Best Board Games for 5 year Olds

10 Best Board Games for 5 Year Olds! For us, at 5 years old, games transitioned from fun for the kids, but a little tedious for adults, to games that were fun and engaging for the whole family.  Kids this age are starting to grasp more complicated game concepts, attention span lasts a little longer, and winning/losing is less of a life altering event. Remember all kids develop differently, so if your little one is not quite ready for these games, check out our list of best board games for preschoolers or if these sound too simple, check out our list of best games for 7  year olds.

[Stephanie’s note: If the voice sounds different it’s because this post was written by Tyler, my husband, and originally published on Kidsloveboardgames.com which is now defunct!]

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Pin this round-up of family board games with this photo or link!

Best Board Games for 5 year Olds

When you’re shopping for games, consider looking on Facebook marketplace for secondhand, buying from your local, small board game shop/toy shop, searching on Ebay, or checking Kidizen for used games. These are linked to Amazon for convenience but we’d much prefer you shop secondhand and/or small when you’re able!

 Ghost Fighting Treasure Hunters by Mattel

In Ghost Fighting Treasure Hunters players work together to find treasure and remove it from the haunted mansion before being overrun by ghosts.  This is a prefect strategy game for younger gamers who are just moving past the luck based games for toddlers and preschoolers.  Decision making is complex enough to keep them engaged, and because it is a cooperative game, parents can help guide kids who are new to the game without feeling like they are playing against themselves.

• Number of Players: 2-4
• Manufacturer Age Recommendation: 8+
• What we like best:  Sweet 3-D game figures really bring it to life, great balance of strategy and luck for five to nine year olds
• Prerequisite skills:  Experience in dice games, ability to think strategically
• Kids will learn:  Prioritization, strategic decision making, cooperation, and communication

 Sleeping Queens by Gamewright

This was the first game I can say our kids were officially OBSESSED with;  Sleeping Queens is a turn based card game where players try to wake queens to score the most points.  There are lots of ways to interfere with your opponents strategy (stealing queens or putting them back to sleep) which adds a fun twist to this game that your kids will love.  There is also some subtle strategies regarding pairs/runs that kids pick up on over time.  The recommended age from the manufacturer is 8+, however once your kids can count to ten and recognize the numbers on the cards they are ready to play.

• Number of players: 2-5
• Manufacturer age recommendation: 8+
• What we like best: Quick turns, card art is fun, very competitive regardless of skill, good with only two players
• Prerequisite skills: Ability to remember the powers of multiple cards and recognize and order numbered cards
• Kids will learn: Counting, number recognition, addition, card game strategy

Rat-a-tat-Cat by Gamewright

In Rat-a-tat-Cat, players have 4 cards face down in front of them, they take turns drawing cards and have the option to switch out drawn cards for face down cards with the goal of having the lowest total score when adding up the face down cards.  When someone thinks they have the lowest total they ‘knock’ to signify the last turn of the game.  The aspect of being able to determine when the game ends is very helpful as a parent, if you see your kid’s attention waning you can just ‘knock’ to end the game on a positive note!  I have only included a few Gamewright games here but I could probably make a list of just their games for this age range.  They do a fantastic job with games for the 5 year old to 8 year old range, check them out if you haven’t!

• Number of players: 2-6
• Manufacturer age recommendation: 6+
• What we like best: Unique combo of memory and card game, helpful card art, plays well with only two players
• Prerequisite skills: Identify numbers and understand their relative value (i.e. 3 is less than 5)
• Kids will learn: Memory, counting, number recognition, addition, card game strategy, perceiving others actions

Ticket to Ride – First Journey by Days of Wonder

Ticket to Ride – First Journey is a simplified version of the full game Ticket to Ride (which is a great intro to Eurogames for older kids by the way!).  Players build tracks between cities to complete route cards.  First person to six routes wins the game.  Game challenges players to find the route and determine the most efficient way to complete it with the cards they have.  This game is a little longer then some of the other games for this age range so it may make sense to shorten the game when your child is still learning.

There are a lot of versions of Ticket to Ride, if you’re curious about them, read this full comparison of all the version of Ticket to Ride.

