Play For 3-5 Year Olds
At age three, children stop being babies and begin to develop new skills and abilities. Likewise, your senses also mature and your creativity becomes a problem-solving tool. With these games for children aged 3 to 5 years, we can feed this growth with extremely fun activities.
Childhood is a stage of constant growth for children. Especially from the age of 3 or 4, when they begin to interact more openly with the world around them and absorb new knowledge, physical and cognitive abilities.
In this phase, as in the previous and later ones, playing is an exercise that can offer many advantages to the little ones. Then, we will explain some fun activities to help your child in the maturing process.
The best games for children from 3 to 5 years old
1.- Hide and Seek
There is practically no child who does not love this game. This is because they are just beginning to develop their spatial location, which makes it quite a challenge to walk around looking for someone else.
In addition to not needing any equipment, it is a game that allows socialization, since it is played with two or more people. The child will have to make decisions about where to hide or where to start looking, which also develops the ability to create game strategies.
The rules are as follows:
- One of the participants counts up to 10 (or a number you can remember) for the others to hide.
- At the cry of “Here I go”, he goes out to look for the others, who must wait hidden within the previously established limits.
- When you find them, you can touch their back to eliminate them or, in another variant of this game, you can run to the place where you were counting. If you arrive earlier, the hidden person is eliminated.
2.- The Master sent / Monkey Simão
Like so many other games for children aged 3 to 5 years, this activity aims to respect the rules and interpret other people’s requests and commands. In a sense, it’s good preparation for the toddler’s preschool stage. In addition, it is a game that serves to stimulate language, another skill that the child is learning at this stage.
You can play with three or more people. One will be the DM and must give an order (for example, “take a leap” or “run like a horse”). However, the order will only be valid if you first say the phrase “Your Master sent”.
When a player obeys an order that was not preceded by this sentence or, conversely, when he does not obey at the corresponding time, he is eliminated. The last one who remains in the game wins. At this time, roles can be switched.
3.- Play make-believe
The fact that this type of play for 3-5 year olds is classic does not mean that it is less efficient. Playing school, doctor or police and thief is a great way for children to begin to understand the world that awaits them.
On the other hand, it also stimulates the imagination, helps them to socialize with their peers and to develop the use of language.
Children can play real professions, but also relying on characters from their favorite shows or movies to invent fun games. Examples of this type of game are playing pirate, animals or magical beings. Everything is within reach when using your imagination.
4.- Games that stimulate emotional intelligence
This stage of life is very favorable to start educating the child to identify their emotions. Of course, one of the best ways to achieve this is to apply the playful aspect that games provide.
A good example of this type of activity is as follows:
- Make cardboard masks with different expressions: joy, sadness, annoyance, surprise, fear, etc.
- Also, analyze photos and videos of your favorite cartoon characters and “play” guessing what they might be feeling at that moment.
- To make things more fun, you can keep a sort of scoreboard with each player’s hits. Even though the scoreboard is secondary in this case, it helps children to be motivated and focused.
Children and mobile games
Technology occupies a preponderant place in people’s lives. Children do not escape this reality. From a very young age, they learn to use these devices and, of course, their favorite applications are games.
The secret is not in prohibiting its use, but in limiting and controlling the amount of content. For both videos and apps – both free and cost-effective – parents should be aware of what the child is learning from them.
It is proven that the excessive use of cell phones and video games can cause great damage to development, such as delay in speech. Therefore, prevention and gradual incorporation of these devices is the best solution.
It is clear that the options are many and varied. Certain factors such as space and climate can impact the performance of games for children aged 3 to 5 years, but all are perfectly adaptable to the circumstances of the moment. Take the time and invest in fun activities to help your little one grow!
