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The 4-6 Year Olds Must Do List

By Alissa Marquess Zorn on November 29, 2022 (updated May 5, 2023)

All the most fun activities for 4-6 year olds filled with simple ideas about how to make the most of your time with your young kiddos.

I don’t want to look up one day and realize I missed out on the fun parts of parenting young children, but with the chaos that often is part of this time I also need our activities to be simple, and I need them to work. This is why, with help from my readers, I made this list of the activities that are the most fun for kids in about the four to six year age range – to let us focus on doing the things together that we’ll really love at this age.

The lovely part about reading all of these is it really does make you excited about the things that you can do with your kindergarten-aged kid. This is exactly what we sometimes need – to be re-energized about the FUN parts.

Like the Toddler Years Must-Do List, this is not meant to be a guilt list, just an inspiration list to help us remember what we love about this age. Don’t think you have to do everything in order to make great memories with your child; just do the activities that appeal to you.

This list includes some affiliate links, should you purchase through them Bounceback Parenting earns from qualifying purchases.

young child playing outdoors

Play Together

I’ve got a 5-yr-old myself and am learning that this is a great age for experiencing things together instead of me just instructing and setting experiences up for them.

Creative Family Fun

 Laugh Together

Oh–and practical jokes like the pack of gum that snaps your finger when you try to take a piece. My little guy offered people gum for HOURS.

Prickly Mom

Get Outside!

  • Fly a kite
  • Point out the Big Dipper… Cassiopeia…Orion – watch for satellites together
  • Water balloons
  • Plant a garden
  • Make a sandcastle
  • Dig for worms
  • Search for fairies in the garden
  • Build a snowman
  • Collect rocks
  • Watch bugs

My kids have this great memory of playing in a giant mud hole in the garden. I let them get muddy from head to toe a couple of times in their underwear. Had to throw them away because sometimes mud doesn’t come out, but it was worth it.

Josie

Encourage Exploration – And show how to find out answers to those great questions.

Must Do List of Activities for Kindergarteners- Go Fishing

 Have an Adventure

  • Go fishing – you can get a smaller sized pole that works well for preschoolers and kindergartners
  • Camp out – in your living room, in your back yard or in the middle of the woods
  • Go for tea and cake
  • Visit the beach
  • Try Letterboxing or Geocaching
  • Go hiking – look for a book on family hikes in your area for ideas
  • Play in the rain together
  • Have a picnic
  • Do a scavenger hunt

Make a treasure map and discover what a long gone pirate left. Take heaps of photos together throughout the year; you could even have photo expeditions around town. Get lots printed and scrapbook them together to create a permanent visual memory. It’s also a great way to see the world through your child’s eyes.

Liz

Let them fall in love with books

Must Do Activities for Kindergarteners - Quiet Reading

 

We are doing a lot of word scavenger hunts. One of my favorites was something we did last week – I made a list of foods/items at the grocery store, one for each letter of the alphabet. We took the list to the store, and my son had to first read the word on his list, and then “hunt” for the item. He was so proud of himself every time he got to check off the item he found.

Debra

Learn about being a helper

  • Give them family chores.
  • Consider having a pet that you care for together.
  • Volunteer or donate to the community in a way that’s meaningful to a child.
  • Teach them to save up money for something they want.
  • Help them delight someone with a gift or handmade card.

Sign up for a short volunteer shift where sorting by colors is involved (clothing drive); take fresh homegrown veggies or flowers to a neighbor, take groceries to a pantry, bake goodies or cook a meal for the local firehouse & deliver; take along bags & help clean up the neighborhood when taking a walk, etc.

Barb
Activities for Kindergarteners - cooking together

Cook Together

Make and Create

  • Make a Nature Table.
  • Color and draw – Make a basic craft kit, so it’s easy for your child to be creative.
  • Paint – watercolors, acrylics, use unusual materials like cars or balls to roll in the paint.
  • Get lost in building Legos or other building toys.

We spend hours building Lego and recording “commercials” about the sets we create! This is such a fun age!! 

Rhonda
  • Make Forts – anywhere and everywhere from boxes, trees, blankets, and couch cushions.
  • Make Fairy Houses in the back yard – We love this Fairy Houses book.

