As a mother, I do understand the importance of keeping our little ones occupied and entertained while also helping them learn new things and skills that aid their overall development.
You would notice 👀 that as your little ones turn four years old, they explore new things, are more curious, have a growing vocabulary, can understand and learn about their emotions and feelings, and are becoming increasingly independent.
Engaging them in fun activities such as fine motor skills tasks, pattern activities for preschoolers, and learning through play can be incredibly beneficial for their development.
Activities for 4 Year Olds For Kids
Identify And Match Numbers With Stickers Activity
The “Identify and Match Numbers with Stickers Activity” is a colorful and interactive way for children to learn number recognition and improve their fine motor skills.
Materials: A worksheet featuring a large egg shape with assorted numbers, and sheets of stickers with numbers.
How to Do:
- Give your child the worksheet.
- Provide sheets of colored stickers, each sticker printed with a number.
- Your Kid will match the stickers with the corresponding numbers on the worksheet.
- They will stick the matching number sticker over the printed number.
- Watch our reel for better guidance.
Letter Stacking Activity
The “Letter Stacking Activity” is a creative and educational game that combines letter recognition with motor skills development.
Materials: Colorful papers, markers, scissors, box, and sticks.
How to Do:
- Write different letters on pieces of paper using a marker. You can choose any letters you like.
- Stick the colored paper onto a box and attach the sticks to the box.
- When your child writes letters on the paper, ask them to fold each piece of paper into a cylinder shape.
- Now, they can make flashcards with the alphabet and place them on a board.
- Arrange the board with outlines of letters.
- Your child can arrange the letters on the board to match the outlines.
Counting with Button Cupcake Activity
The “Counting with Button Cupcake Activity” is an engaging and colorful way for kids to learn about numbers and counting.
Materials: Colorful papers, colorful buttons, glue, markers, and scissors.
How to Do:
- Draw cupcakes on the pretty paper and then cut them out.
- Write numbers on cups.
- Give your child colorful buttons to play with.
- The child counts out the right number of buttons and puts them on each cupcake, matching the number.
- After counting, let your child stick the buttons onto the cupcakes using glue to finish the fun activity!
Identify And Match Letters With Stickers Activity
The “Identify and Match Letters with Stickers Activity” offers a playful and engaging way for children to learn the alphabet. By matching sticker letters to those printed on a worksheet, children can improve their letter recognition skills in an enjoyable manner.
Materials: A worksheet featuring a large egg filled with scattered letters and sheets of stickers, each bearing a different letter of the alphabet.
How to Do:
- Provide your child with the worksheet and sheets of letter stickers.
- The child should identify each letter on the worksheet and match it with the corresponding sticker.
- They will then stick each matching letter over the printed letter on the worksheet.
Play Board Games
“Playing Board Games” teaches children strategic thinking, taking turns, and sportsmanship, improving cognitive and social–emotional development during fun with friends and family.
Materials: Snake and Ladder game board, dice, and token.
How to Do:
- Set up the board game according to the rules.
- Explain the rules to your children in a simple and understandable way.
- Play the game, making sure each child gets a turn and understands the flow of the game.
Make a Butterfly from Tissue Paper Activity
This activity lets children craft beautiful butterflies using tissue paper. It’s a fun and colorful way to explore creativity.
Materials: Tissue paper, cloth pegs, markers, pipe cleaners, scissors, glue, and paint.
How to Do:
- Cut the tissue paper into big and small squares.
- Secure the center with a cloth peg to form the butterfly’s body and pipe cleaner to form the butterfly’s antennae.
- Gently pull apart the folds to form the butterfly’s wings.
- Decorate with paint or markers to add details like dots or stripes on the wings.
Bingo Card Activity
Create your own Bingo game with educational cards to make learning fun. This activity helps children recognize and match words and pictures.
Materials: Printable Bingo cards and markers.
How to Do:
- Print out the Bingo cards with different educational items like pencils, books, and bags.
