Three Creative Word Games for Preschoolers

Learning to read, write and recognize words can be a huge challenge for preschool children, and many become easily frustrated. Having a range of fun, engaging activities available helps learning words to feel less like work and more like play. This keeps kids happy and encourages them to learn — it's a win-win! However, it can be hard to come up with new ideas for activities and games, especially if you don't have much time for lesson planning. Luckily for you, this blog provides three creative word games for preschoolers. These are all quick and easy to set up and won't require any fancy materials. 

Rhyming Jars and Word Flags 

This is a fun way for kids to practice their rhyming words, and it's great to use in combination with rhyming stories or poems which your preschoolers are already familiar with. Gather a selection of baby food jars, and stick word labels onto each. Next, grab some wooden lolly sticks, write rhyming words on strips of paper, then glue the strips of paper to the top of the lolly stick to make a flag. Create multiple flags to match each word jar. For example, one jar might say, 'cat', and have matching flags saying, 'hat', 'rat', and 'mat'. Give each child a selection of flags and encourage them to match them up to the right jars. Practice saying the words together, and encourage kids to speak out loud as they try to find matches.

Word Treasure Hunt

Kids love getting active and exploring, so a treasure hunt is a great way to get them interested in words. Write out a selection of words that they're familiar with on pieces of paper, then hide them around a designated room. Get creative by folding and rolling up the paper, stick paper up using sticky tack, and choosing hiding places that are high and low. Then, give your child a clipboard with a space for each missing word. Let them search for the words and match them to the board, then give them a prize for completing the activity. Introduce new words over time for an extra challenge.

Rainbow Wordsearch Whiteboard

Want a simple way to ease your child into doing word searches? Create a giant, erasable word search by sticking magnets to a whiteboard, then letting kids circle words using a whiteboard marker. To make the puzzle less challenging, stick to a single colour for correct words, and use random colours for the other letters. This prevents your little ones from getting frustrated if they can't find anything. Keep a cloth on hand to erase mistakes!

Want to get your preschoolers excited about words? Try these fun activities.