Simple center games or small group games can be even more fun and engaging with a seasonal or thematic twist. The flowers on this game make it perfect for a spring theme or gardening them. This game is great for many different skills and many different abilities of preschoolers.
Spring Race to the Top Game
Race to the Top is a fun game for preschoolers to play in a center or in small group time. You can adapt this game to practice letter recognition, sight words, or other skills.
Materials
- Spring Race to the Top Printable
- Pocket Die (or small box)
- Paper squares
- Marker
- Do-a-Dot Markers (or crayons)
To prepare this game, print the letters or sight words on paper squares and place in the die. Or tape the paper squares to the sides of small box.
On the printable, print the letters or words on the flowers. Make copies for the children to use.
Play the Game
Race to the Top can be played in a small group or by an individual child. To play the game, the students take turns rolling the die and recording their rolls on their sheets by placing a dot in the square. As an alternative, they can color in the squares with crayons.
When a particular word or letter has been rolled five times, it reaches the top first and is declared the “winner.” I like this game because the students don’t compete against each other, the letters/words do. When a word wins I encourage the children to keep playing to see which one comes in second place, third place and so on.
Other Skills to Practice
- Print numerals on the die and in the flower shapes.
- Print numerals on the flowers and use a regular die with dots. Children can roll the die and find the matching numeral.
- Draw different shapes or use shape stickers on the die and flowers.
- Color each flower a different color to practice color recognition. Insert construction paper squares (of matching colors) in the die.
- Use spring (or other theme) stickers in the die and on the flowers.
Click on the image to download the printable.
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