Teaching Thinking Skills to Preschoolers and Kindergarteners

Play is an enjoyable way to build young brains! It is never too early to start teaching critical thinking and logic skills to children. Being able to think, sort, compare, and problem solve will build a foundation for learning that will serve them for their entire lives. The best part is that thinking challenges are enjoyable for kids!

Here are some great ways to improve your child’s thinking skills while also having fun. These activities are great for ages 4 to 6:

• Patterns: While playing with blocks, beads, colored cereal, or other items, play around with patterns. Start with simple “AB” patterns where two colors alternate such as “red, blue, red, blue.” Model forming these patterns while touching each object and saying the color aloud. Once your child has mastered “AB” patterns, try slightly more complicated patterns such as “AAB,” “ABB,” and “ABC” patterns.

• Categorization: Use toys like animal figures to practice sorting items into categories. For example, sort farm animals into one pile and ocean animals into another. Being able to categorize will be especially helpful for children in the future when they study science. Most children naturally enjoy sorting and it can be a fun activity for them. If you have a collection of old buttons, dump them out and encourage your child categorize them in different ways (color, size, two holes vs. four holes, etc.).

• Analogies: Learning analogies may seem advanced for preschoolers and kindergarteners, but this is a great age for kids to start thinking about relationships. Many analogies are based on relationships such as who uses a tool, parts of a whole, or shapes of objects.

• Simple Mazes: Mazes help children track visually and problem solve. They also learn persistence when they hit dead-ends and have to backtrack and try again.

• Board games and Card Games: Many of these build thinking skills, as well as important traits such as patience, turn-taking, and problem solving skills.

• Puzzles: Similarly, puzzles help children learn to focus on a project that takes time. Puzzles are also wonderful for visual-spatial skills.

Looking for more? We put together a fun set of thinking skills worksheets designed for the preschool and kindergarten level that may help! Take a look at our digital download version of Fun with Thinking Skills Worksheets!