Activities for 5-year-olds help develop their cognitive, social, emotional, physical, and language skills. All while having fun as a family!

In early childhood, most of a child’s discovery, learning, and development comes from play. From the first months of life to the beginning of school life, performing playful activities at home helps to further stimulate this development in its various areas: physical, cognitive, social, emotional, and linguistic.

That is why we have prepared 6 activities for 5-year-olds. See how you can foster your child’s development and promote learning objectives suitable for this age group while you spend great moments of fun with your family!

Activities for 5-year-olds 

1. Catching

This activity aims to strengthen your little one’s motor skills. You just need plastic balls of different sizes! Find a comfortable place and invite your child to play. Ask them to choose a ball to start with; don’t forget to congratulate them for their initiative.

Then, stand about 1.5 meters apart and start throwing the ball to each other. See if they can catch the ball. If it’s too hard, use a bigger ball; if it’s too easy put something between you, like a table or chair.

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The game will have a score: every time someone catches the ball, they will get 5 points. When they drop it, they will lose 3 points. The winner will be the one who reaches 30 points first. This is a good opportunity to teach about healthy competition, encourage how to count, and promote addition and subtraction math skills.

Another tip to make the game even more fun is to challenge your child to say a characteristic of the ball each time they throw it. That is why it is good to have balls of different sizes and colors.

2. Sticky words

If your little one has already started the literacy phase, take the opportunity to improve their phonological awareness while they spend energy running around the house. For this activity, you will need:

• markers
• 15 sticky notes
• cardboard
• scotch tape

Before you begin, write these words on the cardboard and sticky notes: mom, dad, tall, short, me, you, bed, table, happy, sad, clothes, beautiful, boat, bee, ball. Use the tape to paste the cardboard on the wall and distribute the sticky notes throughout the house.

The game consists of running around the house to look for the sticky notes and, when you find them, you will paste them on top of their pairs on the cardboard. Say each word out loud and encourage your child to repeat them, especially those with the phoneme “B”. Show them how to move the mouth to make the sound. You can do this with many different phonemes from everyday life.

3. Countdown

This is another of our activities for 5-year-olds. Your child will practice counting down from 20. It’s very simple: tell them about outer space and how rockets are launched. Explain that there is always a countdown before launch and remember if you have ever seen a rocket on TV, what are the names of the planets, etc.

Then invite them to do a countdown. Thus, they will practice this skill, while you will promote their curiosity about science and space. Use your imagination to make the moment even more fun!

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4. What do you think?

This is a great activity to help your child understand that people believe different things and that we should always respect that, as different points of view can be equally true. This is key to developing empathy.

Invite a friend of your little one and explain to them what ecosystems are, saying that different animals live in each one, that the climate can change a lot, etc. Then take a piece of paper and write the names of some ecosystems, such as “jungle”, “desert” and “forest”. Ask them what they think each one is like.

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Write down what they say; if they already know how to spell simple words, let them try. In the end, talk about the answers and emphasize that although they said different things, many were true. For example: “You think the desert is hot and your friend thinks it is cold. Both are right, since the days are very hot and the nights very cold. Congratulations!”.

5. Colored ribbons

For this activity, you will need a piece of cardboard and different colored ribbons. Punch holes in the cardboard and insert the ribbons, leaving two loose parts on the same side. Your child will practice tying shoelaces!

Show them that they have to make two bunny ears, one with each ribbon, then cross them and pass one of them through the hole. If this is too difficult for your little one, help them. Reassure them that this is a complicated task that takes practice.

Repeat this activity for a few days to continue practicing the skill. When they manage to tie the ribbons, tell your little one that they now know how to tie their shoelaces. Remember to congratulate them on this big milestone.

6. Find the thief

This is a reinterpretation of the classic game “Detective, victim, and thief”! It is on our list of activities for 5-year-olds because, at that age, children can already participate in games with more complex rules. Also, this is an excellent opportunity to explore social, emotional, and cognitive skills.

For the game, you will need three cards with the words “detective”, “thief” and “chef” and at least three participants –invite a family member or a friend. Begin by establishing the context of the game with the following story:

“One day, the chef was in the kitchen preparing food for the customers. They went to the kitchen to get the bread, but… Oh, no! All the bread was gone! At that moment, the chef heard a very loud noise, they turned quickly, but the only thing they saw was the shadow of a thief fleeing through the window. Then, they called the detective to help them find the thief”.

Then, distribute the cards randomly to assign the characters. The detective will have to guess who the thief is, while the other two players will have to convince them that they are the chef. To do so, the players need to use their imagination and creativity to accomplish their goals.

Encourage the detective to ask questions like “where were you when the bread was stolen?” and the others to use arguments such as “I am not the thief, because while the bread was stolen I was at home making soup”. At a given moment, the detective has to make a decision and point out who the thief is. Fun is guaranteed!

As you have seen, these activities for 5-year-olds encourage very important skills. And the best part is that these moments will become meaningful and build great memories! All the activities were developed by Kinedu experts, where you will find more game options to foster your child’s development.

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