22 Fun Imagination Games for Kids to Play

Being able to imagine things transforms our lives by influencing every aspect of our creative and thought processes. Imagination skills determine how we think, ignite the passion inside us, and enable us to innovate and dream of a happy future.

Having better imagination skills and using the imagination effectively and deliberately can be the key to having a successful and happy life. This makes imagination an essential skill to support child development.

Through this blog, we will discover the most fun imagination games for kids, learn how a child's imagination plays a role in their development, and answer all your questions about the games that boost kids' imagination and creativity. Let’s dive in!

What Are Imagination Games?

Imagination games allow kids to pretend play and act out their experiences and interests. Imagination games enable kids to make sense of the world by improving their cognitive and social skills, sense of empathy, and emotional intelligence.

Any game that is unstructured and starts with “let’s pretend” or make-believe can be categorized as an imagination game. Playing house, dressing as a professional, and free drawing games can be given as examples of imagination games.

Imagination Games for Toddlers

Toddlerhood is the age at which kids start building their physical, cognitive, sensory, social, motor, and language skills. Therefore, toddlers need to play fun imagination games that enable them to practice core skills while boosting their creativity.

Here are the most beneficial imagination games for toddlers!

1. MentalUP

MentalUP is a scientifically designed learning app that includes a variety of entertaining games and activities to support kids' cognitive skills, physical skills, and imagination skills.

The app offers a child-safe and no-ad learning platform that includes 150 age-appropriate games and activities for kids.

Memory, visual intelligence, analytical thinking, attention, and focusing games and exercises within the app enhance kids' imagination and creativity and support their mental and physical development.

2. I’m Thinking of an Animal

This game is great for practicing toddlers' cognitive skills in both the home and daycare classrooms. All you have to do is, “I’m thinking of an animal…” and then add some clues about the animal, like tails, wings, or beaks.

Your toddlers will try to guess what animal you are referring to and practice their imagination, categorization, and naturalistic skills while playing. Additionally, they will be enhancing their communication skills while discussing the animals.

3. Playing House

Playing house is one of the most essential imagination games for toddlers, and there are no limits to how to play it. You can start with organizing a special space for the game and expanding it with some toys. Then you can assign some roles for you and your toddler to act out cooking a meal, cleaning the house, or going to a doctor.

Pretend play through playing house can help toddlers to learn through curiosity, imagination, and action. It also helps them develop language skills and improve their empathy, social, and emotional skills.

4. I Spy

This is one of the simplest imagination games to play with kids during vacations and family trips. Start by gathering all your family members around and choose one of them to spy on a secretly selected object.

The spy provides simple clues about the object, and the game continues until one of the players guesses the object. The alternative that is among the best strategy games for kids is great for sparking kids' curiosity to use creative thinking, problem-solving, and communication skills.

5. Hide and Seek

This is a game that needs no introduction. The hide-and-seek game challenges kids in various ways and provides them with both valuable mental and physical benefits.

Throughout the game, one player counts to 20 with their eyes closed until other players hide. Then, the player tries to find the hidden players. This process requires kids to find perfect hiding places, which improves their balance, agility, and coordination skills, as well as imagination and creativity.

6. I Wonder About

This is one of the most simple yet fun imagination games to play with toddlers that feeds their curiosity. Just pick some items or topics for your kids and let them ask questions starting with “I wonder about…” and then start a discussion to answer their questions.

Discussing a variety of topics through this game can enhance your kid’s cognitive skills, expand their imagination, and enable them to explore the world around them.

7. Tall and Short

This is a great imagination game to help toddlers develop better sequencing, ordering, and planning skills.

Just give your toddler a stack of papers or some building blocks to put in order from shortest to the tallest. You can gradually expand the number of items to keep challenging your kid's cognitive skills.

8. Dance Party

Any family dance party can be turned into one of the most entertaining imagination games for adults and toddlers. Prepare a song list, clear a space, and start dancing with your family members.

To expand the educational benefits of the game, you can ask some open-ended questions like “What other dance moves could we do?” and challenge your toddler's imaginative thinking skills and physical abilities.

Imagination Games for Preschoolers

From early literacy and math skills to social and emotional skills, there are a lot of skills that preschoolers need to improve during preschool years. Having strongly developed imagination skills serves as an enhancing factor for the improvement of all these skills.

So let’s discover some challenging games that require imagination and spark preschoolers’ learning abilities.

1. MentalUP

The MentalUP app offers a variety of games and activities that are appropriate for preschoolers. Gamified exercises within the app teach children about numbers, letters, animals, and everyday objects while boosting their creativity and imagination.

Additionally, it can be played anytime, anywhere, and with its screen time limiting feature, it serves as a safe and beneficial resource to support kids' both physical and mental development.

2. Dress Up for the Job

This simple game allows imaginative play at best and can be played in both preschool classrooms and at home.

Simply tell your kids to pick one job and keep it to themselves. Then, you can ask them to dress up for the job and other players to guess what job it is. This is a great game to spark kids’ logical thinking skills and encourage them to learn about different career paths and perspectives.

3. Boxes

There is no limit for kids playing imagination games with boxes. All you need is a simple and safe cardboard box.

You can hand it to your kid and ask them to decorate the boxes as they wish, or you can include the boxes in other imagination games, like playing house. Kids can build their dream castles, create an artistic piece to exhibit, or simply play with it. All these box games are perfect for enabling kids to stimulate their cognitive skills in a variety of ways.

4. What Happens Next?

This is a great, unstructured story-telling game for family nights and reading lessons to keep reading more engaging for children.