- Give each player a card and some markers or chips.
- Call out items randomly from the list.
- Players cover the called item on their card with a marker.
- The first to complete a row, column, or diagonal yells ‘Bingo!’ and wins the game.
Number Code Activity
The Number Code Activity is a great way to help kids practice number recognition and problem-solving skills. In this game, they will match numbered pieces to corresponding spots on a board.
Materials: A board, marker, and ice cream stick.
How to Do:
- Draw different numbers on the board and on the ice cream stick.
- Ask your child to pick a stick and read the number on it.
- Find the matching number slot on the board.
- Place the stick into the correct slot on the board.
Practice Cutting with Scissors
This cutting activity helps children improve their scissor skills by practicing on lines drawn around a picture. It’s a fun and educational way to develop fine motor abilities.
Materials: Child-safe scissors, glue, marker, and colorful paper.
How to Do:
- Draw a colorful peacock on a piece of paper. Make it look nice with markers. Then, stick the paper onto a blue sheet of paper.
- Next, draw dotted lines all around the peacock picture.
- Give the paper with the peacock and dotted lines to your child.
- Show your child how to hold and use scissors safely.
- Now, your child can carefully cut along the dotted lines around the peacock picture.
Counting Activity
This Counting Activity is designed to help kids practice their counting skills by associating numbers with groups of objects. It’s both fun and educational!
Materials: A worksheet and either a pencil or a marker.
How to Do:
- Give your child the worksheet.
- Ask them to count the objects in each group on the worksheet.
- Now let your child circle the right number from a list of options.
Play with Sensory Bag Activity
The Play with Sensory Bag Activity helps children explore different textures and materials, stimulating their senses while having fun.
Materials: Round cardboard, glue, and various textures such as pulses, cotton balls, fluffy cotton, and colorful paper.
How to Do:
- Get a round piece of cardboard and put glue all over it.
- Now, take some colorful paper and scrunch it up into small balls.
- Stick those paper balls onto the cardboard.
- Put different things inside each cardboard, like pulses, fluffy cotton, and cotton balls.
- Let your child touch each one and talk about how they feel different.
- My kid has performed this activity, watch for better understanding.
Make a Ticket Collage Activity
A Tickets Collage Activity is a creative way for kids to make a colorful artwork using various ticket stubs, involving color mixing to improve the vibrancy of the collage. Plus, it’s a perfect opportunity to reuse and recycle old tickets!
Materials: Collection of old ticket stubs (from buses, trains, planes, events, etc.), large sheet of paper or poster board for background, glue or glue stick for attaching tickets.
How to Do:
- Arrange your tickets on the poster board to plan out your collage before gluing anything.
- Apply glue to the back of each ticket and place it on the poster board.
- Overlap the tickets in different directions to fill up space and create an interesting pattern.
- Press down firmly to make sure each ticket sticks well.
Tracing Activity
Tracing Activity helps children develop fine motor skills by following dotted lines to create different shapes.
Materials: A worksheet, pencil, and an eraser.
How to Do:
- Place the worksheet in front of your child.
- Show your child how to trace along the dotted lines with a pencil.
- Encourage your child to trace each shape on the worksheet.
Doctor Bag Pack Activity
The Doctor Bag Pack Activity allows children to play pretend as doctors by arranging and exploring medical items in a playset.
Materials: A black sheet and scissors for cutting out medical items such as a thermometer, syringe, and stethoscope, along with Velcro pieces.
How to Do:
- Cut a black sheet to create a bag.
- Print, cut, and laminate images of medical equipment.
- Attach Velcro to the back of the images and inside the bag.
- Show your child the medical items and explain their uses.
- Let your child attach the items inside the bag with Velcro.
- Encourage your child to play doctor, examining a toy or stuffed animal.
- You can watch our reel to perform this activity better.
Play a Fishing Game
The Catch the Fish Activity is designed to improve your child’s dexterity and patience with a lovely challenge.
