September 21, 2022 //  by Jill Webb

Little ones have fun and enjoy learning through movement, play, and using their hands...and we know this type of exploration helps them learn better too! If you are looking for fun hands-on preschool activities, look no further! This collection of preschool activities will keep any little one engaged and learning a range of skills. It includes hand-on games, basic skills for letter and number identification, visual motor skills, and more. All of which are developmentally appropriate for pre-schoolers.

All you need for this activity if some wax sticks and a laminated letter matter. Children will manipulate the wax sticks to mimic the shape of each letter. The activity helps with learning letter formation and builds hand strength.

This activity teaches math skills. It has children matching different number scenes - dominoes, word form numbers, linking cubes, counters, tallies, and more - to the digit. A nice way for kids to see the many ways numbers can be represented.

Learn more: You Clever Monkey

These cover pattern block mats are great for learning patterns. Using solo cups and dot stickers, create different patterns on the mats - aba, abc, abba, etc. The students will them ned to cover them while correctly matching different patterns.

Learn more: You Clever Monkey

Color sorting activities are great for pre-k students. For this activity, all you need is a color mat and some colored items - in this case they use bears. Mix the small colored items in a pile and have students organize by color.

Work on motor skill development with this fun activity! Student will need to walk different paths holding their "ice cream" (a ball on tip of a cardboard tube) with out dropping it! Challenge them to walk different ways - slow, fast, big steps, etc - while still maintaining balance of their "ice cream".

Learn more: Coffee Cups and Crayons

A cute way to do number work and use motor skills. Using numbered cardboard "pancakes" students will pretend to be chefs and play different number games - match the number, identify the number, or order the numbers.

Learn more: The Educators Pin On It

Geometry activities don't always have to be about shapes, they can also help with measurement! In this activity, will measure lines using blocks. You can also ask them to measure each line using different shapes - "How many triangles does it measure?" or "How many squares does it measure?"

Learn more: Days with Grey

This farm theme math activity not only works on counting, but you can use it to teach about farm life, healthy eating habits, and colors. All you need to some brown dough and play veggies! Have students count veggies in their pile, or ask them to count out a specified about of certain veggies - "5 corn and 3 eggplant".

Learn more: Stay at Home Educator

This is a very simple preschool activity idea, but kids love it! Using stickers of their choosing, they will work on one to one correspondance. On a chart, numbered with as many digits as the students know, they will match the correct number of stickers with each digit.

Learn more: Frugal Fun 4 Boys

A cute craft with children when learning about the sea, is these crabby hands! Student will use red paint and their hand prints to make a crab. They can add a face, along with anything they may find in the background - sand, kelp, water, shells, etc.

Leran more: Amy Latta Creations

Hands-on activities are great for teaching the alphabet to preschoolers. In this activity it has them creating collages for each letter. Using a variety of mediums - paper scraps, colors, straws, etc - these art activities teach student letters AND creativity.

Learn more: Early Learning Ideas

For this activity you get to read a favorite book "The Kissing Hand" by Audrey Penn and play a related activity. After reading the story, or listening on YouTube, students will play matching game that uses colors.

Fun science experiments can sometimes be hard to find for young children. This experiment works on animal tracking, science inquiry, and print making using differing animal tracks. The site includes a few different mini lessons around the topic.

A great way for preschool children to learn basic math skills is by using dominoes. Using a set on dominoes they will need to count the dots on each one to determine the total and match to the correct digit. This is great for an introduction to adding.

This is a nice game for preschoolers to do letter work. It is a phonics matching game where children use a strip of images to determine what is the beginning letter sound they hear. They then place a magnetic letter.

Learn more: Pre School Play and Learn

This counting wheel will help students with early numeracy. Students will have a set of clothes pins that are numbered with digits. Their goal is to match each number to the appropriate dots on the counting wheel.