Make a tinker box…. Broken items they could “fix” using real tools. Wood, nails, glue, etc.

Christine
Best Activities for Kindergarteners - Making and Creating

Learn who they are

  • Make time for one on one time – try a birthday date or taking only one child grocery shopping if possible.
  • Have conversations at bedtime about anything and everything.
  • Visit the library, dollar store, or a museum together and see what interests your child.
  • Record a conversation with your child.

Record them telling you about what they like and who they (we are making a time capsule that he can open when he graduates from high school).

Sarah
  • Let your child take pictures.
  • Tell each other lots of stories.
  • Start a journal with them to draw or write their favorite part of the day, things that concern them and make them happy or sad.

Keep a diary with photos, writing, and drawings…Write what they want to do when they are older and why. Let them tell stories and record it just the way they tell it.

Maretha
Activities for Little Kids - How to Connect

And perhaps the most important idea:

So much you can do, follow your heart – talk with him, they have such good ideas. Get lost in play….away in adventures! Just BE with them, that’s what they LOVE x

Mairi

More activities for four, five, and six-year-olds:

Types of Learning Activities for 4-6 Year Olds

Younger children in this category are learning how to express their emotions, and they are reaching more and more milestones in their development. So, it is always good to encourage our younger children to explore, discover, create, and learn whenever possible.

Sensory Developmental Activities

These kinds of activities can help improve a child’s vocabulary and also encourages hand-eye coordination. By allowing our children to use rolling pins and cookie cutters, play dough, and participate in other hands-on activities, for example, we are allowing them to immerse themselves in these beneficial sensory activities.

These sensory activities can also help them improve their focus, learn more about the sensation of touch, and can help with motor skills, reading skills, and other important skills.

Montessori Activities

Teaching your child a few daily life activities at this age can help them improve their concentration while also teaching them about responsibility and empathy. Activities like caring for a pet, dishwashing, and folding laundry are things they can do in the home with their parents. They can have fun while learning these important life skills.

Indoor Activities

Activities like board games, card games, story time, and dance time should all be on your 4-6 year olds must do list because these activities not only encourage family time and socialization, they also encourage creativity, teach them how to listen to instructions, and can help them refine their problem-solving skills.

Outdoor Activities

Walks, obstacle courses, gardening, riding a bike, and playing catch are all fun outdoor activities that can help a child with their hand-eye coordination, motor skills, and improving their concentration. It also allows them to express their creativity while learning more about observational powers.

Cognitive Activities

For a child to develop their thinking and reasoning skills, cognitive activities can help. From math skills to object association and problem-solving, activities like puzzles, matching, and blocks are ideal for this age range.

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Reader Interactions

45 Comments

  1. Marsha

    We did hunts with the kids once they hit elementary age. I would make up sets of clues such as “an ice cream cone”. The challenge was if the answer was a gallon of ice cream in the freezer, an ice cream dish in the cabinet or a box of cones in the pantry. Once you found the right one there would be another clue that would lead you to another object. The game had a theme and once you got to the end you win a small prize. We filled a lot of holiday afternoons with this when we were missing family celebrations. The kids never forgot it.

  3. Sachin Shah

    Actually, how children spend their growing ages makes a great impact on the way they perceive life and relationships. Such activities with the parents help children develop a better bonding which counts helpful in future. This blog is indeed very helpful to all parents. Thanks for sharing this post here.

  4. Mary Bassis

    I know that all (I think) of the above comments have been about young children, but I just had to add something I did with my children when they each hit about 15. They were 3 years apart, and in their time, had both gotten their learners permits for driving, but couldn’t drive alone yet. Individually I took each one of them on a weekend driving trip. It had 2 purposes as far as i was concerned; 1. They were the primary drivers and therefore got many hours of driving time, improving their competence and comfort in driving. and 2. We got to spend a lot of time individually together, without the rest of the family around.

    Since they were respectively about 1 1/2 years from graduating from High School, there were many things that we had talked about, but at that time, clearly needed reinforcing. And also many things that just come up, that don’t come up when kids that age are engaged in their friends, school work, athletics, etc. I will forever be great-full for those 2 road trips and the time I was able to spend with my kids. Sort of like a renewal of getting to know them better, like was talked about in all the comments before.

