Early childhood education plays a significant role in preparing for future education, career opportunities, and personal development. During your child’s early years, their pre-school stage from ages 3-5 years old, is considered to be the golden time to build up their interests and hobbies.
To provide our kids with a dynamic and immersive learning environment, here are a few games we can play with them daily to cultivate their interest in different areas.
Game 1: Numbers counting and matching (for toddlers)
An engaging game to practice number identification, counting, and number tracing.
The benefits of this game:
- Social-Emotional skills: working as a team
- Math skills: number sense and recognition, counting and quantifying
- Language: numbers in English.
- Cognitive skills.
How to Play:
- Prepare cards with written numerals and cards with different numbers of objects.
- Let some of the kids hold a numeral card and let some hold with the graphic cards without a number.
- Make them stand in a circle.
- First, let one kid say the number on their card
- Afterwards, let them find the kid holding the corresponding graphic card. For example, if he is holding the number ‘2’, he can pair up with the kid holding a card with 2 cows
- You may let the kids exchange the number cards with others who were holding graphic cards then repeat the game.
Game 2: Colour identification & matching (for toddlers or pre-schoolers)
Teach kids about colour identification.
The benefits of this game:
- Identifying colours.
- Recognising English alphabet and pre-phonics skills.
- Develop cognitive abilities and skills.
How to Play:
- Pick a random colour and let the kids identify the colour and spell it out.
- Find other things in the room that match the colour. For example, if you chose red, you can find an apple, a red crayon and so on.
Game 3: Letter matching (for toddlers or pre-schoolers)
This game is the most common and effective way for toddlers to learn the alphabet and pre-phonics skills.
The benefits of this game:
- Language development: English alphabet and pre-phonics skills.
- Identify colours and common objects
- Cognitive abilities and skills.
How to Play:
- Show the alphabet cards to the kids and teach them how to pronounce them.
- Let the kids hold the alphabet cards and say each letter out loud.
- Show the kids flashcards with both words and graphics.
- Let the kids match the word flashcards with the letters they have.
Game 4: Object matching (for toddlers)
This is an excellent way to introduce your child to familiar topics and learn new vocabulary.
The benefits of this game:
- Learn new English and Chinese vocabularies and storytelling skills.
- Develop cognitive abilities and skills.
- Get creative.
How to Play:
- Give the removable pieces to your child.
- Pick a scenario and start the story in a way that can fully grab their attention.
- Teach them new vocabularies along with the storytelling.
- Let your child stand up with a piece that matches the part of the story.
- Give them some hints if necessary.
Game 5: Guessing the name of Fruits and Animals (for toddlers or pre-schoolers)
This is one of the most interactive learning games to develop your child’s skills and learn English through an everyday life environment.
The benefits of this game:
- Develop English pre-phonics skills and basic vocabularies.
- Cognitive abilities and skills.
- Introduction to some science.
- Communication skills.
How to Play:
- Show your child some random alphabet cardswith fruits or animals.
- Let your child guess what they are and say the name of the objects in English or the language you are teaching.
- Give them some hints if necessary. It’s also important to encourage your child to try their best.
- Guide your child to spell out the name of the objects.
- Every correct guess and spelling will be one point, and you will announce a winner in the end.
Game 6: Teamwork puzzle (for pre-schoolers)
It creates a dynamic learning environment for kids to gain pre-math skills through plays.
The benefits of this game:
- Physics skills: realization of physical elements.
- Math skills: Geometrical shape and pattern names.
- Cognitive abilities and skills
- Problem-solving skills
How to Play:
- Give the wooden shape boards to each of the kids.
- Teach them the name of the boards separately in English.
- Let the kids say the shape board’s name they hold and spell it out.
Game 7: Puzzle-solving competition (for pre-schoolers)
In this challenging puzzle game, kids will learn how to solve problems independently.
The benefits of this game:
- Problem-solving skills.
- Solving ability with creativity.
- Independent thinking.
How to Play:
- Let the kids solve the puzzle independently.
- Encourage them to solve the puzzle as quickly as they can.
- Announce the winner.
- Ask them: what’s in the puzzle? What season do you like best? And why?
Game 8: Family role-playing (for pre-schoolers)
It provides your kids with a chance to explore relationships and learn that they play an essential role in the family through plays.
The benefits of this game:
- Language Arts: English family-based vocabularies.
- Cognitive abilities and skills.
- Social skills: family and relationships.
- Communication and collaboration skills.
How to Play:
- Let your kids’ role play a family.
- Give the family member flashcardsto the kids for roles they will play.
- Let each of them tell the other kids what family role they will play in English and say and spell it loudly.
- Give them a real-life scenario, like doing the housework or cooking, and explain to kids what work they will do and how they will need to work with each other.
- Encourage them to communicate with other family members and help them if they need any.
- You may let the kids change their roles to play.
The purpose of these games is to give you some ideas on grabbing the kids’ attention to learn through plays. In short, the main goal through games is to cultivate interest, develop cognitive abilities and skills, and gain the fundamental physics and math skills for middle childhood and school years.
***sponsored article
Thanks for your continued love and appreciation for our media. We love to collaborate with brands and we love to get feedback from our readers. Did you check our platform “SocialMediaMomSG” for mompreneurs, local brands and ladies?
Drop a line on [email protected] / [email protected] or Click here to get in touch with us. Happy to connect!