At three you can already play games with simple rules, wait for a turn (sometimes), make up a story and tell it. Kids love “big kid” jobs, little puzzles and movement games with a surprise. Here are activities for home, the backyard and the park, with simple materials and a short how-to.
✋ Fine motor: 13🤸 Gross motor: 16💬 Language: 18👐 Senses: 8💡 Thinking & pretend: 15
You need: A bottle of bubbles
A grown-up blows bubbles and the kids try to catch them, pop them with a finger or stomp on them. Blow high and low and say “up!” and “down!”. At three, they try blowing on their own.
The bottle stays with a grown-up — no drinking bubble solution. Outside is better, because floors get slippery.
You need: Sturdy plastic cups or nesting cups
Build a tower — and your child knocks it down. At one, knocking it over is the whole fun; at two, they try building 3–4 cups high; at three, they nest small cups inside big ones in order.
You need: 2–3 pots or metal bowls · Wooden spoons
Turn the pots over and drum. Play loud and soft, fast and slow, and stop when the grown-up raises their hands. Drum along to a song you know.
You need: A big soft ball
Sit on the floor facing each other, legs apart, and roll the ball back and forth. Say “to you!” and “to me!”. At three, roll it at “pins” — empty plastic bottles.
You need: A wide bowl or shallow tub · Cups, a sponge, a colander
Put a little water in a bowl, on a towel or in the yard. Pour from cup to cup, squeeze a sponge and watch the water escape through the colander.
A grown-up stays right there the whole time — toddlers can drown in very little water. Empty the bowl as soon as you’re done.
You need: Board books with big pictures
Turn the pages together, point and ask “Where’s the dog?”. At one, kids point; at two, they say the word; at three, they tell you what’s happening in the picture.
You need: No materials
Sing songs with motions: “If You’re Happy and You Know It”, “The Itsy Bitsy Spider”, “Wheels on the Bus”, “Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes”. Repeat the same songs over and over — that’s the point.
You need: Couch cushions · A blanket
Pile cushions on the rug and cover them with a blanket. Kids climb, crawl, roll and slide down. At three, it becomes a “mountain” to cross to reach a treasure.
On a rug, away from furniture corners, windows and tables.
You need: A big box open at both ends
Crawl in and out the other side. A grown-up peeks in from the end and says “peekaboo!”, or rolls a ball through. Tape two boxes together for a long tunnel.
You need: A bucket and shovel · A sieve · Molds
Dig, fill the bucket and flip it over, sift sand. At three, build a “birthday cake” out of sand and sing to it.
Watch that sand doesn’t go in mouths or eyes. At a public playground, check the sand for trash first.
You need: A favorite toy · A blanket or towel
At one, hide teddy under a blanket while your child watches. At two, hide it behind a pillow. At three, hide it in the room and give clues: “Warm… cold… very warm!”.
You need: Thin scarves · Music
Dance with scarves: wave them up, twirl them, toss them in the air and catch them. At three, add “sleepy scarf”: when the music stops, everyone lies down.
You need: A laundry basket · Soft balls or rolled-up socks
Toss balls into the basket from close up. Every basket gets a round of applause. At three, move the basket back one step at a time.
You need: Music
Dance, and when the music stops, freeze like statues. At two, just stopping is enough; at three, freeze in a silly pose or like an animal.
You need: Bowls or boxes in a few colors · Big objects in matching colors (socks, cups, big blocks)
Set out a red, a yellow and a blue bowl and sort the objects by color. At two, start with two colors; at three, sort by size too.
You need: A wooden knob puzzle or a 2–6 piece puzzle
Start with a knob puzzle (every piece has its own spot), move on to two-piece puzzles and then four and six. Help a little — and cheer a lot.
You need: Play dough · A small rolling pin · Big cookie cutters
Roll “snakes”, squish balls, roll flat and cut shapes. At three, make a “cake” and decorate it with sticks.
Play dough isn’t food. Homemade dough has a lot of salt, so watch that kids don’t eat it.
You need: Chunky chalk
Draw on the sidewalk or the patio: circles, a sun, a “road” for trikes. At three, draw a hopping path and jump along it.
You need: Washable finger paint · Big paper · A smock or old T-shirt
Smear, print hands and feet, draw lines. You can also paint in the bathtub and rinse right away.
You need: A sheet of big stickers · Paper
Peel and stick. At three, stick them along a line, or put a star on every circle a grown-up drew.
Small stickers can end up in mouths — choose big ones, with supervision.
You need: A small pot, spoons, plates · Big play food
Cook “soup” and serve it to all the stuffed animals. Ask “What did you make?”, “Is it hot?”, “More?”. At three, open a “restaurant” with a drawn menu.