Learn more: Keep Toddlers Busy

Have some fun pretend play, while learning letters! Using magnetic letters, place them in a pot with water. Allow students to use a ladle to scoop some out. Then have them identify the letter they scooped.

Learn more: How We Learn

Using ribbon and felt pieces with a slit, children will work on lacing. They will pull the ribbon through each felt shape. It will help them to gain strength with pincer grip and eye-hand coordination

Learn more: Play Dough to Plato

You can do this activity anywhere, but this example uses nature. Find objects in varying sizes and have children put them in order from smallest to biggest. You can also use things like shoes, pillows, or toys! Make sure to not only size them by numbers, but also by using vocabulary words, like small and smallest, tall and tallest, etc.

Learn more: The Measured Mom

You are never too young to learn basics cooking skills! This site gives a few kids friendly recipes that teach the basics - washing produce, chopping, and mixing. For this activity, students make a special edible fruit cup! with an ice cream cone, berries, and chocolate!

Learn more: Create Kids Club

A simple, yet beneficial activity that helps with  fine motor and eye-hand coordination skills. Children will use pip cleaners to pull them through the tiny holes on a strainer. They will need to use accuracy and also work on their pincer grip.

In this scavenger hunt, children will need to find objects around the school yard, house, or in the community that use these shapes. As they find each shape, they will cross it off the list.

Learning our name is important to get pre-schoolers ready for primary school! Use this simple puzzle as a pre-writing activity to teach students how to correctly write their name. They will have their name fulling written on a writing strip and then a second written on puzzles pieces. They must correctly match the pieces. Once they have mastered this, take away the guide.

Learn more: Teaching 2 and 3 Year Olds

A super fun activity that you can modify for many things - working with numbers, letters, shapes, and colors! Draw objects on a glass or plastic plate with a dry erase marker, then add some water. The shape will come to life!

Social Emotional Learning is important to learn at every age. Use these dough 2D play dough mats of faces to help them express their emotions and learn about feelings in general. While they create different faces, give them vocabulary words that match the expressions.

Edible dough is great for preschoolers who are always wanting to out things in their mouths, but you know it's safe. Have them practice motor skills like rolling and pressing shapes! You can also use this dough in the previous activity for showing emotions. At the end (or during) they can eat the dough!

Literacy skills are extremely important! Make them engaging with this letter recognition station. At each letter station, kids will have the same activities - tracing the letter with dough, letter stamping, and more!

Learn more: Fun Learning For Kids

Sensory exploration is always a hot with pre-school children. For this bin, it is themed about insects. Gove students a magnifying glass as they search through the dirt, rocks, and natural debris to find some cool insects!

Learn more: Fun Learning for Kids

Process art activities are great fine motor skills and critical thinking skills. In this type of art, students are given an idea or theme. In this case, it is winter. They can then lead the art design and choices of materials, colors, etc.

Learn more: Stay at Home Educator

A fun STEM activity for preschoolers, this "how tall can you build it?" activity uses items found around home. Cups, popsicle sticks, or you could even use building blocks. The goals is for little ones to find different ways to build the tallest tower.

Something simple like a noodle necklace is a great way to have fun working on eye-hand coordination and motor skills. Dye the noodles and have students also create or mimic patterns!

A fantastic letter recognition game! This activity uses ping-pong balls that are placed inside tubes with corresponding letters. Students will work on both upper and lower case letter recognition. They will choose a ball and place it in the correct containers.

Learn more: The Imagination Tree

A simple Bingo for learning shapes and colors. Using bingo cards you can buy online, or homemade ones, call a shape and have children place the matching shape. It also helps teach colors to children.

This is a great pre-writing for little ones! Write each child's name on bubble wrap in permanent marker with different colors. Then, students will use their finger to trace their names. Great for sensory as well!

Learn more: Coffee Cups and Crayons

This is an educational activity that works on counting. Children will need to mimic each pizza puzzle by matching the correct number of pepperonis to their pizza. They should make their puzzle look exactly like the one on the worksheet card.