Learning Games for Kids Aged 4 to 5

Bingo

Bingo games are a great way to teach kids numbers, letters, shapes or colors, or even to help with learning words by sight. Bingo games with numbers are sold at toy stores. To make your own bingo game, draw a grid on a piece of paper or card stock that is 5 squares across and 5 squares down. Get a deck of flash cards using alphabet letters, shapes, colors, numbers, words or whatever you are trying help the child learn. In each square of your grid, place a number (letter, shape and so on) at random. Make several bingo cards like this, putting items in the squares at random. To play, use pennies as markers. Shuffle the cards and choose one item at a time; all players mark the space if they have it on their card. When a player marks five in a row, either across, down or diagonally, he shouts, "Bingo!" and wins the round.

Fishing

A simple fishing game is another way to reinforce recognition of shapes, numbers, words, letters or colors. Draw a simple fish shape on a piece of cardboard, about 2 inches tall and 3 inches wide. Trace the fish shapes on paper or card stock, and cut them out. If you have a die-cut machine, you can use that for fish shapes. Write something on each fish that you want the child to learn. Put a small paperclip on each fish, where the fish's mouth would be. Make a fishing pole by tying yarn at the end of a dowel, and tie a small, round magnet to the end of the string. Throw the fish on the floor, and allow the child to go fishing by lowering the magnet to catch the fish. Help him identify what is written on the fish that he catches.

Going on a Picnic

Going on a picnic is a great game to aid memory and help a child with beginning sounds of words. Two or more players can play this game. The first person begins by saying, "I'm going on a picnic, and I'm bringing an apple." It doesn't have to be an apple, but it must be a word that starts with "A". The second person says, "I'm going on a picnic, and I'm bringing an apple" (or repeats whatever the first person said) "and a basket" (or something beginning with "B"). The game continues with each player going in turn, trying to recall what the last items were and coming up with a new item that begins with the next letter of the alphabet. Try to make it all the way to "Z".

Find the Missing Number or Letter

Get flash cards with numbers or letters on them. Alternatively, you can write numbers or letters on index cards. Put out cards in order (with either numbers or letters), but have one item in the sequence missing. Ask your child to look at the sequence and identify the number or letter that is missing. If your child is reading simple words, you can put out the letters for a word, leaving one out. Ask her to figure out what the word is and which letter is missing.