Spatial intelligence games for kids

In this post, we are going to focus on the visual-spatial learner and the best activities for this type of intelligence. As parents, we want to keep our kids engaged with fun activities that are also educational. It was so groundbreaking that, I dare say, it changed the way educators approached their lessons and teaching. It can also help parents at home. Before we reveal our awesome list of visual-spatial activities for kids, I just want to make one thing clear. Thus, one can have a combination of Verbal-Kinesthetic intelligence or Musical-Mathematical intelligence, for example.

There can even be three combinations. Even though we have grouped these activities as belonging to a specific intelligence, you will notice that some will exercise more than one area of intelligence. This post may contain affiliate links and I may earn a small commission when you click on the links at no additional cost to you.

As an Amazon Affiliate, I earn from qualifying purchases. You can read my full disclosure here. The goal of the activity is simple, fun, and it can have different variations. Simply put, each player has to make up a story based on the pictures he receives.

The game can be played in several ways. You can start by giving each player five story cards and one genre card funny story, scary story, sad story, adventure, story, fantastic story and allowing them a few minutes to come up with a story.

Of course, if you want, you can give out more or fewer cards. It is up to you. Alternatively, if you want more spontaneity, you can put all story cards in a pile upside down, and each player makes a story as they pull each card. You can also play this game as a chain story, especially if there are more players. I personally find this option to be more fun. Have the cards in a pile upside down.

The first player draws a card and starts the story by saying a few sentences based on the picture. Then the third player does the same and so on until the last player finishes the story. Imaginative Storytelling is an excellent game for visual-spatial Intelligence as the picture cards will offer great visual aid.

However, it is also a fun activity for kids with verbal-linguistic intelligence as the players will have to make full use of their vocabulary to make up the story. It is an excellent game to develop imagination, vocabulary, and spontaneity, among others. You can get your copy of Imaginative Storytelling for Free now!

Whenever I read ideas for fun activities for kids which involve quiet games, doing puzzles is one of them. And with good reason. Besides being fun, puzzles have a plethora of benefits. Visual-Spatial learners love doing puzzles because they use their spatial awareness and hand-eye coordination, something that they are good at.

Puzzles will also exercise their fine motor skills, as well as help with their reasoning skills and decision making. It is a perfect game to give a young brain a complete workout. There is a broad selection of jigsaw puzzles for toddlers with 9 pieces that are sturdy and perfect for little hands.

He feels so proud when he finishes one and then we spend a little time making up a story based on the picture. This is such a simple game that to us, adults, it might seem silly. But to young kids, especially the ones with Visual-Spatial and Bodily-Kinesthetic Intelligences, it means fun, laughter, and the chance of imitating others.

Told you it was simple. Because kids with Visual-Spatial Intelligence have very good spatial awareness, they are very mindful of their surroundings, this game will be right up their alley. Since it also involves moving around, Hot, Warm, Cold will also appeal to Bodily-Kinesthetic learners. One player hides a predetermined object somewhere in the room.

The other player s will then try to find the object as quickly as possible. The player who hid the object will give verbal hints to the seeker s in the form of cold if the seeker is far away from the object , warm if the player is somewhat close to the object or hot if the player is extremely close to the object. Of course, the game is a lot more entertaining if there are more players searching for the hidden object because there is an element of competition.

But if there is only one player searching for the object, you can set a time limit for the seeker to find the object. This is a variation to the Hot, Warm, Cold game that focuses more on spatial words. This is one of the fun activities for kids that I used to play in the classroom when I taught prepositions of place. Again, Visual-Spacial learners, as well as Bodily-Kinesthetic and Verbal-linguistic ones, will benefit from this game.

It would be great if there were at least five players, but it can be very well played in as little as two players. Visualization is using visual imagery to mentally represent an object not physically present. It is a powerful skill in spatial learning and problem-solving. Young children can be taught to use visualization to enhance their spatial ability. In an experiment, when a ball drops, preschoolers tend to think that it will appear directly below, even if the ball drops down a twisted tube.

