Invite them to perform tasks that they may not be able to do independently, but that they can help you with.

• Get the mail
• Cleaning up after themselves: throwing their dishes in the sink garbage in the trash can
• Wiping down the table or floor when they make messes

Easy Fun Preschool Learning Activities

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Check out this list of 50+ easy and fun and simply awesome preschool learning activities for toddlers and preschoolers at home! These activities are great, if you ask yourself what should I be teaching my 3 year old? Use them to to keep your 3-year-old happily busy all day! Hands-on, learn and play, these activities are great for ages 2-5. Check out also our free printables and worksheets in our shop.

These great preschool learning activities are a daily part of our homeschool daily schedule for our 3-year-old and include the following categories:

• Language & Literacy
• Motor & Sensory
• Personal & Social & Practical Life.

You can download the list as a free printable here. Also, check out the free printables for some of the activities here.

If you need some inspiration how to organize and plan your homeschool preschool routine and set you schedule, check out the Ultimate Homeschool Preschool Planner Preschool Planner & Materials.

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Games To Play With Your 3

• Simon Says. Basically, one player is Simon and requests actions such as “Simon says touch your nose” and the other player has to touch their nose. However, if they don’t say “Simon Says” before the request, the player mustn’t perform the request. It took my son a while to grasp the rules, but he really enjoys the game. You can make it quite physical to burn off energy. Some things I get him doing are jumping, hopping, running around the room, spinning, dancing, and touching his toes.
• Balloon Games. This is particularly good if you have more than one child at home. Blow up a balloon and see how long it takes to burst the balloon if you sit on it. Or see for how long you can keep a balloon up in the air. Hit the balloon to one another or play catch with balloons.
• Guess the Animal. One player pretends to be an animal and the other must guess which animal. You can make noises and get on all fours to portray the animal. Make sure every player gets a turn.
• Color Hunt. Go on a color hunt through the house. Make it a race and see how many items you can find of the same color.
• Follow the Leader. One player follows the other’s lead and copies everything they do. It could be jumping, hopping, skipping, crawling, running, or singing. You can move around the house or go outside to play. Make sure you both get a turn leading. Check out more ideas for follow the leader.

Some board games are suitable for 3 year olds.

Preschool Activities For 3 Year Olds

Check out these educational boredom busters and activities for 3 year olds to keep them busy. Congratulations! Youve survived the craziness of toddlerhood, the terrible twos are behind you, and your three year old preschooler seems more like a kid than a baby.

As children grow and develop, every year brings new changes and new milestones. Age three is no exception!

Perhaps youve found yourself marveling at how your once rebellious two year old is now a three year old capable of actually listening and following directions. Maybe youve found yourself answering a never ending stream of why questions.

Age three is filled with a variety of developmental milestones. At this age, a childs imagination truly comes alive and their physical coordination improves significantly. They also begin to develop social skills and may even enjoy playing with friends more than sitting with mommy or daddy.

With all the growing, maturing, and developing that occurs from age three to four, its important to choose activities for your child to stimulate and encourage this development in both mind and body.

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Active Learning Toys For Preschoolers

Mini Trampoline

A mini trampoline is a great preschool gift designed to burn loads of energy! Trampolines provide a great way to invite gross motor play and build balance and coordination, while channeling all that childhood energy into fun and exciting play. The balance bar allows for toddlers to hold on as they jump and gives young jumpers extra stability.

Climbing Tower

This climbing tower is a great outdoor toy for preschoolers! This fun climbing dome helps build gross motor skills and coordination and three year olds absolutely love the challenge. Great for kids three to eight so this learning toy will be put to use for many years to come!

Tricycle

A tricycle is the perfect learning toy for 3 year olds and a great way to get outside! Riding a bike is so much fun for preschoolers, plus its great for developing balance, coordination and improving fine motor and gross motor skills. This tricycle also comes with a push handle for adults to help steer beginning riders.

Balance Bike

A balance bike is a helpful learning toy for any three year old. Kids learn balance and riding skills without pedals so it builds their confidence as they begin riding a big kid bike.

Plasma Car

The Plasma Car is easy to use and a great outside toy for preschoolers to enjoy! With no batteries or charging, this little car is perfect for active fun as it builds coordination and riding skills and develops gross motor muscles as you ride. Fun for kids of all ages, even adults!

Rocket Launchers

Float And Sink Experiment

Lets add some science to the fun. Teach the kids about sinking and floating with this simple water experiment.

You will need

A water tub, some natural items like leaves, twigs, flowers, stones, shells, etc., some water toys.

How to do

• Before starting the water play, get some items like leaves, flowers, stones, sticks, shells, buds, etc., from your garden.
• Place them next to the water tub along with the water toys.
• Now ask your kid to sit there and drop each item at a time. Tell him to observe which item is floating and which is sinking.
• Explain to them why some objects are floating and some and sinking.
• Now remove everything from the water, ask questions, and then check their answers by dropping the objects.

Childrens Book In A Bottle

Storytime has a hands-on element with Deborah J. Stewarts discovery bottles activity. These cheap and completely customizable literacy tools could be thrown together in an afternoon as a kinesthetic addition to your kids favorite stories. Stewart has her students pass the bottle around while she reads them a story in class. She reports that the bottles keep her students calm while engaging more of their attention in the story. Her post on Teach Preschool includes directions, materials and even pictures for easy reference.

What Ages Do We Mean

First up, what ages are we talking about here? For these preschool ages, we mean 3-year-olds and 4-year-olds. They arent young toddlers anymore, but they arent kindergarten-ready either.

