Five Preschool Games for Learning Colors.
Playing games with kids is a great way to make learning fun! And there are a lot of great games out there that can help kids develop different skills. My son will be 3 years old next month and one thing we have been working on is color learning. A lot of board games include an element of color recognition into the game play and below I have included a list of some of our current favorites!
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The Sneaky, Snacky Squirrel Game by Educational Insights
What makes The Sneaky, Snacky Squirrel Game by Educational Insights extra fun for kids is that you use squirrel-shaped tongs to pick up the acorns and add to your log! In general, squeezing tongs is great for building hand and finger strength in young kids and I love that this game incorporates this mechanism into the game play! The gameplay is simple, which also makes this a great first game to introduce your child to. To play, you spin the spinner and land on a color. Use the squirrel tongs to pick up an acorn of the corresponding color and place the acorn in the hole with the matching color on your log. (Just be aware that the acorn pieces are small, which leads this game to be suggested for kids 3+).
Hoot Owl Hoot! by Peaceable Kingdom
We love cooperative board games because all players are on the same team, working towards the same goal. Cooperative games encourage teamwork and positive social relationships as players help one another. Hoot Owl Hoot! by Peaceable Kingdom is a favorite cooperative game in which players try to help the baby owls fly back to their nest before the sun comes up. You do this by playing a color card and moving an owl to that corresponding color on the game board. The basic game play makes it great for younger kids (my almost 3-year-old enjoys playing) and you can change the difficulty level of the game from Beginner Level to Challenge Level by playing with different number of owls. The game actually involves a lot of strategy in terms of which color card to play to get the owls to the nest quickly (and before the sun rises)! The strategic thinking involved in Hoot Owl Hoot! makes is a great game for gameschooling or to enjoy during family game night!
Snug as a Bug in a Rug by Peaceable Kingdom
Snug as a Bug in a Rug is another cooperative game by Peaceable Kingdom. In this game, the game board is a cardboard “rug” that is cleverly designed to lay slightly above the tabletop. During the gameplay, you spin the spinner and find a bug with a matching attribute and slip it under the rug. All players work together to rescue the bugs before three stink bugs appear on the rug! I love that with this game kids can practice colors, shapes, counting and the concept of big vs small.
Race to Pattern Palace! by hand2mind
My kids are huge fans of the tv show Numberblocks and naturally gravitate towards games with their favorite characters. In the game Race to Pattern Palace! by hand2mind, you move your character around the game board, but there are a few spaces where you must complete a bridge to continue. To complete a bridge, you must choose a card and finish the pattern shown on the card. There are two levels of difficulty for the pattern card and you snap colored tiles into a bridge piece to complete the pattern (snapping in the tiles is also a great fine motor workout for little hands).
Candy Land by Hasbro
A list of games for practicing colors wouldn’t be complete without the classic Candy Land. Candy Land is a quintessential game for practicing color skills. You pick a card and move along the game path to the matching color. It is one of those games with play mechanics so simple that by the age of 4 or 5 kids are able to play with siblings without an adult.
Honorable Mention
The following are currently hard to track down or may be out of print. Keep your eye out for these in game stores or second hand shops!
Snail’s Pace Race by Ravensburger
Snail’s Pace Race by Ravensburger is an adorable game that I recently found at a local game store. This game plays like a cooperative game- you roll the dice and whatever colors you roll, you move the snail of the corresponding color one space closer to the finish line. However, there is a bit of competition in the game play, because each person chooses one snail to “root for” as the snail they think will cross the finish line first. The game play of Snail’s Pace Race is very simple and I have been enjoying playing it with my almost 3-year-old. It’s the perfect game for him to practice basic game play mechanics- taking turns rolling the dice and move a game piece on a gameboard.
You may also be interested in these posts:
Favorite Board Games for 2-year-olds
Favorite Board Games for 3-year-olds
Favorite Board Games for 4-year-olds
Seven Board Games Great for Preschoolers