07 Sep Board Games for Preschoolers

Posted at 11:00h in Kids, Readers' Advisory by Maureen

Need a new game to play with your preschooler, but don’t know what to get? Use our board game collection to try out games before you buy them! Below are three recommendations for the preschoolers in your life.

Why should you play board games?

Board games are a great way for families to spend time together. They can help younger kids learn concepts such as color matching, 1 to 1 counting, letter recognition, and develop their fine motor skills by moving card and pieces around a board. Younger players also learn how to take turns and follow the rules of the game. Little ones also get a chance to stretch their vocabulary and practice their reading comprehension, even if they’re not reading yet.

Games benefit older children by helping to develop their brains, especially with strategy games. Focus and attention span can also be practiced and increased when board games are played without interruptions. And as with younger children, games help to build and strengthen relationships with family and friends. Read more about the benefits of board games on Scholastic’s website.

Recommended preschool board games

Here, Fishy, Fishy!

Here, Fishy, Fishy! is a great game for little hands, with its large and chunky pieces. In this game, players try to catch all the fish to fill their board! After rolling the dice, players try to catch the fish that corresponds to the color on the dice. If they match, they get a souvenir of their catch to put on their board. If they don’t, they try again! This game is a great opportunity to teach little ones how to follow rules and take turns. Check out the rule book here.

Here, Fishy, Fishy! promotes:

Color matching
Fine motor skills and hand-eye coordination
Dramatic play

Count Your Chickens!

Count Your Chickens! is a great way to learn 1:1 correspondence. In this game, players help Mother Hen round up all her little chicks before the fox gets them. Players spin the spinner and move mother hen to the symbol shown. As she moves, count the number of spaces. That’s the number of chicks that go into the henhouse. If you land on a blue spot, you get another chick. Get all the chicks in the henhouse before Mother Hen gets there, and everybody wins! If the fox gets any, you’ll all have to try again. This is a great early math game that also teaches teamwork! Check out the rules here.

Count Your Chickens! promotes:

Counting and 1:1 correspondence
Symbol recognition
Teamwork and cooperation

Robot Turtles: The Game for Little Programmers!

Robot Turtles is a wonderful, interactive way to help children learn the importance of programming. This game is played with Turtle Masters (players) and one Turtle Mover (person in charge). The Turtle Mover builds a maze or course for their 1-4 Turtle Masters. The Turtle Masters use their deck of code cards to tell the Turtle Mover how to move their card. The goals is to get the gem of your color. This game can as easy or complex as the Turtle Mover decides. There is even an advanced mode for adults and older children to play! Check out the rule book here.

Robot Turtles promotes:

Critical thinking skills
Pattern recognition
Basic concepts of programming

Having trouble thinking of your own mazes? The creator has provided a website with different resources to help turtle movers (adults) of all skill levels.