You will see that many of the activities here can also be found in the toddler STEM activities section. Thats by design. Kids dont flip switches as they get older that suddenly make certain activities bad for them. They are still good, you can just dive deeper.

These activities are also designed to be flexible in terms of age range. This is perfect if you have more than one child. I give suggestions on ways to simplify projects for younger kids and ways to kick up the challenges for older children.

These particular activities work well for 3-4-year-olds, so they are highly recommended for your preschooler.

Arts And Crafts Activities For Toddlers Or Preschoolers

• Painting. I hate the mess of paint but on a sunny day, we take the paints outside. I put my son in old clothes so it doesn’t matter if he makes a mess. He loves it when we go for a walk, collect some big stones, and then go outside to paint them. You could paint lots of things that you find on a walk, like leaves or sticks. Another idea is to get a big bucket of water and some paintbrushes and just paint everything with waterâthe floor, walls, etc. . Finger painting is always fun. They will get paint all over their hands anyway, so you might as well make it intentional.
• Chalking. Chalk in the backyard or on the sidewalk outside. It can be washed away when the rain comes or with a big bucket of water. If you have an easel, you could put it up in the kitchen and use the chalk on the board, too.
• Stickers and Sticker Books. My son loves stickers and workbooks. I normally have to do some of this with him but it keeps him occupied for a while.
• Coloring Pages. Print out coloring pages of their favorite characters from TV and books. Do a Google search. There are lots of free coloring pages on the Internet. Then they can use chunky crayons to color them all in.
• Glitter. My son loves putting glue on paper and then sprinkling it with glitter. I have to sit with him to make sure that glitter doesn’t go everywhere.

• Here are 21 quick craft ideas, including homemade binoculars, fun foam door hangers, salt dough, egg carton caterpillars, and collage.

Absolutely Everything: A History Of Earth Dinosaurs Rulers Robots And Other Things Too Numerous To Mention

Discover how history, nature, and science connect in this fast-paced, entertaining, and incredibly informative history of the world, from the beginning of time to the present day.How was our universe made from a tiny speck of energy? Where did the first trees, plants, animals, and humans come from? What happened to the dinosaurs? What was so miserable about medieval times? How were railroads and electricity invented? What are the perils of global warming?

Best Practices For Educational Activities For 3 Year Olds

Now that you have a few ideas on what to do with your 3 year old, take a look at these best practices for helpful tips:

• Stick to a weekly schedule. Its easy to feel overwhelmed with all the things you have to do. Keep it simple by focusing on a few topics a week. For instance, one week you can focus on circles, the color red, and the letter A. The next week, you can focus on squares, the color green, and the letter B.Get more tips on how to create a 3 year old daily schedule.
• Keep the activities short and frequent. Its common for kids to lose interest quicklydont feel bad if yours cant sit still for long periods. Instead, keep them shortno longer than 30 minutes at a time. Or intertwine these conversations and activities frequently throughout the day.
• Follow your childs interests. Kids will learn and pursue their interests. Nurture whats already there rather than forcing something you think your child should do. If she loves farms, find childrens books about farm animals, visit a local farm, and sing songs about the sounds animals make.
• Rotate toys and materials regularly to reignite her imagination. Old toys will feel new once again after theyve been out of sight for a while.

Activities That Promote Fine Motor Skills

One of the best activities to practice with your 3 year old is his fine motor skills. Developing dexterity and muscles in his hands will set the foundation to hold a pencil, cut with scissors, and button his clothes.

Writing with pencils and crayons arent the only ways to develop fine motor skills, either. Take a look at these activities that will also do the trick:

• Threading string through items. Start with large pieces, like dry rigatoni pasta and shoelaces, before moving onto smaller items like beads and thread.
• Pipe cleaners and a colander. Sticking the ends of pipe cleaners into a colander was one of the activities that intrigued my 3 year old for a long stretch. Turn a metal colander upside down. Then, have your child stick one end of a pipe cleaner into one hole, and the other into another hole. See what creations and patterns he can make!
• Glue sticks. Make a collage of pieces of paper and glue sticks. First, tear paper into small piecesstart off with 2 pieces and gradually cut them smaller. Then, show him how to glue one side and stick it onto a larger piece of paper.

Check out these Montessori fine motor activities for more ideas.

Parenting With Presence: Practices For Raising Conscious Confident Caring Kids

Our children can be our greatest teachers. Parenting expert Susan Stiffelman writes that the very behaviors that push our buttons refusing to cooperate or ignoring our requests can help us build awareness and shed old patterns, allowing us to raise our children with greater ease and enjoyment. Filled with practical advice, powerful exercises, and fascinating stories from her clinical work, Parenting with Presence teaches us how to become the parents we most want to be while raising confident, caring children.

Mini Alphabet Sensory Bins

This one is especially suited for a classroom environment and could be a staple setup in any preschool teachers arsenal. Little Bins for Little Hands gives the classic sensory bins a twist by using objects that all start with the same letter. Tape the letter on the front of each box, or let the kids guess the letter as they examine the objects. Either way, these sensory bins transform a fun, hands-on play activity into a literacy lesson.

Color And Shape Sorters

This is a fun activity to teach colors and shapes. Your toddlers would enjoy and also learn something new.

You will need

Objects in primary and secondary colors, readily available shape sorter set.

How to do

Place primary and secondary colored objects differently and teach your kids. Once they understand the differences, mix everything, and ask them to sort.

For teaching shapes, you can buy any shape sorter game readily available. Once they learn the shapes, you can take it to the next level by asking them to sort them.

What Are Fun Activities For Preschoolers

So here is our list of what are our favourite fun learning activities for preschoolers and toddlers at home:

Videos, descriptions and images will follow next week.