Materials: Colorfully illustrated paper fish with paper clips attached, a magnetic fishing rod, and a ‘pond’ setup such as a blue cloth or a container.
How to Do:
- Scatter the paper fish across the ‘pond’.
- Show your child how to hold the fishing rod and explain how the magnet works.
- Encourage them to carefully lower the magnet near the paper clips to catch a fish.
- See how many fish they can catch, or have them find specific colors or patterns of fish to refine their observation skills.
- You can watch our reel to perform this activity better.
Stack Stones Activity
The Stack Stones Activity is a creative and calming way for children to improve their fine motor skills and patience by stacking colorful stones.
Materials: Flat stones, paint, and a paintbrush.
How to Do:
- Gather smooth stones of different sizes and paint them in bright colors.
- Let the paint dry completely before handling the stones.
- Stack the stones one on top of the other, balancing them carefully.
- Encourage your child to create different designs and see how tall they can stack the stones.
Easy Subtraction with Pom Poms Activity
The Easy Subtraction with Pom Poms Activity is a fun way for children to practice subtraction using colorful pom poms and visual aids.
Materials: Pom poms, cardboard, and markers.
How to Do:
- Write a simple subtraction problem on one side of a box. Also, make a small hole in the box, as shown in the image.
- Place pom-poms on the other side for visual counting.
- Subtract the pom-poms according to the equation and put them inside the hole.
- The remaining pom-poms show the answer.
- Watch our reel for better guidance.
Coloring Activity
The Coloring Activity encourages creativity and fine motor skills as children use colored pencils or markers to fill in fun illustrations.
Materials: A coloring page along with colored pencils or markers.
How to Do:
- Give your child a coloring page with a fun illustration.
- Provide colored pencils or markers for them to use.
- Encourage your child to color the picture as they like.
Match the Car Activity
The Match the Car Activity is a fun way for children to practice color recognition and matching skills by pairing colored cars with matching dots.
Materials: A worksheet featuring colored cars and colored dots designed for matching.
How to Do:
- Provide your child with the worksheet and colored dots.
- Encourage them to match each car with the correct colored dot.
- Show your child how to place each dot beside the matching car.
- To know better, watch our reel.
Stone Painting Activity
Explore the natural canvas with the Painting on Stones Activity! It’s a creative way for children to express themselves by painting unique designs on an unusual surface.
Materials: Smooth stones or pebbles, washable paints, brushes, and a cup of water to rinse brushes.
How to Do:
- Begin by cleaning the stones to ensure the paint adheres well.
- Set out the paints and brushes, and cover the workspace to protect it from paint splatters.
- Encourage your child to paint designs, patterns, or scenes on the stones, using one or multiple colors.
- Once the stones are painted, set them aside to dry before displaying them around your home or garden.
Cut & Paste Activity
The Cut & Paste Activity helps children develop fine motor skills and pattern recognition by cutting out and pasting pictures to complete patterns.
Materials: A worksheet or simply print out our printable, scissors, and glue.
How to Do:
- Provide your child our worksheet showing patterns and matching images to cut out.
- Encourage them to cut out the pictures that fit the pattern.
- Help them paste the pictures in the correct spots on the worksheet.
Button Plucking Activity
The Button Plucking Activity helps children practice fine motor skills by picking up buttons from playdough using tweezers or fingers.
Materials: Colorful buttons, playdough, and tweezers.
How to Do:
- Make a round shape from the playdough.
- Press the buttons into the playdough, arranging them in any pattern.
- Show your child how to use the tweezers to pluck out the buttons one by one.
- Encourage your child to continue plucking the buttons using the tweezers or their fingers.
Sticks Matching Activity
The Sticks Matching Activity helps children improve their color recognition and fine motor skills by matching colored sticks to corresponding patterns on cards.
Materials: Various colored ice cream sticks, a white sheet, and markers.
How to Do:
- Draw a pattern with different markers on the sheet.