You need: A doll or teddy · A small blanket · A spoon and bottle
Feed the doll, change it, sing to it and put it to bed. Kids “practice” what happens to them — and learn new words.
You need: Pillows · A low stool · A rope or ribbon on the floor · A box tunnel
Build a course: step over a pillow, crawl under a chair, walk along the rope and into the tunnel. At three, do the course “like a frog” or “like an elephant”.
Keep it low, on a rug, with a grown-up next to every climbing step.
You need: A tub with a little water · A sponge and a little soap · Plastic toys
Wash the animals and the cars, scrub, rinse and dry with a towel. A “real” job kids love.
A grown-up stays by the water the whole time; empty the tub at the end.
You need: A basket or bag
Head to the park with a mission: find a leaf, a big rock and a stick. At home, line up the treasures and talk about them: big, small, smooth, rough.
Collect only big things, nothing in mouths, and wash hands at the end.
You need: Old magazines or colored paper · A glue stick · A big sheet of paper
Tear paper into pieces (fun all by itself!) and glue them on a sheet. At three, glue them inside a shape a grown-up drew — a circle that becomes a balloon or a sun.
You need: An old sock · A marker
Draw eyes and a mouth on a sock and the puppet “talks”: it asks questions, sings and tells what it ate today. Kids often tell a puppet things they don’t tell us.
Draw the eyes with a marker — no buttons or glued-on eyes that can come off.
You need: A board, tray or long piece of cardboard · A few books · Big toy cars
Lean cardboard on a stack of books and let the cars go. Which one goes farthest? What happens when you make it steeper? That’s cause and effect.
You need: A bowl · Vegetables to wash · A mixing spoon
Kids wash vegetables, stir in a bowl, carry a spoon and set out napkins. Name everything and its color.
Away from the stove, knives and the kettle. Every hot step is grown-ups only.
You need: Colored masking tape · Toy cars
Tape roads, an intersection and a parking lot on the floor. Drive, stop at the light (“Red — stop!”) and park. Peeling the tape off together is part of the fun.
You need: No materials
A grown-up gives simple instructions: “Simon says hands on your head”, “Simon says jump”. At three, just following along is enough; add the “no Simon” trick later.
You need: No materials, or a basket
Say “Who can find something red?” and kids run to search the house. Then hunt for something soft, something round or something that starts with the sound “b”.
You need: A thick lace with a stiff tip · Extra-big beads or cut-up paper towel tubes
Tie a knot at the end of the lace and thread. Start with wide tubes, then big beads. At three, thread a pattern: red, blue, red, blue.
Only very big beads (that don’t fit in a toilet paper tube), a short lace and close supervision. Never put a lace around the neck or leave it within reach afterward.
You need: 3–4 pairs of picture cards
Turn the cards face down and look for pairs. Start with just three pairs, and play the first round face up so the idea is clear.
You need: No materials
Count out loud together: 3 frog hops, 2 elephant steps, 4 claps. At the end, let your child decide how many and what.
You need: A book or a familiar story · A few things from home for costumes
Read a short story, then act it out: who’s the bear? Who’s the bunny? Kids repeat lines from the story and add their own.
You need: A blanket · Two chairs · A flashlight · A few books
Drape a blanket over two chairs and climb inside with a flashlight and a book. Tell a story “in the cave”, or make shadows on the wall.
Every activity here is meant to be done with a grown-up right next to the child, not “from across the room”. Toddlers move fast, and almost everything ends up in their mouths.
In the US, the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) says toys for children under 3 must not have parts that fit inside a test cylinder about the size of a toilet paper tube. If something fits through a toilet paper tube, keep it away from toddlers.
Button (coin) batteries and small magnets are especially dangerous if swallowed. Keep them out of reach, and check that battery covers on toys are screwed shut. If you suspect one was swallowed, go to the ER right away.
Toddlers can drown in a very small amount of water. During water play a grown-up stays right there the whole time; empty bowls, tubs and buckets immediately afterward.
Health organizations recommend very little screen time at these ages. The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) suggests avoiding screens other than video chatting before 18 months, and for ages 2 to 5 about an hour a day of high-quality content, watched together with a grown-up.
The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends no sedentary screen time under age 2, and from 2 to 4 no more than an hour a day — less is better.
Every family decides for itself, and sometimes a screen is what makes cooking dinner possible. The activities on this page are simply more options, and most of them need almost no preparation.
Short, repeatable activities with things you have at home. This page lists 37 ideas for age 3 with materials, time and what each one develops.
There’s no fixed number. Several short play sessions through the day, following your child’s interest, work better than one long one.
No. Almost every activity here uses pillows, boxes, pots, paper, water or things from the kitchen and the laundry basket.
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