critical thinking games for kids

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Critical Thinking Games & Activities for Kids

Critical thinking skills are essential to succeed in everyday life, and there are ways to enhance these abilities for children of all ages.

But what is critical thinking for kids? It means being open to new ideas, arguments, and information. Children with strong critical thinking skills are rational and look for alternative ways to solve problems.

We've collected together the best critical thinking games and critical thinking exercises for kids to make them become critical thinkers!

Online Critical Thinking Games

The most effective way to improve your children’s thinking skills is to engage them with educational games. Here are critical thinking games for kids to support their school success

Critical Thinking Game

This fun critical thinking game for kids is all about reasoning as fast and accurately as you can. Let’s try!

Puzzle Critical Thinking Game

It’s important to use your critical thinking skills even when you play with puzzles! Discover Tangram to develop it.

Math Critical Thinking Game

Critical thinking exercises and math can be the best friends! Here is a great critical thinking game with them.

Collaboration Game

Collaboration games are the best, and now it’s time to collaborate these numbers to find 10! Hurry, time is ticking!

Online Critical Thinking Game

Here is a fun critical thinking activity with candies! Attention and critical thinking skills make you eagle-eyed.

Basic Critical Thinking Game

In this critical thinking activity for kids, they need to select the image that is appropriate for the given condition.

Easy Critical Thinking Game

These fun critical thinking questions for kids are perfect for students in the early grades of school to sharpening their counting and math skills.

Cool Critical Thinking Game

It’s a critical thinking test for kids! Use your thinking skills to find out the correct answer!

MentalUP offers 150+ critical thinking games besides attention, concentration, logic, language, visual intelligence, and memory games ! 🚀✨

The best part of the multi-awarded app is all these gamified exercises are developed by pedagogues , academicians , and game designers . 🎓🙌

That’s why kids enjoy playing these games a lot; meanwhile, they boost their cognitive skills. 🤩

As parents, you can track your kids’ development with different report tools . These analyses are helpful to you in determining your kids’ strengths and the skills that need to be improved according to their peers ! 📊🎯

PLAY MENTALUP

Critical Thinking Activities for Kids

Now, let’s take a look at some fun activities that can help you encourage younger children to improve their critical skills! These exercises can help them to think critically whether they are at home, at school, or in online classes. Critical thinking in classroom can make them more successful even in their exams, such as the Kangaroo Math Competition .

1. Encourage Thinking

Children are full of questions, aren't they? So, to encourage their thinking process, you can ask them to try answering their questions or want them to answer would you rather questions for kids . And in the process, you can help them arrive at the answer using logical thinking instead of providing them with a direct answer.

It is possible to improve critical thinking skills even for preschoolers; one of the key elements of high-order thinking is making rational choices and justifying kids' own decisions.

Let's help your preschooler analyse the objects to make a logical decision themselves using critical thinking worksheets for preschoolers.

2. Play Sorting Games

Critical skills include the reasoning ability to solve real-life problems. And, of course, one of the great ways to support children’s reasoning and classification skills is sorting games that also function as strategy games for kids .

This activity will help children see the differences among various groups and enhance their understanding of the objects.

To play, you can simply ask your children to sort the same kind of objects using different features like colors, shapes, or sizes. Or if you would like to have an online solution here it is: Educational Games for 4 Year Olds

3. Solve Brain Teasers Together

To trigger brain activity, you can always benefit from brain teasers. Solving any kind of brain teasers together will allow your children to learn from you and challenge their problem-solving skills at the same time.

Also, brain teasers are one of the greatest and fun critical thinking games for adults!

4. Ask Them Riddles

Riddles are also an excellent way to help your children become critical thinkers, not to mention how fun they actually are. Asking riddles as team building activities high school are great examples of critical thinking in the classroom!

So, let your children promote their reasoning, problem-solving, and many other skills with a critical thinking activity as simple as riddles!

5. Create Games from Real-life Problems

Since critical skills are absolutely necessary for our daily lives, then why not apply them to some educational activities ?

You can take real-world problems like recycling or water scarcity as an open ended questions game and ask your children to think of solutions.