- Provide your child with colored sticks and matching cards.
- Show your child how to match the sticks with the corresponding colors on the cards.
- Encourage your child to place the sticks into the correct slots on the board.
Word Search Activity
The Word Search Activity is an enjoyable way for children to improve their vocabulary and pattern recognition skills by finding hidden words in a grid.
Materials: A word search sheet or just simply use our printable and a pencil.
How to Do:
- Provide your child with our word search sheet and a pencil.
- Ask them to find and circle the given words hidden in the grid.
- Encourage your child to cross off each word from the list as they find it.
Roll the Dice Activity
The Roll the Dice Activity is a fun and interactive way for children to practice counting and number recognition using dice and a board with numbered rays.
Materials: Yellow and black sheets, markers, scissors, and glue.
How to Do:
- Use the yellow paper to cut out a sun shape and the black paper to cut out a dice shape.
- Stick the sun rays on the sun shape and write numbers on them.
- Give your child the dice and tell them to roll it (throw it on the ground).
- When they roll the dice, have them look for the same number on the sun shape and cut it out.
- You can watch our reel, which my kid performed.
Button up Your Shirt Activity
The Button up Your Shirt Activity is a great way for children to practice fine motor skills by buttoning up a paper shirt with colorful buttons.
Materials: A white sheet, a bottle cap, glue, and a marker, along with colored paper.
How to Do:
- Draw a shirt on a white sheet and cut it out.
- Make small sticker strips with circles sticker and draw dots inside them.
- Glue bottlenecks onto the shirt where the buttons would go, and place matching colored bottle caps beside it.
- Show your child how to align each button with the correct buttonhole.
- Let them match the cards with the same-colored bottle caps and place them on the shirt.
- Watch our reel for better guidance.
Big And Small Activity
The Big and Small Activity is a fun and educational way for children to learn about size differences by identifying which objects are bigger and smaller.
Materials: A worksheet and a pencil.
How to Do:
- Provide your child the worksheet.
- Ask them to circle the object that is bigger in each pair.
- Then have them draw a square around the object that is smaller.
Make a Color Cone Activity
The Make a Color Cone Activity is a creative way for children to learn about colors while crafting a fun ice cream cone.
Materials: White sheets, markers, paints, and cotton pads.
How to Do:
- Draw an ice cream cone on the white sheet.
- Place cotton pads on the cone.
- Have your child use paints or markers to color the scoops of ice cream.
- Let them use the cotton swab to apply different colors to each scoop if using paints.
- My kid has performed this activity, watch for better understanding.
Community Helpers Activity
The Community Helpers Activity is an engaging way for children to learn about different professions and the tools they use.
Materials: A circle chart with pictures of community helpers, picture cards with tools or vehicles, and clothespins.
How to Do:
- Show your child the circle chart with different community helpers.
- Give them the picture cards with tools or vehicles.
- Encourage your child to match the picture cards with the correct community helper by attaching the cards with clothespins.
- You can watch our reel to perform this activity better.
Puzzle Activity
The Puzzle Activity is a fun and educational way for children to improve their problem-solving skills by fitting together pieces to form a complete picture.
Materials: A picture puzzle…for that, use our printable and Child-safe scissors
How to Do:
- Provide your child with the puzzle pieces.
- Encourage them to match and fit the pieces together to form a complete picture.
- Guide them as needed to find the correct pieces and align them.
Count and Place Ladybugs Activity
The Count and Place Ladybugs Activity is a playful way for children to learn about numbers and quantities by matching ladybugs to leaves.
Materials: A leaf worksheet and ladybug cutouts featuring varying numbers of dots, along with Velcro and markers.
How to Do:
- Provide your child with a worksheet showing leaves with different numbers on them.
- Give them the ladybug cutouts and ask them to count the dots on each one.
- Encourage your child to match each ladybug to the correct leaf based on the number.
- Use Velcro to attach the ladybugs to the leaves.
