Best Preschool Activities for 3-Year-Olds

ByEuroKids Hours Posted on Hours Updated on

Finding the right preschool activity for your 3 year old can be far more challenging than you can imagine. Just when you think you are done with having the curriculum taken care of, you need to select the right activities to jumpstart their learning.

Here’s a look at how to get just the right mix of playschool activities that can be indulged in during these critical years of development.

Best preschool activities for 3 year olds

Here’s a list of the best preschool activities for 3 year olds of all learning abilities.

  1. Get creative with magnatiles or blocks

    2. A sublime activity for your 3 year old, for enhancing motor skills and creativity. Give it a twist by having them copy the creations you make.

  2. Colour Sorting

    3. A bowl of differently coloured marbles has to be sorted by color into different bowls. This activity for your 3 year old will boost early critical thinking and organizational skills.

  3. Number Hunt

    4. One of the most fun home activities for 3 year olds involves them hunting for items in numbers: like say, five socks and three handkerchiefs. Great to keep those mental juices flowing.

  4. Hand Tracing

    5. All you need for this cool activity for your 3 year old is crayons and a paper. Have them trace their hands they place on paper, with the crayon of their choice. Another great way to finetune motor skills!

  5. Treasure Hunt

    6. We all love a good treasure hunt. One of the coolest nursery activities for 3-4 year olds, this game’s objective is to find the ‘treasure’ marked by a giant ‘X’. Hints can be tossed in, if it gets too difficult.

  6. Fun with food

    7. Activities for your 3 year old might not necessitate them taking a cooking course, but that doesn’t mean they can’t don that chef’s hat! Let them assist you in baking cookies or perhaps assembling a cheese platter!

  7. Obstacle Course

    8.  Improving muscle strength, balance and problem solving are some of the stellar benefits of one of the best preschool activities for 3 year olds. You can even take it outdoors.

  8. Bubble Popping Fun

    9. If you thought blowing bubbles was fun, trying popping them!
    Warning: This is one of those activities for your 3 year old that’s extremely addictive. The bigger the bubbles, the better!

  9. Draw and Paint

    10. One of the must-do home activities for 3 year olds, is the simplest. Give them pencils and acrylic paints and let them draw and paint everything from mountains to the ocean. They can draw and paint shapes, too.

  10. Playdough Crafts

    11. One of those activities for your 3 year old you cannot miss. Kids never tire of playdough. Create a ball or even a snake.  Making playdough cookies using a cookie cutter are great fun, too. Just don’t eat them!

  11. The Sound game

    12. One of the coolest activities for your 3 year old. Download common sounds like the meow of a cat and sound of a car. Then play the guessing game!

  12. Transferring

    13. All this activity involves is transferring items (like toys) filled in one container, to another. Give your toddler some credit. This might be easy for you, but it’s certainly not so for them.

  13. Read to them

    14. So, you read books to them? That’s great. But do they really listen? Make sure they do by making funny faces and voices as you read along. Use eye contact for a far more immersive reading experience. Surely one of the best home activities for 3 year olds.

  14. Put on a puppet show

    15.  It takes two to tango!  You can use a sock, paper cut-out or any small object as a puppet. This is actually a great way to re-enact a difficult situation faced by your child and help them get over it.

  15. Play ‘Shopkeeper Shopkeeper’

    16. Certainly one of the coolest roleplaying games and one of the more fun activities for 3 year olds. You can interchange the roles of shopkeeper and customer with your toddler. You might want to work on those craft skills by having them first create a sign of the shop.

  16. Simple board games

    17. We’re not at the Monopoly age yet, but simple board games will help your 3 year olds develop dexterity as well as impart to them the importance of waiting their turn. This is one of those activities that will encourage your preschooler to work as part of a team.

  17. Fabric painting

    18. This is one of those home activities that provides for a lush sensory experience for 3 year olds. You can use stencils with readymade shapes that you place on the fabric and then paint the spaces within using fabric colours. A great use for those old T-shirts you never use!

  18. Paper Turtle Fun

    19. Colour the bottom of a paper plate and create cut-outs from coloured paper (preferably brown) of four feet, one head and a tail. Then stick the six pieces to the paper plate and Voila! You have a paper turtle. You might want to add the turtle’s eyes, nose and mouth on its head.

  19. Painting Ice

    20. This is one of those nursery activities for 3-4 year olds that’s really ‘hot’, contrary to what it entails. Use a different spoon for different food gel colours, to avoid unnecessary mixing.

  20. Smell game

    21. Similar to the sound game, this is one of those activities that’s always fun for your 3 year old. Blindfold your child and place things like fruits, flowers or perhaps even perfume, for them to identify. Score them for right guesses and when the game is done, remove their blindfold and show them what they missed.

  21. Logical Sorting

    22. While sorting things might seem like a chore to you, it’s a great deal of fun for little children! The following is just one of the variations of sorting games you can play with your child. Collect some objects from the environs of your home, and then have your child sort them by ‘colour.’

  22. Elephant Ring Toss

    23. All you have to do is go online and purchase this cool game, that Is reminiscent of the classic ring toss game you might have played as a child at a fun fair. The objective of the game is to get children to stack those rings on the trunk of that elephant. Great for hand-eye coordination, this activity!

  23. Dot Puzzles

    24. Dot Puzzles, once again easily available online, are a great way to keep those 3-year-olds engaged for hours. A simple example of these would be the ‘Connect the Dots’ puzzle, that we played with such fascination as children.

  24. Matching Game

    25. Just like sorting, children love ‘matching’ things, too! One of the cool matching games, is mixing up some pairs of differently-coloured socks, and then having your kids match them.

  25. Balancing Beam

    26. What’s life without a bit of ‘balance’? All you need for this activity, is some duct tape that should be plastered onto the floor to make a straight line. This is the ‘balancing beam’, that your toddler now has to walk using one foot in front of the other, without ‘falling.’

  26. Homemade Musical Instruments

    27. All kids love music, so making their own musical instrument at home, is a sheer bonus! An elastic band guitar is a great example of a musical instrument that can be created by you and your kid. All you need for this is a tissue box for the frame of the guitar, and some elastic bands of varying thicknesses to create the different notes.

  27. Story Stones

    28. Know those flat stones you find at the beach? Use them to make Story Stones, by drawing things like pictures of animals on them, using a permanent marker. Then, ask your children to pick one from a basket you have tossed them into, and weave a story around it. For instance, if that stone has a tiger’s face on it, you might want to tell a tale similar to The Jungle Book!

It’s important to channelize the energy of 3 year olds in the right direction. No number of toys can hold their attention for more than a few minutes. Using the activities listed herein, you can be sure you will pique their curiosity and get them engaged. Well, for a while, at least.

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