Lemon Tic Tac Toe Game for Preschoolers
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The Tic Tac Toe game has been around for hundreds of years, and I think it must be because it is super fun. That’s the reason I created this low-prep Lemon Tic Tac Toe game that I’sure will entertain your preschoolers for a long time, and the best part is that it can be used while traveling, at home, or in preschool centers.
Importance of the Tic Tac Toe Game
This fun game is wonderful to strengthen the children’s developmental growth in multiple ways such as:
- Problem-solving abilities, when they try to decide where they are going to place their chips.
- Spatial reasoning capacity, to recognize the spaces they should cover.
- Eye-hand coordination skills, to place their chips in their chosen square.
- Social and emotional skills like controlling their emotions, respect for their opponent, and taking turns.
- Ability to make predictions and strategized, trying to identify the best square to block their opponent’s chip.
- Cognitive skills as they understand horizontal, vertical, and diagonal lines.
- Gross motor skills as they sit in different positions to play.
- Fine motor skills as they grasp the chips to place them on the recording mat.
This is a competitive game in nature, and even preschoolers can understand the concept of placing three chips in a horizontal, vertical, or diagonal row. In the beginning, could be challenging, but once they start developing their skills they learn to plan and focus on blocking their opponent and coordinate their moves to accomplish the ultimate goal, which is to place three chips in a row before the other child.
Preparing The Lemon Tic Tac Toe Game
This free printable can be used in many ways such as small group activity, math center activities, take-home game, and the Quiet area option.
It comes with one full page board with two types of lemon chips, and another size with two game boards on one page, also with two types of lemon chips.
Materials needed:
- Free Lemon Tic Tac Toe printable (found at the end of this post)
- Printer
- White cardstock
- Laminator
- Laminator pouches
- Scissors
- Small basket or Ziploc bag
To prepare the Lemon Tic Tac Toe game, fill out the form below to download your free printable. Print each page using white cardstock, then cut out and laminate the boards and chips to make them last longer. Place them in a small basket or a Ziploc bag, to protect them.
Don’t Forget Your Storybooks
Gather fiction and non-fiction books about lemons and Summer to support the theme. There are tons of beautiful ones that you can use, which could be found at your local library, in a used bookstore, or on Amazon. Below are some of my favorites. Clicking on the pictures will take you directly to Amazon, through my affiliate links.
- A Summery Saturday Morning by Margaret Mahy is a story about a group of children, dogs, a cat, and a gaggle of geese enjoying their summery Saturday morning even though things do not go quite as planned.
- The Seashore Book by Charlotte Zolotow beautiful pictures brings to life a day at the beach imagined by a boy and his mother, and how they are hunting for seashells and building sandcastles on their imagination, during a perfect summer.
- Water by Frank Asch encourages young readers to appreciate water in its many forms.
- Mouse’s First Summer by Lauren Thompson, is a story about two mice that invite the reader to celebrate summer with a picnic in the park and have fun rolling down the hill on tickly green grass, flying kites, and enjoying some juicy watermelon.
- Summer (Four Seasons) by Nuria Roca, with large and beautiful color illustrations, will love having the simply written descriptive text read to them as they gaze at the charming pictures, which evoke the moods and activities of summer.
- The Summer Visitors by Karel traces the interactions between a family of bears and a human family during their summer stay at a lake cottage, told primarily through illustration, with only a few dozen words.
- Carl’s Summer Vacation by Alexandra Day is a sweet story about a dog and a girl who take advantage of their parent’s distraction to do some canoeing, pick blackberries, and enjoy a picnic.
- How I Spent My Summer Vacation by Mark Teague is the story about a boy who was carried off by cowboys and taught the ways of the West–from riding buckin’ broncos to roping cattle. Perfect for back-to-school read-aloud, here’s a Western fantasy with sparkling illustrations and enough action to knock kids’ boots off!
- The Night Before Summer Camp by Natasha Wing talks about a little girl and her family who are trying to get ready to go on vacation and provides a funny ending that everybody will enjoy.
- Ready for Summer by Marthe Jocelyn is the story around the question What am I going to wear? is first presented in the toddler years, when the mastery of getting dressed is a triumph and opinions about clothing are emphatic.
Pin It For Later
If are you in a rush and don’t have time to read the post and download the printable but want to save it for later, pin this to your math or Summer board on Pinterest to have it available when you need it.
I hope this Lemon Tic Tac Toe game entertains your kiddos and makes your planning a little easier, during this Summer vacation. Don’t forget to get your printable! You just have to click on the bottom below to download it and start using it.
Be happy, safe, and creative. I wish you well.
Love,
P.S. Please let me know if this activity works for you, and if you would like to see an article or a printable about how to make something specific, and I will try my best to create it for you. My goal is to help you in any way I can and I don’t like anything better than to post something that you might find useful.