Next time you are reading to your kids or students, stop at a particular point and ask them, “What happens next?” Discussing through this game will encourage them to challenge their problem-solving skills, imagination, early literacy, and social skills.

5. I’m Going on a Trip and I’m Packing

“I’m going on a trip and packing” is a great imagination game for challenging both kids' imagination and memory skills.

You can start by saying, “I’m going on a trip and packing…” then adding an item. Then, you can ask your kid to repeat the sentence by adding another item. Kids need to remember the items mentioned before until the end of the game.

6. Draw a Face Relay

If you need some imagination games for toddlers that tap into their artistic side, this one is a great alternative for you.

You can draw an oval shape for kids to draw faces on and tell them to create faces as they wish. To spice things up, you can ask kids to take turns drawing different parts of the face. The drawing process can promote good social skills as well as artistic skills, color recognition, and creative thinking. Also, you can change activity by using drawing ideas for kids and prevent your kids from being bored fast.

Middle Childhood Imagination Games

Kids in this age group start to think more independently, plan more about their future, and show rapid development in mental and physical skills. Therefore, they might need some imaginative games to support their development during middle childhood.

Here are some fun and beneficial imagination games to challenge 6-8-year-olds.

1. MentalUP

MentalUP is a great resource to turn any PC, tablet, or smartphone into a safe and educational learning toy that promotes the core developmental skills of a 6-8-year old. Don’t forget that MentalUP is among the best apps for 8 year olds and younger kids.

Puzzles, cards, memory, attention, tracking, and musical games within the app are great for challenging 6-to-8-year-olds’ minds and enabling them to reinforce their cognitive skills.

2. Be an Inventor

Most kids learn through experimenting and this imagination game is great for getting kids passionate about experiments.

The game is simple. Just ask your kids, “What would you invent to make your day easier or more fun?” Then, let them come up with bright ideas and draw their innovations. You can go further and create a project together to turn their idea into reality.

3. Lyrics Writing

If you want to promote your kid’s imagination, musical, and creative thinking skills at the same time, you can utilize this imagination game.

Just play an instrumental piece and challenge your kids to complete the song with some lyrics. Then, you can talk about how this song makes them feel or why they ended with these lyrics. It is great for promoting kids’ artistic skills and helping them express themselves better.

4. Going to the Market

This is one of the most challenging imagination games for kids and is also great for empowering kids' memorization skills.

To create an ultimate grocery list with this imagination game, ask your kids to add some items to the list by following the alphabet. Then your family members take turns until someone forgets items on the list.

5. Fortunately/Unfortunately

If you are looking for a storytelling-based imagination game challenging enough for 6-8-year-olds, you can go with fortunately/unfortunately.

To play this game, you can start a story with two or three sentences. The first sentence starts with “unfortunately,” and another with “fortunately.” Then let the other players take turns. You will be surprised to see how your kids use their imagination and problem-solving skills to keep the story going.

6. Two Truths and a Lie

Two truths and a lie is one of the best icebreaker games to play at school or home. Also, it is quite simple.

Each player comes up with two truths about themselves and makes up one lie. The rest of the players try to guess the lie and get a point whenever they reveal a lie. The game is great for helping kids express themselves better and use their creativity and logical thinking skills.

7. Perfect House

Kids at this age enjoy dreaming about their future, how their life will be, or where they will leave. This game is a good option to spark their interest in planning their future. It is simple and can be played anytime and anywhere.

Just ask them about what their perfect house would look like. Who would live in their perfect neighborhoods, and what kind of rules would be needed? Discussing these topics will help kids explore their interests and needs better and use their imagination to plan a perfect living environment.

8. Scribblish

Cranium’s board game is a perfect imagination game for 6-to-8-year-olds. The objective of the board game is to score the most points by drawing pictures, writing captions, and guessing the ideas behind the creation.

This board game is great for improving kids’ drawing, creative thinking, and reasoning skills. Also, it is appropriate for all ages, which makes it a great alternative for family game nights.

The Benefits of Playing Imagination Games

So far, we have discovered a variety of imagination games for kids of all ages. Now, it is time to dive deeper into how these imagination entertainment games benefit kids' development.

Let’s take a closer look at the benefits of playing imagination games.

1. Boost Creativity

Games that encourage role play, pretend play or imaginative play help kids discover why and how things are done and teach them about a variety of subjects and the world around them. This all adds up to improving their creativity and expanding their vision to think more creatively.

2. Develop Reasoning Skills

Imagination games require kids to use their analytical and critical thinking skills to solve challenges. This way, it helps them to both build and practice better reasoning skills. Developing better reasoning skills in the early years allows them to use this reasoning path in school subjects like math, biology, and English.

3. Improve Problem-Solving Skills

Kids need to come up with creative ways to solve problems and complete objectives within imagination games. This process enables kids to practice their problem-solving skills and use them to keep up in games.

Can Video Games Improve Your Imagination?

Video games have several benefits of helping people recharge, build better leadership skills, increase their dopamine levels, and boost their creative thinking skills. All these factors show that video games improve imagination.

Still, parents need to keep in mind that being exposed to too much screen time can be harmful to kids. The screen lights can interrupt their sleeping routines and harm their eyes and concentration. Thus, it is best to choose from ones that have screen time-limiting features and safe content.

Frequently Asked Questions About Imagination Games

Throughout this blog, we’ve explained the ins and outs of imagination games. If you still have some questions in your mind, here are the most commonly asked questions about imagination games.