- Watch our reel for better guidance.
Pistachio Shells Tree Activity
The Pistachio Shells Tree Activity is a creative way for children to use recycled materials to make colorful tree art using pistachio shells.
Materials: Pistachio shells, brown paper, glue, and paint/markers.
How to Do:
- Draw a tree on a piece of paper, including the trunk and branches.
- Color the pistachio shells using paints.
- Glue the shells onto the branches of the tree as leaves.
- To know better, watch our reel.
Matching Activity
The Matching Activity helps children improve their visual recognition and fine motor skills by matching objects to their corresponding pictures.
Materials: A matching worksheet and pencil.
How to Do:
- Provide your child with a matching worksheet and a pencil.
- Ask them to draw a line connecting each object to its corresponding picture.
- Encourage them to match all the pairs correctly.
Animals and Their Food Activity
The Animals and Their Food Activity is a fun and educational way for children to learn about what different animals eat by matching animals to their food.
Materials: Animal and food cards for matching, clothespins, and a white sheet.
How to Do:
- Show your child the worksheet with different animals on it.
- Give them the food cards and ask them to match each animal to its correct food.
- Attach the cards using clothespins to connect the animals with their food.
- You can watch our reel, which my kid performed.
Brushing with Letters Activity
The Brushing with Letters Activity helps children learn about dental hygiene and letters by matching letters on a tooth to their corresponding labels.
Materials: A worksheet with a picture of a tooth and marker.
How to Do:
- Provide your child with the worksheet showing a tooth labeled with letters.
- Ask them to match the letter labels to the corresponding letters on the tooth.
- Encourage your child to circle or highlight the matching letters.
- Watch our reel for better guidance.
Finger Painting Counting Activity
The Finger Painting Counting Activity is a fun and hands on way for children to practice counting and number recognition by painting with their fingers.
Materials: A counting worksheet with baskets and paints
How to Do:
- Provide your child with the counting worksheet.
- Encourage them to dip their finger in the paint and make a corresponding number of fingerprints in each basket.
- Ask your child to count the fingerprints out loud as they paint.
- My kid has performed this activity, watch for better understanding.
Graphomotor Snail Activity
The Graphomotor Snail Activity is a great way for children to develop fine motor skills by tracing the shape of a snail using yarn.
Materials: A sheet of paper, yarn, glue, and markers.
How to Do:
- Draw different snail outlines on the sheet.
- Provide your child with the snail outline and a piece of yarn.
- Show them how to trace the shape of the snail with the yarn.
- Help them apply glue along the snail’s body and attach the yarn.
- You can watch our reel to perform this activity better.
Math with A Monkey Activity
The Math with A Monkey Activity helps children practice basic math skills using a fun tree-themed board with monkeys for counting.
Materials: A tree-themed board, monkey cutouts, a marker, and drawing pins.
How to Do:
- Show your child the tree-themed board and the monkey cutouts.
- Now write some numbers for doing addition and write the final answer.
- Ask your child to place the final number of monkeys in the tree.
- Watch our reel for better guidance.
Gems Rainbow Play Activity
The Gems Rainbow Play Activity is a colorful and fun way for children to learn about colors and patterns using colorful gems and water.
Materials: Gems, a plate, and hot water.
How to Do:
- Arrange the gems in a pattern on the plate.
- Pour hot water gently into the plate until the gems are partially submerged.
- Watch as the colors dissolve and spread, creating a rainbow effect.
- To know better, watch our reel.
Conclusion
These activities helped my son when he was this age – a curious and excited four-year-old boy. I’m sure your kids will also have a good time and learn a lot from these activities.
You can leave a comment below if you have any more activity ideas to add to this list or have any questions for me to answer as I would love to hear your feedback! ❤️
I’m a former teacher (and mother of Two Childs) with a background in child development. Here to help you with play-based learning activities for kids. ( Check my Next startup Cledemy.Com)