These kinds of pretend competition games for kids will not only boost their problem-solving skills as they focus on creative problems but also help them learn about their environment and develop their good sense.

Critical Thinking Questions and Answers for Kids

These fun critical thinking questions and answers are perfect for students in the early grades of school to sharpen their critical thinking, counting and math skills. It is also a very good alternative for kindergarten math games .

Critical Thinking Test for Kids

Bip bip! Can you tell which scooter will reach the gas station? 🛵

The answer is B!

If you follow the road path, you will see that only B can reach the gas station.

Want to solve more puzzles? Let’s try MentalUP Brain Teaser for Kids

Click to Try

Critical Thinking Example for Kids

Can you guess who is left-handed and why? 🧐

It’s irregular to serve drinks with left hand for a right-handed person. So, the answer is 5.

You’re good at hard riddles! Let’s continue with MentalUP to see your detailed performance reports.

Critical Thinking Activity for Kids

What am I? 😋

Tip: You’re using this magic word every day!

The answer is easy. It’s a plate!

Use the app for more questions and exercises.

Play for free

Critical Thinking for Kids

Which way is the bus going? 🚌

Here is a tip for you: This is a bus in the U.K

The bus is moving left.

Because we cannot see the door of the bus in this picture!

Couldn’t find the answer? You can always do brain exercises and improve your visual attention easily with MentalUP!

get Brain Teasers App!

Critical Thinking Question for Kids

What colour was the bear?

The bear was white!

The only place you can hike 3 miles south, then east for 3 miles, then north for 3 miles and end up back at your starting point is the North Pole.

There are only polar bears in the North Pole, which are white.

Can’t find the answers? Do brain exercises and improve your problem-solving skill with MentalUP Brain Teasers App!

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Critical Thinking Game for Kids

Which shadow corresponds to the image on the left? 🐓

The correct answer is D.

For more visual brain teasers for kids, download MentalUP and test your visual intelligence skills. You can see your detailed working reports and even compare your results with your peers!

Download MentalUP

FAQ About Critical Thinking For Kids

How to improve a child’s thinking skills.

The most effective way of improving a child’s thinking skills is to support them with educational games. If you are looking for the right games to develop critical skills, you can jump right into MentalUP games specifically designed for your children. Also, don’t forget that MentalUP provides kids with lots of different options such as Math Kangaroo problems , math riddles , and puzzles to empower their critical thinking abilities.

How to raise critical thinkers?

Whether you are a parent or a teacher, you can do activities with your children to help them become critical thinkers. Some of these activities include encouraging their thinking process, playing sorting games, solving brain teasers and riddles, and creating pretend games from real-world problems.

What are the 5 critical thinking skills?

Critical thinking skills are a combination of various abilities, including analysis, evaluation, explanation, problem-solving, and decision-making. There are more elements to be included, but most people accept that these are the 5 most important critical thinking skills.

At what age does critical thinking develop?

They start developing around the age of 2 since a two-year-old can communicate, recognize objects around them, and comprehend the differences between them.

Does critical thinking increase with age?

Critical abilities are related to one’s age and education. But it can be improved with practice at all ages. For example, the list we’ve created “ Best Apps for 11 Year Olds ” offers a huge help for that.

Is critical thinking taught in schools?

It is a part of most educational programs, such as solving math word problems requires critical thinking skills. However, critical thinking in school must be especially encouraged by teachers to help children develop and upgrade these skills. It is possible to improve it by using suitable back to school activities .

What activities improve critical thinking?

Playing critical thinking games for kids like MentalUP, doing puzzles, and solving riddles are the most important thinking activities.

Which game is the best for thinking?

It would be wrong to choose only one game to develop any skills. Instead of looking for the best game, playing beneficial critical thinking games for kids and adults would be more helpful. MentalUP offers 150+ critical thinking games, so the brain keeps being active with different kinds of games all the time.

Is Sudoku good for critical thinking?

Sudoku is suitable as a critical thinking game that both kids and adults enjoy to play. It stimulates other types of cognitive skills like attention and concentration too, so playing Sudoku is always a good choice.

