25+ Fun and Educational Activities for Nursery Class Kids

Filled with endless opportunities to explore, play, and learn, the early years of a child play a very crucial role in laying the groundwork for learning skills that they’ll use throughout their lives. Starting nursery is an exciting chapter for children at this age. A child’s mind is like a little sponge, soaking up new experiences through observing, imitating and exploring. Nursery activities aren’t just about keeping them entertained; they’re a gateway to developing creativity, social skills, and their love for learning. Whether it’s finger painting, singing rhymes, or storytime, each activity is thoughtfully designed to nurture their curiosity and lay the groundwork for a joyful journey in learning.

Why are Activities Necessary for Nursery Children?

Activities for nursery children are essential because they play a crucial role in early childhood development, fostering both personal growth and foundational skills. At this age, children are highly active. Their constant exploratory quests help them to understand the world around them in a better way. When a child is introduced with a new concept it gets easier for them to understand and remember that if they learn it through play-based or hands-on activities. These activities go beyond entertainment; they’re specifically designed to help children develop motor skills, emotional intelligence, language abilities, and social skills.

For example, engaging in art activities can enhance their creativity and fine motor skills, while group activities encourage social interaction, teaching them how to communicate and collaborate with others. By incorporating sensory-rich, age-appropriate activities, nursery activities help children gain confidence and independence, setting a strong foundation for future learning and adapting positively to new experiences. In short, activities in nursery aren’t just beneficial—they’re essential for nurturing well-rounded, confident young learners.

Fun Activities for Nursery Class Students

Let’s dive into some fun activities for nursery children that not only develop their essential skills but also develop their love for learning.

1. Tracing Alphabet

This activity for nursery children develops fine motor skills, hand-eye coordination, and concentration. By tracing each letter, children also begin to recognize letter shapes, a foundational skill for reading and writing. Repeated tracing helps them remember letter forms and build pre-writing confidence.

How to do the activity:

Provide children with worksheets that have large, outlined letters of the alphabet. Encourage them to trace over each letter with their finger first, then a crayon or pencil, reinforcing the shape and movement. Guide them as needed and celebrate each attempt to keep them engaged.

2.Tracing Shapes

This activity introduces the very basics of geometry to children. Tracing shapes strengthens fine motor skills and spatial awareness. It also reinforces shape recognition, aiding visual processing and preparing children for more complex shapes in mathematics.

How to do the activity:

Get some plain paper sheets and outline shapes such as circles, squares, and triangles. Let children trace over these shapes with their fingers, pencils, or crayons. You can also make this activity a sensory experience for children by using cut-outs of these shapes in different materials such as silk, wool, paper and sand, and asking children to stick them onto the respective shapes.

3. Vegetable Stamping

Children are naturally curious, and what intrigues them the most is colours. Vegetable stamping is a kind of sensory exploration which helps develop creativity and colour recognition in children. It encourages children to observe shapes and textures in everyday objects, fostering an understanding of patterns and helping them get inspiration to boost their creativity.

How to do the activity:

For this fun and easy activity for nursery children, you can use multi-coloured vegetables like okra, potatoes, or bell peppers. Get some paint and ask your little one to dip them in the paint. Show the children how to stamp the vegetable onto paper, creating different patterns and textures. Encourage them to explore various colours and patterns using these vegetables.

4. Colour Sorting

This nursery activity for children is a very essential as this introduces skills of colour recognition, grouping and sorting. By grouping objects, children learn to categorize and identify the differences between each element. This basic understanding helps them to understand the crucial skills needed for mathematical and logical thinking as they grow up.

How to do the activity:

For this activity, provide children with a set of colourful objects, such as buttons, pom-poms, or blocks, and containers for each colour. Pick each type of item one by one and place it in a container labelled with the item name. Show them how to place each item in the container of the same colour.

5. Sorting Letters

Understanding letters is very important in early years learning of a child as this forms the base of reading and writing skills in them. Sorting letters reinforces alphabet recognition, critical thinking, and early reading skills. It helps children distinguish letters visually and develop pre-reading abilities by recognizing patterns in letter shapes.

How to do the activity:

In order to reinforce their letter recognition skills you can give children a set of alphabet letters (plastic or foam) and ask them to group them based on similar characteristics, such as vowels and consonants or uppercase and lowercase.

6. Connecting Dots

Connecting dots activity for nursery children is a fun way to enhance their number recognition, sequencing, and fine motor control. This activity teaches children how to follow a path, recognize order, and complete a task, which is very important for developing their early math and problem-solving skills.

How to do the activity:

Provide sheets with numbered dots that form a shape, object, or a small animal when connected. Encourage children to follow the sequence and connect the dots with a crayon or pencil, and then ask them to colour the shape.

