Playing with 3 year olds is so much fun! They love pretend play, their imaginations can run wild, and their brains are like sponges - learning new things daily.

By age 3, social and language skills are taking off. Your 3 year old can most likely speak in complete sentences. They’re more independent and social, making friends and enjoying cooperative play.

While almost any toy can be classified as an educational toy, some toys can maximize learning!

These are our favorite educational toys for 3 year olds that promote fine motor skills, cognitive development, STEM learning, and school-readiness.

01: Montessori Busy Board

Busy boards don’t just keep your little one busy, they work fine motor skills.

These toys allow 3 year olds to see and understand how things like locks, latches, and hinges operate in the real world.

This is a practical and educational toy! Not only will your child hone fine motor skills while playing, they will also be practicing dressing skills. Work on using a zipper and learning how to use buckles and velcro, or start to understand how to tie a shoe.

Last but not least, busy boards can provide sensory-based learning as well. Busy boards foster focus, patience, and curiosity.

Educational importance: fine motor skills, dressing skills

primary colored wooden blocks for 3 year olds

02: Melissa & Doug Wooden Blocks

Blocks are a classic educational toy with many developmental benefits. We love this set because the blocks are smaller and require more precision and muscle control for building.

Block sets are open-ended toys that foster creativity and imagination. Build a town, or a zoo, or a house, or a castle. Whatever your 3 year old’s mind comes up with!

Whenever they are building, your 3 year old is learning the concepts of spatial-awareness, symmetry, and balance - all while having fun!

Don’t forget - blocks aren’t just for building. Challenge your 3 year old to count them or sort them by shape or color.

Educational importance: imagination, spatial awareness, fine motor skills, naming shapes & sizes

Melissa and Doug indoor/outdoor scavenger hunt set

03: Melissa & Doug Indoor/Outdoor Scavenger Hunt

This is another great learning toy for 3 year olds that is disguised as simply having fun! It’s affordable as well.

When used as an outdoor scavenger hunt, your child is discovering their surroundings. They are practicing the skill of observation while being in nature.

Scavenger hunts are great for sensory exploration as children look, smell, and touch different objects and textures to find what they’re looking for. Use this educational toy as a chance to learn more vocabulary and describe your surroundings.

There are also great functional language opportunities within this game. If your 3 year old is having trouble finding something, give them a clue. “It’s behind the tree; It’s above the bush,” etc.

Educational importance: problem-solving, vocabulary building, sensory exploration and observation

04: Montessori Sequencing Toy

This Montessori sequencing toy can also be used as a lacing toy as well. Stacking toys are educational and teach fine motor skills like hand-eye coordination and precision.

This particular stacking toy works on matching skills as your child will use the cards to recreate the patterns shown. They will use problem-solving and logic as well as observation skills.

This is a versatile educational toy that works on lacing skills and hand dexterity. You can use this toy to label colors and shapes, too!

Educational importance: fine motor skills, hand-eye coordination, matching skills, pattern skills, problem-solving

05: MAGNA-TILES

Introduce your 3 year old to STEM learning with MAGNA-TILES! These educational toys help understand the concepts of building, construction, geometric shapes, and magnetism.

Show your 3 year old the two-dimensional shapes and label them. Then help them construct 3-dimensional shapes with the tiles and label them. They can learn so much, all while playing.

When your 3 year old builds, they are problem-solving and practicing critical thinking. They will also learn about cause and effect.

And don’t forget about pretend play! Kids can build anything with these tiles and act out different play scenes and scenarios.

Educational importance: building and STEM learning, naming shapes, problem-solving, spatial awareness, fine motor skills

who's feeling what? social emotional learning toy

06: Who’s Feeling What? Social Emotional Learning Game

A great social-emotional learning toy for 3 year olds! This toy functions more like a game that allows children to learn how to spot the face and spot the emotion.

It comes with 12 different faces and 12 different emotion cards. Ask your preschooler to spot who is excited or who looks like they could use a friend. You can reorganize the board and the questions every time you play to keep it challenging!

When children develop social-emotional skills, they learn to recognize, understand, and feel their feelings. This learning helps so much in the long run! It allows them to make friends, communicate with peers, work on a team, and more.

Educational toys aren’t just about letters, numbers, and concepts. They can also teach and foster the social and emotional skills needed to operate in society!

Educational importance: social-emotional skills, communication skills, matching & naming

Melissa and Doug Fresh Mart Grocery Store

07: Melissa & Doug Pretend Play Grocery Store

This pretend play toy is also an educational toy! Once you set the grocery store up, the language and communication opportunities are endless.

Your 3 year old will learn about real-world routines like what to do at a grocery store, how to pay for food and bag it, etc. Talk about how the grocery store works, label different foods, talk about what foods you need to make certain dishes at home.

There is so much imaginative play and scenario-building you can do with this toy. I haven’t met a toddler or preschooler who doesn’t want to pretend play like they’re a customer or cashier at a grocery store!

Educational importance: imagination, practicing real-world routines, naming foods, counting, sequencing

ABC pops letter learning educational toy

08: Learning Resources Mini ABC Pops

These are great learning toys for 3 year olds as they work on letter recognition and early literacy skills. Each popsicle has a capital letter that corresponds to a picture that starts with that letter.

Not only will your 3 year old be working on fine motor skills as they put the tops on the popsicles, they will also be working on matching skills and sorting by color.

Label the letters and the pictures on each popsicle. Talk about the sounds each letter makes.

This toy works on vocabulary skills, phonics, letter recognition, and color matching all at once. It’s a versatile learning toy with great value!

Educational importance: vocabulary building, phonics, letter recognition, matching & sorting skills, fine motor skills

09: Melissa & Doug Cube Puzzle

This one is such an affordable learning toy for toddlers and preschoolers. It’s usually on sale for $10 on Amazon.

This Melissa & Doug wooden cube puzzle is 6 puzzles in one! It works to develop visual and manipulative skills. Teach your preschooler how to find the matching borders on each side of the cube to make each puzzle.

I love this puzzle for 3 year olds and 4 year olds because it helps foster problem-solving and critical thinking skills. You can see their minds at work when they’re putting it together!

Educational importance: matching skills, problem-solving skills and critical thinking, fine motor skills

10: Counting Dinosaurs

Another simple toy that offers so many developmental benefits for 3 year olds and beyond. It’s an affordable Montessori learning toy that works on fine motor skills, color recognition, early counting skills, sequencing, and more.

Use the tongs to organize the dinosaurs into the matching colored bowls while working fine motor skills and hand-eye coordination. Count the dinosaurs.

Sort the dinosaurs by type or color. Learn more about sequencing by lining the dinosaurs up in a pattern by color.

The learning opportunities are endless with this toy!

Educational importance: fine motor skills, hand-eye coordination, matching & sorting skills, counting, patterns and sequencing