MentalUP Educational Games are designed by academicians, game designers, and scientists to support the mental development process of your children. Because they are in the category of best safe kids games , you can be at ease! 🌈 You can benefit from MentalUP, which is among the best funny apps for kids to boost their skills. 💪

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15 Fantastic Logic and Critical Thinking Games

Games are wonderful additions to any homeschool. In fact, we typically play at least one game a day – sometimes even gameschooling for an entire day!

Not only do games bring joy and lightheartedness to the school day, they can help teach new concepts and practice old ones.

One of the most important reasons I include games in our homeschool frequently is because they are amazing for building logic and critical thinking skills!

This post includes affiliate links.

If you’ve read any of my blog posts about brain training , you’ll know that I place a lot of value on building logical thinking skills in kids. Luckily, games are one of the best ways to do that – and they don’t even require much effort on our part!

While almost every game has logic and critical thinking value, some games are made specifically to give those skills a workout. I’ve included 15 of my favorites here for you!

Logic and Critical Thinking Games

Invasion of the Cow Snatchers – A creative, single player game that uses magnetic playing pieces as you maneuver a flying saucer around obstacles on a farm to beam up all the cattle.

Domino Maze – In this hands-on, single player game, you create fun domino mazes with a critical thinking twist as you set out to build based on challenge cards.

Thinking Putty Puzzle – This is another hands-on, single player game that “stretches” your thinking skills as you complete mazes with Thinking Putty.

Qwirkle – A family favorite, this game is kind of like Scrabble with shapes & colors. Your goal is to rack up as many points as possible as you work to complete symbol combinations.

Battleship – Coordinate graphing and logical thinking are required to sink all your opponent’s ships in this classic game for two players.

Mastermind – Another classic game for two players, Mastermind is truly a top pick for practicing logical thinking skills as you deduce a hidden code.

ZooLogic – This is such a cute single player game. You must figure out how to organize dogs, cats, and mice on puzzle cards so that no fights ensue between the animals.

Guess Who? – This is the perfect game to teach beginning critical thinking skills as you ask pertinent questions to figure out your opponent’s mystery character.

SET – Get ready to work logic skills faster than your opponents as everyone races to put together the next combination of cards based on shape, color, shading, and number.

Clue – A good, old-fashioned game of Clue is perfect for sharpening logic and critical thinking skills since the goal is to use deductive reasoning to solve the mystery before anyone else.

Cat Crimes – In this hands-on, single player logic puzzle, you place cat characters on the board based on clues you are given in order to determine which one is to blame for an oopsie that has occurred.

Codenames – While this game can be played with as few as four people, it’s great for a crowd, too. Spymasters use word clues to help their teams logically consider which cards on the table will locate friendly spy agents instead of foes.

Rover Control – This creative, single player coding game teaches basic programming skills through critical thinking puzzles in which a rover must go through various start to finish challenges.

Rush Hour – A classic, single player game, Rush Hour utilizes logical thinking as you work to get an ice cream truck out of a rush hour traffic jam.

Rook – This four player card game is another family favorite that is won by logic and critical thinking between teammates (as well as a little luck.)

Gameschooling

There are so many wonderful games available these days! I’ve written about favorites for other subjects plenty of times. Feel free to click on any of the images below to see a different list of games.

P.S. Games make great gifts for any holiday or birthday. They also make great family gifts or for people who are hospital or homebound. Games are one the most frequent things we give when a gift is in order!

One Comment

I loved this list! It’s great to see so many fun options for encouraging logical thinking in kids. I can’t wait to try out a few of these games with my family!

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15 Fun Decision Making Games for Kids

1. Online Decision Making Games 

3. connect four, 5. ticket to ride: first journey, 6. catan junior, 9. battleship, 10. guess who.

Making decisions is a big part of growing up. Learning to make good decisions early on is super important for kids. It helps them become more independent, confident, and ready to face the world. That’s where decision making games for kids come into play. These games teach kids how to think ahead, make choices, and understand what happens because of those choices—all while having a blast!

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In this blog, we’re going to dive into some fantastic games that do just that. From classic board games that have been around for years to new card games that will soon become favorites, we’ve got a list that will help any kid become a decision-making champ. 

