preschool critical thinking worksheets

Fun activities for developing critical thinking skills in preschoolers

Inside: Critical thinking preschool worksheets to download for free!

Problem-solving and critical thinking are important skills children in preschool need to develop in order to succeed in school.

Include these critical thinking preschool worksheets in your curriculum to give them enough opportunities for practice.

You might also like my brand new Things that don’t belong worksheets !

Critical thinking preschool worksheets

Whether you are taking a walk outside or reading a book together with your child, there are always opportunities to practice critical thinking.

For instance, encourage your child to look for repeating patterns, for similarities and differences between objects and so on. The more they understand the world around them the better they will be able to generalize and utilize the knowledge in more complex situations.

To provide you with some pen and paper exercises, I’ve created these critical thinking preschool worksheets.

Feel free to use them in the classroom or at home.

And make sure to expand on your child’s answers. Ask her more about each group of pictures, why they belong/don’t belong together, and so forth.

To download, just click on the download link at the very end.

Similar: Things that go together worksheets

Feel free to use these worksheets in the classroom or at home. But please remember that any other re-distribution or altering are not allowed. Thank you. 

Critical thinking skills

7 thoughts on “Fun activities for developing critical thinking skills in preschoolers”

Hey Kristina, thanks. My 5 years old found it really interesting. Do you have more?

Not the same kind of activities. But it’s a good idea to create more like these, I will add them to my to-do list!

Hey Kristina, Thank you so much for the resources. I have a 1st grader with special needs and am always at a loss for what to do to supplimet our schools amazing special ed departments at home. Your worksheets are life savers!

I am happy to help!

Kristina, thanks for saving our kids from non-stop TV and boredom thanks to your great print-outs these days!!!

Lol, you’re welcome! I know it’s hard to constantly entertain them at home. My two boys are the same. All the best to you!

Very interesting Kristina..Thank you for this Materials I used them with my 4 year old daughter!!!!☺💖

Comments are closed.

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10 preschool critical thinking activities my preschooler loves.

Want to Improve Your Child's Critical Thinking Skills?

Enroll your child for the Atlas Mission – the ultimate learning companion for kids.

Some days I wonder, “What was he thinking?”

“I had too many socks. The drawer wouldn’t close so I threw the extras in the trash,” beams my little guy as if that was the perfect solution to the problem.

Teaching kids critical thinking skills can be almost as hard as teaching them that pants are not an optional piece of clothing and goggles and an umbrella alone do not make a complete outfit either.

Here are some tried-and-true critical thinking activities for preschoolers that my child loves.

1. Guess What I Have

With a small toy in one hand, place both hands behind your back. Ask your child to guess what is in your hand. As they make attempts to guess, give them clues such as: “It’s not blue, it’s red,” or “it doesn’t have wheels, it has legs.” This allows them to make guesses based on what they already know.

Be ready to dodge in case they get frustrated and throw things at you. It happens.

2. Play the ‘Is It True?’ Game

Ask your child a question that starts with ‘Is it true that…’. When they answer, ask them how they know that it is true or not.

I asked my preschooler “How do you know if someone is sleeping?”

“Because they slobber on their pillow,” he answered brilliantly.

Don’t worry about perfect answers, just praise any effort.

3. Work in Groups

Getting my kids to work together in a group is one of the best preschool critical thinking activities that I know of. The hardest part of this activity is getting everyone’s attention.

Just join the game of ‘Who can say “No, me” the loudest’ , and maybe they will hear you.

When I can ever get my kids to interact with each other, they realize that there is more than one way of doing things and they are introduced to a variety of different approaches and ideas.

Pro Tip: Help Your Child Become Better at Critical Thinking

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4. Play “Good Idea/Bad Idea”

Take two of your child’s favorite stuffed animals (and when they throw a fit for them, take two that they don’t like instead) and put on a show with them.

Act out scenarios and let your child predict the outcomes of their actions. Ask them at each phase of the game if what the characters are going to do is a good idea or a bad idea and why.

5. Food Tasting

Forming an opinion is an important preschool critical thinking skill. Kids have strong opinions about food. It’s usually a love/hate relationship.

It is widely known in preschool circles that no two kids are allowed to have the same favorite food. This is cause for war.

Bring out some foods that you know your child hates or loves. My son hates chicken and loves yogurt so we used those.

Now ask them if they like that food or not and why or why not. Then bring out a new food that your child will love (we used blue cupcakes with sprinkles) and let them predict whether or not they will like it and why.

6. Find Similarities and Differences

My preschooler and I often play a game of pointing out similarities and differences in things. He tells me how similar Dad and I are because we both drive under stop lights and how different Dad is from me because he thinks a yellow light means hurry up and I think it means slow down.

Challenge your child to find things that are similar and different at the same time like a fork and a spoon. Both are utensils but one is for eating salad and one is for digging in the backyard when Mom’s not looking (or something like that). These similarities and differences activities for preschoolers help strengthen a variety of your child’s skills.

7. Go On a Picnic

One of our favorite preschool critical thinking activities often includes an outdoor picnic. Give your child a lunch box to pack and suggest items that are both relevant and irrelevant to a picnic, and let them tell you which items are relevant, and why.

Yes, they will probably want to include their pet goldfish and two left mittens. If they can explain the relevance, I guess it can get packed.

8. Make ‘Get Well’ Cards

Making ‘Get Well Soon’ cards for people who are sick can help kids relate situations back to themselves. As you make the cards, ask them if they have ever been sick or hurt.

They will probably have a hundred stories but don’t worry. We all know that every Mom has a secret super power: the pretend listening skill.

“Oh, really?” “I never knew that.” “You’re kidding? Tell me more.”

Oh, yeah, we’re good.

9. Hide the Thimble

We have played this game for years to develop critical thinking skills. We never hide a thimble, though. I can just see my preschooler popping that thing in his mouth and me attempting to do the Heimlich maneuver on him.

No, we use a baseball instead. There’s no chance of him getting that whole thing in his mouth. Although, I’ve seen him try.

Everyone closes their eyes while the ball is being hidden. Then, I give clues and let the kids know if they are getting closer to the ball or further away.

I also give clues like, “It’s near the sofa.”

10. Ask ‘What Happened and Why’

No, I’m not talking about when you hear a loud noise and run into the room to investigate. For this activity, you only need a family photo album.

Sit down with your child and look at some funny photos of the family. Choose photos that have a story behind them and then ask your child, “What happened in this picture and why?”

My little guy likes the photo of my sister when she spilled melted chocolate all over the kitchen. Yup, that’s a keeper.

I’m sure you have some photos of your family that you can make fun of, too.

I hope you enjoy some of these preschool critical thinking activities with your little one just like I have. I just keep telling myself that one day they’ll pay off. But for now, I must go get those socks out of the trashcan.

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About the Author

Jill Cain creates educational content for the Atlas Mission . She has 20+ years of experience homeschooling her 6 children aged 4 - 21 and enjoys helping parents around the world in their homeschooling journeys.

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