• Number of players: 2-4
• Manufacturer age recommendation: 6+
• What we like best: Pictures by each city allow kids who can’t read yet to play, challenging/fun for older kids as well
• Prerequisite skills: Ability to plan and execute a strategy over multiple turns (collecting the right cards and building a route)
• Kids will learn: Geography, strategic thinking, creativity, identifying multiple solutions to the same problem

KaBoom by Blue Orange

What five or six-year-old doesn’t love to catapult mini cannonballs into towers as other players build them?  That’s the premise of KaBoom, player’s have a limited time to build towers matching cards while other players try to knock them down.  A high energy blast of excitement (don’t play this right before bed!), kids will love this game.

• Number of players: 2-5
• Manufacturer age recommendation: 6+
• What we like best: Great for burning energy on a rainy day, high quality wood pieces, unique concept
• Prerequisite skills: Fine motor skills to launch dice and build small pieces into towers
• Kids will learn: Fine motor skills, dealing with frustration (when your tower gets destroyed!)

Tsuro by Calliope Games

Tsuro is a tile placement game where players work to run other players off the board or into one another.  This is a great game for puzzle loving kids, and kindergarten age is perfect to introduce it to the family.

• Number of players: 2-8
• Manufacturer age recommendation: 8+
• What we like best: Quick gameplay and it plays great with a few or a lot of players (our favorite is 4-5)
• Prerequisite skills: Ability to build puzzle and think a bit strategically
• What does the game teach? Spatial thinking, strategy, problem solving

Robot Turtles by ThinkFun

This is a really unique game that will provide hours of entertainment.  Players ‘program’ their turtle to find a diamond by playing cards that tell the turtle to turn left or right, or go forward.  The game has a lot of built in mechanisms to keep increasing the difficulty as your kids learn and grow.  Players are also not competing against one another, but instead against the game.  Robot Turtles also has a number of different ‘game-modes’ so wide age ranges can play together with different versions of the same game.  I love this aspect making the game a blast for the whole family.  Side note, this game is suggested for age 3+, we played some with our preschool aged kids and it seemed to be a little too complicated for us at that age range, but they really liked it as the got a little older (5 seemed to be the clicking point for us, which is why we included it in our best board games for 5 year olds post).

• Number of players: 2-5
• Manufacturer age recommendation: 3+
• What we like best: Different age kids can play the different versions at the same time so everyone stays engaged, unique concept,  game grows with your kids and stays challenging
• Prerequisite skills: Ability to break down a goal into smaller steps
• Kids will learn: Planning, left/right, spatial thinking, communication

Animal Mastermind Towers by Pressman

Mastermind Towers is a pretty simple concept, players take 4 animal tiles and stack them in a holder, the opponent tries to guess the order by asking questions like ‘Is the lion above the elephant?’.  The game plays pretty quickly but also provides a good challenge for 5 & 6-year-old minds and communication skills.

• Number of players: 2
• Manufacturer age recommendation: 6+
• What we like best: Lots of communicating between players, plays well with two players
• Prerequisite skills: Ability to ask thought out questions
• Kids will learn: Communication, reasoning, critical thinking

 Bears and the Bees by Grandpa Beck’s Games

The Bears and the Bees is a really unique game in that it contains elements of a lot of other games, all beautifully tied together.  The goal of the game is like Uno, trying to get rid of all your cards, but cards have to be added to the hive (think board building like Carcassonne), building a beautiful honeycomb that covers the table.  This all comes together in a game that has dramatic swings, and often unexpected winners!

• Number of players: 2-6
• Manufacturer age recommendation: 8+
• What we like best:  Beautiful, high qaulity game cards
• Prerequisite skills: Puzzling and ability to retain rules for multiple different cards
• What does the game teach? Patience, attention to detail, strategic thinking, dealing with frustration

Eye Found it! Journey through Time by Wonder Forge

For kids who love seek and find books, this is an ideal game.  The game board is about 6 feet long and full of detailed art throughout.  Players work cooperative to travel through time and try to get back to the present day before running out of fuel.  Movement is based on a spinner which also contains the ships fuel gauge, and search spaces.  The searching is the most fun as everyone scrambles around the board trying to find as many of the search items (random things like shovels or fire) as possible to move your ship forward.

• Number of players: 1-6
• Manufacturer age recommendation: 4+
• What we like best:  Huge game board is perfect for large groups but the game also plays well with two players, cooperative game play, intricate board art
• Prerequisite skills: Ability to identify similar object in a category (i.e. shovels or buckets)
• What does it teach?  Counting, attention to detail, strategy

What are your best board games for 5 year olds?

These are the games we liked as the best board games for 5 year olds.  Which games did we miss, or which games on the list do you also love?  Comment below!