You can also have one child build the structure while another copy. As they become more familiar with building and more confident in matching, increase the complexity of the structures. Even a few cereal boxes or toilet paper rolls can be used to stack and build interesting structures. Give them a problem to solve. Tangram is an ancient Chinese puzzle consisting of seven pieces. The pieces can be rearranged into many different shapes such as animals, people or objects.

No doubt, there are strong correlations between puzzle solving and spatial intelligence. However, no controlled studies have been found to establish a causal relationship between them. The problem with jigsaw puzzles is that, unlike tangram, there is only one fixed way to fit the pieces together. Map reading can help children acquire abstract concepts of space and the ability to think systematically about spatial relationships that are not otherwise experienced directly in the physical world.

Maps present spatial information that differs from direct experience navigating the world. Children can learn to think about multiple large-scale spatial relations among different locations in a concrete way through map reading. Books such as Zoom and Re-Zoom are great picture books that can draw children into a world of visualization and spatial thinking. The increasing level of detail helps illustrate the different spatial relations among objects. When reading these books with the kids, the parent can enhance spatial intelligence by verbal explanation and gestures.

Although no research is found to link physical paper folding to spatial intelligence, it is not farfetched to believe that physical paper folding practice can enhance mental paper folding ability. Spatial-temporal reasoning is the ability to think of spatial relations that change through time.

This skill allows you to mentally pack your luggage one item after another to see how to fit the most items. Parenting For Brain does not provide medical advice. If you suspect medical problems or need professional advice, please consult a physician. Have trouble motivating your child? Check out:. Clements DH. Geometric and spatial thinking in young children. National Council of Teachers of Mathematics.

Published online Intelligence assessment: Gardner multiple intelligence theory as an alternative. Learning and Individual Differences. Published online June Tartre LA. Journal for Research in Mathematics Education. Published online May In: The Psychology of Learning and Motivation. Elsevier; Appl Cognit Psychol. Published online November 28, Felder RM, Brent R. Understanding Student Differences. Journal of Engineering Education. Published online January Newcombe NS.

American Educator. Lord TR. Board games teach planning, following instructions and other spatial skills. Similarly, puzzles aid visualisation of how and where to fit the pieces. Do not limit your child to jigsaw puzzles. Tangrams are equally fun. Let your child explore it and manipulate the pieces the way she wants.

It is not necessary that your child makes pictures according to the challenge cards. Free play is good too! This ancient Japanese art of paper folding heavily relies on spatial skills. So cut some square sheets out of old newspapers and engage in some origami fun.

Origami requires lots of patience and practice. It is a good idea to do it together so your child can see and follow you. Introduce maps to your child in a fun way.

Help them figure out the street they live on. Children are often attracted by technology and get fascinated when they see themselves moving on the app. When you are returning home from an outing, ask your child for directions to home. Exposing children to the correct jargon can greatly aid the process. Introduce directions, left-right, up-down, inside-outside and spatial words early on. This would help your child in visualising as well as describing their mental imagery.

This is a fun game where you create a structure using simple blocks or legos and your child has to re-create the matching structure. Start with a simple house or a building. Show it to your child for a minute or less and ask her to make its replica. Such activities train children to observe objects and create their mental pictures, thus enhancing their spatial reasoning abilities. One of the much loved spatial reasoning activities for kids, photography helps children analyse pictures from different angles and depths.

Encourage your children to take different pictures of the same object and compare how it looks from top, front and back. These are similar skills that architects use in engineering drawing. Shapes are the foundation blocks of spatial reasoning. Invest good time in building sense of shapes and their attributes in your children. Enquire how different shapes are used and how their shape attributes influence their use.

This is one of the spatial reasoning activities for kids that integrates literacy and comprehension with spatial reasoning. For children who love to love, this is a must try. Ask your child to observe an animal card and make a yoga pose out of it. You can even play animal yoga videos. Seemingly simple but not as easy. Tessellations are geometrical wonders.