Best for Which Ages: 3 years and up

Decision making games online are one of the best choice making activities for kids to sharpen their critical thinking, problem-solving, and strategic planning skills in a fun, interactive environment. Engaging with these games teaches children to make quick decisions, analyze outcomes, and adapt their strategies in real time. Here’s a look at some engaging online decision making games that are perfect for young minds:

• Challenge Two of a Kind Game

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This game tests memory and attention to detail as players flip cards to find matching pairs. It’s about remembering what you saw and making strategic decisions on which cards to flip next. Perfect for developing concentration and memory recall, it’s a hit among kids looking to challenge their minds.

• Play Jumble Mania Game

Jumble Mania sharpens spelling and vocabulary by challenging players to rearrange jumbled letters to form words. This game enhances decision making by requiring players to choose the most logical order of letters, improving their language skills and quick thinking in a fun, engaging way.

• Challenge Match-Up Puzzles Game

Match-up puzzles take the challenge up by mixing memory skills with problem-solving. Players must match related items, not just identical ones, adding an extra layer of decision making. This game is excellent for kids who enjoy puzzles and are ready to think outside the box.

Best for Which Age: 3 years and up

Go Fish is a card game that sharpens memory and introduces kids to strategic thinking. Players ask each other for cards to make sets, using strategy to remember who holds which cards.

How to Play:

• Deal five cards to each player and place the rest in a “fish pond” in the center.
• Players ask others for specific cards to make sets of four.
• If the player has the card, they must hand it over; if not, they say “Go Fish,” and the asking player draws from the pond.
• The game ends when all sets are made, and the player with the most sets wins.

Buy here: Amazon

Best for Which Age: 6 years and up

Connect Four is all about strategic planning. Players aim to line up four discs in a row. This game challenges kids to think ahead and block their opponents, making it one of the most fun choice games for kids.

• Players choose a color and take turns dropping their colored discs into a vertically standing grid.
• The objective is to be the first to form a horizontal, vertical, or diagonal line of four of one’s discs.
• Players must strategize to block their opponent’s moves while working towards their four-in-a-row.
• The game ends when one player achieves a Connect Four or the grid fills up, indicating a tie.

Price: $12.51

Buy Here: Amazon

Mancala is a classic game that requires players to strategically move pieces around the board to capture more stones than their opponent. It’s a brilliant choice among decision making games for kids, teaching them to plan ahead and predict their opponent’s moves.

• The board is set up with an equal number of pieces in small pits.
• Players take turns picking up all the pieces in one of their pits and distributing them one by one in subsequent pits.
• The goal is to capture more pieces than the opponent by strategic placement and captures.

Price:  $12

Ticket to Ride: First Journey simplifies the classic game for younger audiences, focusing on strategic thinking as players plan train routes across a map. This making choices game is perfect for introducing basic strategy and planning skills to kids.

• Players collect train cards that enable them to claim railway routes on a map.
• The aim is to connect distant cities through a network of trains.
• Strategic planning is required to block opponents and efficiently connect cities.

Price:  $27

Catan Junior takes the beloved strategy game and simplifies it for younger players, focusing on resource management and basic strategic planning. It’s an excellent choice among decision making activities for elementary students, teaching them the importance of resource allocation and strategy.

• Players collect resources like wood and gold to build their pirate lairs.
• Trading resources with other players is a key part of the game.
• The first player to build all their pirate lairs wins, requiring careful planning and resource management.

Price:  $24.99

Best for Which Age: 7 years and up

Uno is a popular card game that combines strategy with luck, requiring players to adapt their strategies based on the cards they have and the actions of their opponents. It’s one of the most fun and engaging decision making activities for children, teaching them adaptability and strategic thinking.

• Players aim to match a card in their hand with the current card shown on top of the deck either by color or number.
• Special action cards, like skips and reverses, add complexity.
• The first player to rid themselves of all their cards wins, requiring strategic decision-making and adaptability to changing game dynamics.

Price:  $11.16

Chess is one of the best decision making games, teaching players to think several moves ahead and consider the consequences of their actions. It’s a classic game of strategy and tactics where every move counts.

