Activities for 3 year olds
Activities for 3 year olds at home
| Activity | What kind | What a child does |
|---|---|---|
| The Rainy Day Box | Make | Cards of forts, crafts, games and experiments with things most homes have, each saying how long, how messy and what a grown-up does. |
| Dot-to-dot | Puzzle | Join the numbers and a picture appears. Counting practice with a pencil. |
| Shadow match | Puzzle | Match each picture to its shadow: looking closely, with no reading needed. |
| Odd one out | Puzzle | Find the one that does not belong, and say why. |
| Coloring pages | Make | Pictures to color on screen or print for the table. |
| Trace letters | Make | Trace capital letters, starting with the first letter of your name. |
| The Art Studio | Make | Crayons, paint and coloring on the screen. |
| No-bake recipes | Cook | Food small hands can make with no oven: mix, spread, stack and eat. |
| The library | Read | Free stories by reading level, to read together or alone, with no account. |
| Short bedtime stories | Read | Stories short enough for one more before lights out. |
| Peabody TV | Read | The library's books as read-along shows. |
| Preschool learning games | Play | Tap-to-play games where every question is said aloud, so no reading is needed. |
| Picture timers | Play | Fun picture timers for a turn, a tidy-up or ten minutes of screen time. |
What 3 year olds are like at home
A 3 year old loves doing it again: the same book, the same song, the same snack. Hands are still learning to hold a pencil, so pick big things to color and match, and do the reading for them.
A day for a 3 year old
| When | Try |
|---|---|
| Morning | The Rainy Day Box |
| Before lunch | The Rainy Day Box |
| Lunch | No-bake recipes |
| Afternoon | Dot-to-dot |
| Evening | The Rainy Day Box |
| Bedtime | The library |
6 of the 13 activities above need no screen once they are open or printed. For games only, see preschool learning games. Everything here is free through the end of 2026, with no ads, no sign-up and nothing to download.
Other ages: 3 · 4 · 5 · 6 · 7 · 8 · 9 · 10 · 11 · 12.
Questions parents ask
What can a 3 year old do at home?
Things to make, puzzle, cook, read and play: the table lists 13 that suit a 3 year old, from The Rainy Day Box to Picture timers.
Which activities for a 3 year old need no screen?
The Rainy Day Box, Dot-to-dot, Shadow match and Odd one out, and more in the table.
Are these activities free?
Yes. Everything here is free through the end of 2026, with no ads, no sign-up and nothing to download.
What if my child is ahead or behind for 3?
Ages are a guide, not a rule. Look one year either way: 4.
Teacher? Share this page to Google Classroom. Children open it with no sign-up.
Checked against how Peabody works on 6 November 2026. Written with help from AI, from Peabody's own code and library. Peabody is a learning app, not an assessment: if you're worried about your child's learning, talk to their teacher. How Peabody's pages are made.