7. Music Making

Through this creative activity, children learn to coordinate movements and develop auditory processing, laying a foundation for language and musical understanding. Music making nurtures rhythm awareness, listening skills, and self-expression in children.

How to do the activity:

Gather simple instruments like tambourine, mouth organ, flute, shakers, or drums. Encourage children to explore each instrument, create rhythms, or play along with a simple song.

8. Yoga

Yoga helps improve flexibility, body awareness, and concentration in children. Deep breathing exercises help children to calm and de-stress their minds. It also helps children to manage and understand their emotions and self-regulate them, supporting both their physical and emotional development.

How to do the activity:

A fun activity for nursery children to teach them the importance of fitness is to teach them simple yoga poses, try out different poses like, inhale-exhale, tree pose, or downward dog with them. Guide them gently through each pose and encourage deep breathing to help them stay calm and focused.

9. Puzzles

Children love playing with puzzles, this not only builds problem-solving abilities but also helps them develop their patience, and spatial reasoning. Solving puzzles encourage focus and cognitive skills in children, as they learn to see parts of an image and assemble them into a whole entity.

How to do the activity:

Select different kinds of puzzles pertaining to different subjects in a variety of colours. Provide age-appropriate puzzles with large, simple pieces. Show children how to start with the corners or edges and then fit the other pieces together

10. Hopscotch

This activity for nursery children helps develop gross motor skills, balance, and number recognition in children. As they hop through the grids one by one, this activity fosters coordination in them and provides physical exercise, teaching children about sequencing and rhythm.

How to do the activity:

Draw a hopscotch grid on the ground with chalk or tape. You can add elements like numbers, alphabets, names of fruits, animals, colours to each grid for added fun and learning. Encourage children to hop through each square while counting/reading out loud.

11. Treasure Hunting

Treasure hunting activity for children helps in building observation skills, problem-solving, and perseverance. It encourages critical thinking as children search for items based on clues and follow directions given in the clues.

How to do the activity:

Who doesn’t love a good old fashioned treasure hunt when it comes to children. Select small objects on a given theme or subject that you want your child to be aware of and hide them in a defined space. Give children clues or a list of items to find in that space. Let them search around and gather the treasures.

12. Tear and Paste

This craft activity for nursery children involves tearing and pasting colourful papers onto a defined shape or template. When children tear and paste coloured paper onto a sheet, it strengthens their fine motor skills, hand-eye coordination, and creativity. Children gain control over their movements and practice focusing on completing a task.

How to do the activity:

Provide coloured papers to children and ask them to tear them into small pieces. Now let them paste it onto a template, such as a simple fruit, animal or a geometric shape.

13. Collage Making

Collage making is one of the best activities for nursery children to make artistic choices and express themselves, boosting confidence in their creativity. It also aids in visual processing, planning and design thinking in preschoolers.

How to do the activity:
Ask your child to gather various materials of their choice like magazine cut-outs, pom-poms,  fabric, and coloured paper. Guide them to glue these pieces of different items onto a larger sheet to create a themed collage.

14. Letter Sounds

Children learn to associate sounds with letters, helping them in future reading and writing. This activity enhances phonetic awareness, essential for early literacy. It also builds their vocabulary and listening skills as they recognize different sounds and words.

How to do the activity:

Provide a set of alphabet flashcards with corresponding pictures of objects that start with each letter sound (e.g., “A” for apple, “B” for ball). Show each card to the child, pronounce the letter sound clearly, and let them repeat it. Add a fun twist to this activity by having children find objects around the room that start with the same sound.

15. No Fire Cooking

Children from their early toddling phase are inclined to play with kitchen items. No-fire cooking activities for children not only intrigue them but also help develop their fine motor skills, basic math (through measuring and counting ingredients), and sequencing skills. They develop independence and gain confidence as they follow instructions and create something they can taste and enjoy.

How to do the activity:

Set up a simple, no-cook recipe, like making fruit salad or mixing yogurt with fruits. Guide the children through each step, encouraging them to measure, pour, and stir ingredients that they are adding in the recipe.

16. Human Train

One of the most fun indoor activities for a group of children is the human train. This activity promotes teamwork, coordination, and spatial awareness. It helps children learn to follow directions and work together, all while having fun and building physical coordination.

How to do the activity:

Line up children behind each other, and ask them to hold each other from the shoulders or waist of the person in front and let them pretend to be a train. Ask them to make stops along a designated path, and call out “All aboard!” or “Choo-choo!” as they go.

17. Seed Planting:

Children are naturally inclined towards outdoors, and seed planting activity for nursery children is a fun way to teach them about nature, responsibility, and patience. Through this activity, children learn about life cycles and environmental awareness as they observe the seed growing and also develop their fine motor skills through planting and watering.