  6. Beth Bishop

    Hi. I read your blog from all the way over in the UK. I love these ideas. My friend and her husband bought her kids guinea pigs one year for Christmas. They all love them dearly. A lot of our stocking fillers are non toys. This year the kids are getting electric toothbrushes and snuggly “movie” blankets as part of their stocking.

  7. Zelda

    Thanks for this great list!

    My daughter (5) and I go on little ‘dates’ everytime a new animated movie comes out. We go have sushi together, watch a movie, and then stroll through the bookstore. I usually let her pick a book. Whenever we read that book at bedtime, she tells me how we get it the day we went to go watch Moana, or Sing, or whatever film it was…

    I want to try recording the funny things she says and the silly way she dances, that was a great idea. Instead of a journal, I’m going to email everything to a new gmail account; that way I can give her the login and password when she is older and she can discover years and years of silly memories;

  8. Becca

    I help my sister with babysitting during the summer and one idea her kids love is the alphabet days. Each day is a different letter and food and activities are based around it. Example: A=reading about aardvarks and going to the aquarium. We would eat apples and almonds for snack and have angel hair pasta for dinner and try artichokes. The kids love it and ask for it every year even as they get older.

    • kenny

      I would ask him what topics interest him like space,cars,dragons,rocks,music,art,comics,nature,animals etc. and go through some of those books together like 3-5 books so he can learn alot with u by his side! thats what i do with my brother

  10. Rasi

    i m realy happy to go through this side. i ve got more idas after reading this page.thanks a lot

  14. urik lugo

    Thank you for the read, it inspirational and filled with great ideas. I love the idea of night time gazing and story time.

    P.s. First time I ever posted on anything……:-) thank you.
    Urik

  15. Louise

    Its been chaos the past year with a lot of things happening at once. I sat down this morning and realised we havent had much time to do many fun things so this list has been great inspiration, have written loads down and going to put them in a box to pick out so its a surprise which fun thing well be doing that day. Were going to make a capsule for (my daughters’) future children if they decide to have any 🙂 thanks

    • Alissa Marquess

      Great idea to make the list of things you want to do – I find that sometimes just writing things down makes them more likely to happen. Thanks for reading. ~Alissa

  16. Kevin

    My six year old daughter and I love telling jokes to each other and laying in bed, before sleep, telling each other nonsensical stories about mystical characters.

  17. Abhilasha

    A complete and very useful list for all those moms who struggle hard to help kids learn through fun.

  19. following instagram

    Hello, this weekend is good designed for me, for the reason that this point in time i am reading this wonderful educational paragraph here at my home.

  21. Trudy

    My grandsons and I love jumping in puddles. They especially like it the dirtier we get.
    If there’s been no rain we get out the diggers and the hose and make our own puddles.
    Such fun!!!

  22. De Anna

    Get a blank book and allow them to make up their own story draw and color it.
    Before Christmas every year I come up with a Christmas decor we make and use for the holiday my kid loved it so much .

  32. Amna Rehman

    Haha these reminded me of our childhood and how much my protectiveness takes these experiences away from my child. Lovely list, I’m saving it!!

  33. Heather Tudhope

    I think we’ve done almost all of these this summer!

  37. Jill Tsu

    Love this! I’m taking a week off in August to have a “week of adventure” with my kids before my oldest goes off to Kindergarten in the fall and I’ll probably use some of these ideas.

  38. Jen

    Love this list! I’d add: search for four leaf clovers, eat pancakes for dinner (or popcorn), paint rocks or paint the backyard with paintbrushes and water on a hot day (fence, sidewalk, etc).

  40. Lina

    This is an awesome list! Thanks for some great inspiration! Video taping an interview would be great fun to look back on in the future.. although knowing my daughter the camera would turn on me.. but that could be fun too!

    One of our favourite things is storytelling at bedtime! I’ll be posting an article about our experience at my blog soon! https://keepingcreativityalive.com I’d love to see you there!

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Hi, I’m Alissa, a mom to three learning alongside you as we build connected, resilient families.

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