• Each player starts with 16 pieces that move in specific ways across the board.
• The objective is to checkmate the opponent’s king, meaning the king is in a position to be captured and cannot escape.
• Players must protect their own pieces while strategizing to capture their opponent’s king.

Price:  $14.99

Battleship is a game that combines strategic planning and deduction, making it a great choice among decision making board games. Players guess the locations of their opponent’s ships and aim to sink them, all based on logical deduction and strategic thinking.

• Each player places their ships secretly on a grid.
• Players take turns calling out grid coordinates to guess the location of the opponent’s ships.
• The first player to sink all of the opponent’s ships wins.

Best for Which Age: 5 years and up

Guess Who? is a fun decision making situations game that enhances logical thinking and decision-making. Players ask yes or no questions to deduce the identity of the opponent’s character, using logic and deduction at every turn.

• Each player chooses a character card and places it in front of them.
• Players take turns asking yes or no questions to narrow down the possible characters their opponent has chosen.
• The first player to correctly guess the opponent’s character wins.

Price:  $5

11. Clue (Cluedo)

Best for Which Age: 8 years and up

Clue, or Cluedo, is a classic among group decision making games, where players solve a mystery by deducing who committed the crime, with what weapon, and in which room. It’s a fantastic game for developing deductive reasoning and decision-making skills.

• Players move around the game board, which represents the rooms of a mansion, to collect clues.
• Through a process of elimination and deduction based on the clues gathered, players try to solve the mystery.
• The first player to correctly accuse the murderer, the weapon, and the room wins the game.

Price:  $17.99

12. Tic-Tac-Toe (Noughts and Crosses)

Tic-Tac-Toe, also known as Noughts and Crosses, is a perfect introductory decision making game for kids. It teaches young children the basics of strategy and foresight by encouraging them to think about their moves and anticipate their opponent’s next step.

• Players take turns marking a space in a 3×3 grid with their symbol, either a nought or a cross.
• The aim is to be the first to get three of your symbols in a row, either horizontally, vertically, or diagonally.
• Players need to block their opponent’s moves while working towards their own line of three.

13. Checkers (Draughts)

Checkers, known as Draughts in some countries, simplifies strategy and decision-making, making it one of the easiest decision making games for kids. It teaches them to plan their moves and predict their opponent’s actions in a straightforward, engaging way.

• Players move their pieces diagonally across a checkerboard, with the aim of capturing the opponent’s pieces by jumping over them.
• The game encourages players to protect their own pieces while finding opportunities to capture their opponent’s.
• The player who captures all of the opponent’s pieces wins.

Price:  $15.99

14. Rat-a-Tat Cat

Rat-a-Tat Cat is a card game that boosts memory and strategy through the use of card swaps and peeks. It’s a fun and engaging way to enhance decision-making skills in kids, as they must remember the cards’ values and decide the best times to swap.

• Players are dealt cards that they can peek at but then must keep face down, trying to remember the values.
• The aim is to end up with the lowest score by swapping out high-value cards for lower ones.
• Strategic thinking is required to decide when to swap cards and when to stick with what you have.

Price:  $11.99

15. Magic Memo Game

The Memory Game, also known as Concentration, is a fantastic choice for kids to boost their memory and focus. By matching pairs of cards, children practice attention to detail and improve their recall abilities, making it a great pick from games on decision making.

• Spread all cards face down on a table.
• Players take turns flipping over two cards at a time.
• If the cards match, they keep them and go again.
• If they don’t match, they turn them back over, and the next player goes.
• The game continues until all pairs are matched.

Price:  $9.99

Decision making games for kids offer fun and interactive ways to boost critical thinking and problem-solving skills. These games not only keep children engaged but also play a crucial role in their cognitive development. So, let’s encourage our kids to play more of these games and watch them grow smarter every day!

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

How do you teach children decision-making.

Teaching children decision-making involves guiding them through the process of making choices, discussing possible outcomes, and allowing them to experience the consequences in a safe environment. Encouraging them to weigh options and think ahead helps build this skill.

What is a decision-making game?

Decision making games for kids are an interactive activities designed to simulate scenarios where players must make choices, often within a set of rules or constraints, to achieve a goal or solve a problem, thereby sharpening their decision-making skills.