How to do the activity:

Let the little ones uncover the magic of nature with a seed planting activity. Ask children to fill a paper cup with soil and let them place a seed in (You can use different kinds of seeds that sprout easily like mustard, fenugreek or coriander seeds) and gently cover it with soil. Let them water the seed and place it in a sunny spot to observe its growth over time.

18. Clay Modelling:

Clay modelling develops fine motor skills, creativity, and sensory awareness. Manipulating clay strengthens hand muscles, preparing children for writing, while they express their creativity through shaping and designing.

How to do the activity:

Set up a table with some coloured playdough and simple tools like rolling pins or cookie cutters. Encourage children to mould different shapes, animals, or letters with their hands, exploring different textures and forms.

19. Hand and Feet Painting

One activity for the nursery class that children enjoy the most is hand and foot painting. This activity promotes sensory exploration, colour recognition, and gross motor skills in children. It allows children to experience different textures and sensations through touch and introduces them to cause-and-effect as they see the prints they leave behind.

How to do the activity:

Lay out washable paint and large sheets of paper. Dress your little one in an oversized T-shirt and get them ready for the art attack in the paper. Allow them to dip their hands and feet into the paint and make different prints on the paper, experimenting with different colours and patterns.

20. Story Building with Building Blocks

Let your child learn to construct narratives while building with the Story Building and Building Blocks activity. Children learn storytelling abilities, fine motor skills and enhance their creativity through this activity. This also improves their language skills, spatial awareness, and problem-solving skills in children as they bring their stories to life.

How to do the activity:

Set up a storytelling area with building blocks. Encourage children to build structures or scenes that relate to a story prompt, such as building a house, bridge, or castle. Once their creations are ready, encourage them to narrate the story that inspired them to create the structures.

21. Show and Tell

One fun activity for nursery children that they love the most is Show and Tell. This activity helps them to showcase their thoughts and listen to others, fostering their confidence and social skills in a group setting. Let your child explore their descriptive language abilities as they play with their favourite toy or item.

How to do the activity:

Gather a group of children and encourage each child to bring a favourite item from home and share it with the group. Guide them to describe what the item is, why it’s special to them, and let them share an interesting thing about it. Ask follow-up questions to help them magnify their thinking abilities and imagination.

22. Picture Bingo

Picture bingo is a fun activity for children that inspires them to develop quick thinking ability and attention to detail. As they match images with those on their cards, they not only expand their vocabulary but also sharpen their memory, concentration and visual recognition skills.

How to do the activity:

Create bingo cards with pictures of different animals, foods, shapes and call out the items one by one. Each child receives a bingo card and markers to cover the images. Start by drawing a picture card and showing it to the children, calling out its name (e.g., “apple”). If the children have that image on their card, they place a marker on it; if not, they wait for the next call. Let children mark off items as they’re called, and the first to complete a row shouts “Bingo!” For a twist, show the pictures instead of calling out names to reinforce recognition.

23. Rhyming Games

One of the very important foundational skills for children is phonics. Rhyming games/activities help children develop their sound recognition ability and listening skills. This activity also helps them to start paying attention to the pronunciation and how a word or a sound is uttered, which ultimately helps them to enhance their communication skills.

How to do the activity:

Let children sit in a circle. Choose a word and ask children to think of words that rhyme with it. Ask them to take turns going around the circle and presenting their answers. You can also make the game interesting by using pictures of different things and asking them to find rhyming words that match the picture.

24. Vocabulary Building with Flashcards

Flash cards are a classic way to reinforce learning in children, and in order to build their vocabulary, this activity is one of the best ways to boost their learning. It helps children to associate images with words, thereby expanding their language skills and developing cognitive connections that support language comprehension and early reading.

How to do the activity:

Prepare flashcards with images of different things, animals, fruits, vegetables, etc., with their names at the bottom of the card. Shuffle all the cards and ask your little one to pick one card. Hide the name of the thing with your hand and let them identify what’s on the card. Let them spell the word and pronounce it. You can also take this activity to an advanced level by encouraging children to repeat the word and talk about the picture, using questions to expand on the vocabulary (e.g., “What colour is it?” “Where would you find it?”).

25. Storytelling and Puppet Shows

Storytelling and Puppets Shows activity for nursery children is where creativity and imagination meet learning. It encourages self-expression, narrative development, language skills and helps children to organize thoughts in a fun, engaging way.

How to do the activity:

Encourage children to choose a small story or create their storylines. Allot each character of a story to a different child and let them act out their part using those puppets. This fun and engaging experience of learning can be improved by converting it into a storytelling competition and giveaways.