Our tried and true favorite preschool board games (and more)!
The adults in our family have always loved a game night, but it’s fun to get even the littlest kids involved too sometimes. Games are a great way for getting kids as young as three or four years old thinking critically, creatively and learning strategy. Nevermind just having fun, too! I put together a list of some of the best preschool board games.
From board games, to card games, to active games, this list is full of tried and true favorites, and great to work off of to expand your family game closet or for buying birthday gifts for your favorite preschooler!
Preschool Board Games
These board games for preschoolers can all be played with two or more people. Pull one out for some fun one-on-one time with your child, or get the whole family involved!
It’s A Small World Game: This game is essentially a three dimensional matching game, with a bit of strategy involved. You move through different rooms, trying to match the cards you have with the characters in each room as you go. It’s really unique and a total blast. This is a great board game for four year olds and up because they can play completely autonomously!
Sneaky Snacky Squirrel: Great for learning colors and counting, you’re working to fill your log with all the colorful acorns first!
Chutes & Ladders: This is such a classic, a complete game of luck but a really fun preschool board game to have in your collection if you don’t already.
Catan Junior: Catan Junior is a bit advanced for preschoolers, but I love it because it is a great tool for teaching strategy. A simplified version of the family favorite game, they learn how to strategically acquire and use resources to build pirate ships and hideouts.
Disney Eye Found It! Hidden Picture Game: If you’re looking for a less competitive, more collaborative, game, Disney Eye Found It is a great one. While yes, you are all hoping to get to the end of the game first, any time someone has to find a hidden picture you all work together to find them, and reap the benefits of how many you find!
Lil’ Loteria: This is a modified bilingual version of the classic Loteria game. It’s a bingo style game where you’re trying to fill your game board with matching cards, while learning English/Spanish vocabulary along the way!
Active Games
Want to play a game with your four year old that gets you up and moving? Try one of these favorites!
The Floor Is Lava: Kids have been playing some imaginary version of this forever, but now there’s a fun interactive game to make it even more fun with different challenges and obstacles to beat!
Headbanz: This super fun yes/no “Who am I?” game requires no reading skills! Wear a picture of a mystery item on a headband and ask yes/no questions to try and guess who (or what!) you are.
A great adaptation of this game for littler ones who may not know how to ask yes/no questions is to simply describe the object on their card to them until they guess, more like the style of the digital game “Heads Up!”
Jenga: Kids generally love knocking things over, so Jenga really checks that box big time. The classic stacking game is fun, but you can also level up with a giant lawn Jenga!
Card Games for Preschoolers
Card games are fun and portable. Toss one of these preschooler friendly games in your bag for meals out, vacations and more!
Rainbow Deck of Cards: I love this rainbow deck of cards because it allows us to play Slap (Or Slapjack, or Egyptian Ratscrew I’ve heard different names!) without kids having to read, they just have to know colors.
Essentially, we pick a color and any time a card of that color is put down, you have to try to slap the pile first. Whoever slaps the pile gets to add it to their stack of cards. You’re “out” when you run out of cards. Because the card is a complete gradient, it also creates a great opportunity for a friendly game debate about whether one color is “blue” or “green” or anywhere in between!
Disney Memory Game: Memory games are always a must in a preschool game collection, we love this Disney one because you can easily scale up or down how many pairs you want to be hunting for. And of course, it features all our favorite characters!
Go Fish: We just use a deck of Winnie the Pooh cards to play the classic Go Fish (which you could do with any deck of cards), but loved this Bluey version for the preschool game lovers at there because everyone love Bluey!
Sushi Go!: This game is techincally for children eight and over, but it’s another game I use for teaching my preschooler strategy and he’s really grasped it. You’re essentially swapping hands of cards, trying to select the cards that will get you the most points at the end of the game. It’s really fast, which is super satisfying for little ones. We love it!
What are your favorite games for the preschool age group?
Amanda says
We love playing Monopoly Jr. and Trouble with our 4 year old. She and our 2yo love playing their own version of Floor is Lava so I’m excited to check out this game!