What is decision-making icebreaker activity?

A decision-making icebreaker activity is a short, engaging task that encourages participants to make choices and share their reasoning. It’s often used to warm up a group, foster teamwork, and introduce the concept of decision-making in a fun way.

What are some fun decision-making questions?

Fun decision-making questions can range from hypothetical scenarios like “Would you rather have the ability to fly or be invisible?” to practical choices such as “If you could only eat one food for the rest of your life, what would it be?” These fun would you rather questions stimulate thinking and conversation.

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Parent Resources for Learning > Critical Thinking > Critical Thinking Activities for Kids: 5 Quick & Fun Challenges

Critical Thinking Activities for Kids: 5 Quick & Fun Challenges

by Dr. Jody Sherman LeVos | Aug 11, 2023 | Critical Thinking

Here’s a riddle: I’m something preschoolers, kindergarteners, and elementary students can do. I help kids develop self-control, working memory, flexible thinking, and other essential skills. I’m also really, really fun and don’t take long. What am I?

The answer is critical thinking activities for kids! You probably guessed that based on the title of this page. But kids aren’t born with that ability (try reading the riddle to a 4-year-old and see what happens!). They have to practice to develop it.

Luckily, there are a lot of fun ways to help them, and they don’t take long. Thinking about trying a few critical thinking activities with your kids? We’re here to help.

The Short Cut

• Critical thinking is one of the 5 C’s that help kids thrive in school and life (an essential part of the Begin Approach to learning)
• Strong critical thinking abilities have been linked to better grades, higher workplace performance, and less credit card debt
• Good critical thinking activities often involve following rules, breaking tasks into sequences, asking questions, and understanding multiple perspectives
• Games are a GREAT way to develop critical thinking with kids!

Why Is Critical Thinking Important?

Critical thinking is the ability to make decisions and analyze information. For kids, it includes:

• Recalling short sequences of information and simple instructions
• Ignoring distractions to focus on a task
• Thinking computationally and coding
• Grasping the differences between sources of information
• Reasoning using logic
• Making connections between things

Kids need critical thinking because it helps them understand the world and make good choices, especially as they get older.

At age 2, they can get by following simple rules like “sit in your chair at the dinner table.” But by age 5 or 6, they’ll be solving problems, following complex rules in kindergarten and elementary school, and making decisions based on varying and sometimes conflicting information. (“My friend told me it’s OK to use these scissors. My teacher told us we should always ask her first unless she gives them to us. At home I can use scissors without asking because I’m always careful with them. I’m at school. What do I do?”)

Critical thinking only becomes more important from there. It’s one of the most highly valued skills in the workplace, and people with strong critical thinking skills tend to experience fewer negative life events in adulthood.

In short, it matters a lot!

5 Quick, Easy Critical Thinking Activities for Kids

Teaching critical thinking to kids is a blast, and it doesn’t take long. Here are five of our favorite activities to help kids get better at it.

1. Simon Says

This classic childhood game is great for developing critical thinking for kids from preschool through elementary school. We love it because you can break it out almost anywhere, anytime—all you need is a little space!

What You Need

• Enough space for kids to move around and follow your directions
• Explain to the kids that you’ll be giving them directions by saying, “Simon says…” and that the goal of the game is to remember the directions, do them in the right order, and not do them if you don’t say “Simon says…” first
• Give the kids a simple direction, like “Simon says, ‘Stick out your tongue’”
• As the game progresses, add longer and more complicated strings of directions, like “Simon says, ‘Stick out your tongue, then stand on one foot, then clap your hands one time’”
• Help the kids work on paying attention by mixing in some directions without “Simon Says,” like “Jump up and down!” and seeing if they remember the rules!

This game uses working memory (to remember the instructions) and self-control (not to jump if you didn’t say “Simon Says!”), among other skills.

2. Robot Commander

If you have a little more time to prepare, you can try this more imaginative version of Simon Says from codeSpark , our award-winning app that develops critical thinking for kids ages 5–9 through fun, coding-based games. Your kids will have a blast while learning some of the building blocks of computational thinking!

