Best Learning Activities for 3-Year-Olds

Little ones turning three are entering a special phase of developing and honing new skills. This includes the development of communication and coordination skills, along with many others. Time spent with your little one through engaging in activities that they find fun is one way to help work on your child’s social skills. No matter what their interests, there are so many learning / preschool activities that your little one will enjoy. If your family is choosing preschool at home, these daily activities, like preschool worksheets, can be incorporated into your early childhood education curriculum.

Daily preschool activities nurture your child’s development, successfully marrying engagement and entertainment. Knowing your child’s interests is the first step in finding what creative and engaging activities will work for your preschooler. Below you will find a list of learning activities that you can try out with your three-year-old.

Preschool Worksheets: Playgarden Prep Online offers workbooks with preschool worksheets exploring all subjects through the alphabet. Our online platform also offers videos where your little one can follow along with a Playgarden teacher as they do the worksheet with them. These worksheets are a perfect preschool activity for little ones doing their early childhood education through preschool at home! 

Dolls: Little ones love mirroring the roles of people they see in real-life. One common example is recreating their family in a dollhouse. Playing dolls with your little one lets them open their imagination and share it with you. If you’re a Montessori-style parent, you can substitute typical dolls like Barbies with wooden peg dolls, to allow their imagination to explore even further!

Doodling: Fine motor skills can be practiced by using markers or crayons to scribble and draw. You do not have to be a great artist to draw with your little one. Show them how you hold your marker and doodle, then have them show you how they doodle. Holding the marker correctly will help strengthen their hand muscles, preparing them for writing in the coming years. Preschool activities like worksheets through Playgarden Online also include coloring pages as well as tracing practice targeted towards early childhood education!

Reading: Reading with your child is not only excellent bonding time, but it also helps your little one learn new words, engage in storytelling, and develop a love for books! Poems and short stories with colorful illustrations tend to engage little ones and give them a visual story to follow. Making reading a part of your little one’s daily routine, especially at bedtime, gives you both something to look forward to.

Puzzles: Playgarden Prep Online also offers printable puzzles, matching games, and other interactive preschool activities for early childhood education and online preschool.

Family Photos: This is a great preschool activity when your little one starts asking questions like “where did I come from?” Look through photos where your little one is able to name everyone in the pictures, and also explore albums where your little one may not know everyone. Take the time to teach them about family members and how you are all connected. 

Walks: Getting moving with your little one is essential for the physical and mental health of both of you! Walks in nature let you and your little one be explorers—discovering new animals, plants, and people in your neighborhood. Especially for our friends doing preschool at home, a daily walk is an excellent form of exercise and it gets your little one familiar with their neighborhood—what a great preschool activity!

Play-dough: Play-dough is a great tool to keep little ones engaged and occupied. It helps strengthen hand muscles and encourages creativity, both highly important in early childhood education. They can build castles, snow people, snakes, etc. For recognition practice, you can even make a game out of it by asking your little one to create a certain letter or number out of the play-dough.

Watercolor: Watching colors mix with water is one of the most fascinating and simple science experiments your little one can do. Give your little one a palette to mix colors with water and some cardstock paper. Show them how dipping a paint brush in water, then the color, brings the paint “to life.” Give you and your little one permission to be messy and see what masterpiece you can create together.

Crafts for the Fridge and More: There are so many DIY projects and crafts you can do with your little one, and you can find many of them in Playgarden’s DIY section! From macaroni art to holiday ornaments, preschool activities like these let your little one get creative and flex their imagination. You can also make art with recyclables, stamps and stickers, cut-out images from magazines or photos, etc.

Meals Outside of Home: Every now and then, take your little one out to eat. One-on-one or as a family, it is important for the social emotional development part of early childhood education to have outings like this. Encourage your little one to try new foods, maybe discovering a new favorite food! Being in new environments like restaurants gives your little one a bit more of a sense of the world around them.

Outdoor Sports: Have a few different pieces of sports equipment, (basketball, soccer ball, baseball, football, etc) and show your little one how they are traditionally used. If your family bonds over a certain sport, spend time with your little one teaching them all about it. If you have enrichment classes available in your city, enroll your little one in an early childhood education class where they will try multiple different sports, as well as play and socialize with other preschoolers. 

Take Care of Plants and Pets: Household chores are great daily activities that little ones can learn from. If you keep plants, involve your preschooler in taking care of them; tell them about how all plants need water and sunlight to grow. If they are interested in the keeping and care of the plants, let your little one help when it is time to water them. If you have pets, start letting your little one help in their care, if they are not already showing interest. Teach your little one about how you care for the pets and what they can do to help.

Dance: Who doesn’t love dancing to their favorite songs? If you have a three-year-old, odds are there are a few songs that you have on repeat. Blast those tunes and get dancing with your preschooler. Show them how fun it is to move your body and be silly! You can find so many child-friendly songs that include freeze dances, positive affirmations, and more; you may end up with a whole preschool activities dance playlist!

Kitchen: If your little one has an interest in cooking, let them give you a hand in the kitchen (or give them a little kitchen all their own!) Learning about new foods is excellent sensory exploration—especially for families doing preschool at home—and cooking is another great way to get creative. Work along with them in washing produce or mixing ingredients when baking, and share recipes that have been passed down through your family!

Take Photos Together: The time you spend with your little one at this age will be gone before you know it. Be sure to capture the moments you share together, whether they be a trip to the aquarium or just snuggled up on the couch. Snap the selfies while you make the memories.

The most important learning activity for your preschooler is to just live life with them. Move through your day together, answer their questions, do the crafts, preschool worksheets, and other preschool activities. They get the most valuable early childhood education by learning from the people around them, and living life with them is the best way to prepare them for their life ahead!