These board games for 4-year olds are perfectly designed for little hands and minds to encourage critical thinking, social skills, and good sportsmanship. We love using board games in the classroom and at home, and these classics are sure to get lots of use!
Playing board games feels nostalgic for many of us. Sharing that fun and excitement with four-year-olds is a great way to get them excited about learning the rules, playing fairly, and friendly competition. Preschoolers love playing with adults and other children and learn super valuable life skills from board games.
Board Games for 4-Year Olds
Not all board games for 4-year-olds are created alike! As a former preschool teacher, there are several criteria I use when it comes to selecting a game.
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- The game must be exciting enough to capture the child’s attention, but not overly complicated or difficult to learn.
- My favorite games are ones that teach a skill of some kind. Turn-taking, cooperation, literacy, math, and more can all be taught through games!
- The gameplay shouldn’t last longer than the child’s attention span (15-20 minutes.)
For other fun and engaging games for kids, check out our other game compilations!
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- Games for Preschool That Teach
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- Favorite Board Games for Toddlers
- Board Games for 3-Year Olds You’ll Love
Board Games for 4-Year Olds
I call this one a “pre-dinner” game, as it’s a quick game that adults like too! It’s like CLUE but for kids. You turn over cards to reveal clues about the thief and then deduce which fox it is. There’s some dice-rolling involved, but no reading or math required. A great cooperative game that teaches some basic strategizing – got to outwit that thieving fox!
Zingo! is a super fun learning game that children of all ages love, but it is especially easy for preschoolers to learn. It’s a favorite game right now in our house! Children don’t need to read to play and it helps with important reading skills like visual discrimination. The concept is much like Bingo, where players have to fill their cards with the matching item the “Zinger” spits out, but they are pictures and words instead of numbers. Plus, there are multiple bingo play options!
Created by a first-grader, this game covers all the academic areas including math, science, and reading! Players get to feed the ants yummy aphids and practice hiding from the praying mantis. Remember to make sure that Ladybug gets home safe and sound!
Smart Games – Little Red Riding Hood
These smart games are just that – so clever! These story-based games based on classic fairy tales help build cognitive skills and challenges like problem-solving, spatial awareness, pre-planning, and perseverance. This game has four levels that allow children to keep challenging their thinking and use focus and planning to solve the puzzle. This is much more than just finding the path to Grandma’s house!
Hoot Owl Hoot is a long-time favorite game in our house. It is made by Peaceable Kingdom, a company that makes games that teach cooperation. It’s such a fantastic way to play a game! In Hoot Owl Hoot, everyone tries to get the owls to the nest. You work together to get all of them there before the sun goes down. To make the game easier, start with fewer owls on the board. To make it more challenging, have almost all the owls (or even all of them). My favorite trick is playing cards with the same color as many times in a row. That way you get to fly over even more spaces in each turn.
It’s time to band together and race to get all of the dinosaurs to safety before the lava makes it to the bottom of the volcano. This cooperative game will have the whole team working together to save the baby dinosaurs. Easy to learn, requires no reading, and is a true family and kid favorite!
This game is a perfect add-on to a dinosaur theme! Check out our dinosaur songs, dinosaur book list, and dinosaur lesson plans in our preschool store and toddler store.
We even have some dinosaur 10-frame counting mats that we offer as a free printable! Simply enter your e-mail in the form below and we’ll get them to your inbox right away.
Card Games for 4-Year Olds
An absolute classic, this card game is so much fun to play! Match one of your cards with the current card shown on top of the deck by either color or number in order to discard it. Use the special-action cards, like Draw Two or Skips and Reverses to try and outsmart your competition. Don’t forget to yell “Uno!” when you are down to your last card!
This no-prep card game uses ten frame counting dots to encourage preschoolers to notice patterns and identify numbers. The first person to ‘slap’ the slap it card wins that round and collects all the cards. Number Slap Jack is an exciting and fast-paced way to learn number recognition and counting, which are two important number sense skills.
We know how much four-year-olds love to laugh and this is the perfect game for garnering some major giggles! This game is a fun twist on charades but requires no guessing. Players pick a card and act out the instructions, either as a team or as individuals. Feeling competitive? You get to decide how to play, winner or no winner, you decide!
Indoor Games for 4-Year Olds
Arghhhh you looking for some fun? This is the game for you! Four-year-olds will LOVE that the adult lays out the pirate trail and the little ones head off to find the clues. This game has been dubbed ‘The Boredom Buster’ because no trails are ever the same, leaving this game to be a kid favorite!
Four-year-olds love to pretend, be silly, and active – and this game checks all the boxes! Help build their gross motor skills and have a blast while doing it. Lay out the colored “rocks” and make sure you don’t touch the lava as you jump or… game over!
Yeti in My Spaghetti is such a fun game to play with four-year-olds. It’s super simple to play but will have everyone’s sides hurting from laughter. Your goal is to build a nest of spaghetti noodles then stack the Yeti on top. Each person takes a turn pulling out one noodle until the Yeti falls into the bowl! We love that this teaches cause and effect, taking turns, strategy, and fine motor skills!
An absolutely silly and fun game, this orangutan can handle holding lots of fruit and friends but not too much! The orangutan hangs from a rope and invites players to add more items as the game continues but watch out… if he’s holding too much he’ll spring up and send all the items into the air! A zany and carefree game, perfect for silly four-year-olds!
We hope you love these fantastic board games for four-year-olds! Let us know your favorite board games for young children below.
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