• This printable
• Space for kids to move around and follow commands
• 3 or more players
• Print out the Robot Commander printable
• Designate one player as the Commander and the others as Robots
• Show the Commander and Robots the actions on the printable and explain what they mean
• Have the Commander draw out a short sequence of actions, then the Robots act them out
• Add new commands using the blank shapes on the printable
• Have the commander “program” longer and longer sequences, then switch roles so everyone gets a chance to try!

For even more fun, have the “robots” dress up in costumes!

3. Grid Game

The grid game has a simple goal: Follow instructions to get through a grid and reach a goal. It gives kids a chance to work on sequencing (breaking a task into a sequence of shorter actions, then following it), working memory, ignoring the impulse to rush straight for the goal, and following rules—all while moving their bodies and having fun! 

• Large space on the floor, sidewalk, or ground
• Masking tape, chalk, or string to make a grid
• Item to place in the grid as a goal
• Use the tape, chalk, or string to create a 4×4, 5×5, or 6×6 grid in your play space—the larger the grid, the more difficult the game becomes
• Place the goal item somewhere in the grid
• Have your child stand in the lower-left grid space, then follow your directions to reach the goal item. To cross a small grid, your instructions might sound like this: “Take one step forward. Take two steps to your right. Take one step forward.”
• When they reach the goal, celebrate!

To stretch the game out even more, switch roles and ask your kid to come up with a set of directions for you to follow! It may not seem like it, but this kind of sequencing is a basic computational thinking skill that will one day help them learn to code!

4. Mail Delivery

Critical thinking isn’t just about following directions—it can also be imaginative and fun! This activity develops working memory while stretching kids’ Creativity (another of the 5 C’s) through pretend play.

• Handwritten letters or notes to make pretend mail (you can use ones you have on hand, write some out, or just use blank paper)
• 5–10 toy “friends” (dolls, action figures, stuffed animals, etc.)
• Bag, basket, or toy vehicle for putting letters in (optional)
• Ask your child to gather their “friends” and place them around the room in different “homes”
• Assign each of the letters to a “friend”
• Have your child deliver the “mail” (using the bag, basket, or toy vehicle if you have one)

More Ways to Play

This activity is fun all on its own (we’ve seen some kids play it for hours), but there are lots of ways to stretch it to include more critical thinking abilities and Core Skills (another of the 5 C’s) like counting, reading, and writing. You can try:

• Numbering the “friends” and delivering their mail in numerical order
• Delivering the mail in order from largest “friend” to smallest
• Asking older kids to draw a map of the pretend neighborhood with addresses and street names, then put each letter in an envelope, address it, and deliver it to the right house
• Placing the “friends” all over the house and timing how long deliveries take, then experimenting to see what the fastest route is!

5. Make a Story Box

This is another great activity for blending Creativity (storytelling), Critical Thinking (sequencing and working memory), and Core Skills (story structure). It can be so satisfying to watch a kid’s imagination take flight!

• A box, bowl, or basket
• 5–6 child-safe toys or household items
• Place 5–6 items in the box
• Invite your child to make up a story using all of the items in the box

Tip: Kids ages 5 and under can make up the story as they go (“Umm…then the monkey jumps on the dump truck and drives it!”), but starting at age 6 you can challenge them to plan out their whole story before they start to tell it.

• Invite kids to collaborate on the story by taking turns planning what happens next
• Use familiar dolls, toys, or stuffed animals to provide characters for the story
• For a twist, let the kids pick some favorite toys, then surprise them by including things they don’t usually play with, like a bandage, toothbrush, or hat
• Ask the kids if you can have a turn—they’ll learn a lot from seeing how you construct a story!

More Critical Thinking Activities from Begin

Because critical thinking is such an essential skill set, at Begin we build it into many of our award-winning, play-based learning products. It might look like sequencing-based coding games in codeSpark , memory activities in HOMER , or 1-on-1 support through KidPass Tutors , but no matter where you find it, it’ll help your kids learn while having a blast.

To see how our products come together to give your child their best start to achieving their fullest potential, check out our Early Learner Bundle !

Jody has a Ph.D. in Developmental Science and more than a decade of experience in the children’s media and early learning space.

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Dr. Jody Sherman LeVos

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