Chutes and Ladders is an educational board game appropriate for preschool children. The game teaches children about following directions and how to count to 100. Children take turns moving their playing piece on a board numbered from 1 to 100. If their piece lands on a chute, they move it down the chute; if it lands on a ladder, they move up.
Play Go Fish with your preschoolers to help teach them number recognition and matching skills. This game is played with two to four players who take turns asking each other for cards. Before the game starts, each player is dealt five cards; the remaining card stack is the "fish pond." Each player tries to get a match for the cards he is holding by asking another player if she has one of their cards. For example, if a player has a card with a 4 on it, when it is his turn he can ask another player, "Do you have a four?" If the other player has it, she gives it to the player who asked for it and the player gets to go again. If she doesn't have the requested card, she says, "Go fish"; the player pulls a card from the fish pond and play moves on to the next player. The game continues until the "fish pond" is gone. The player with the most mates wins.
An educational classroom game to play with preschoolers is color I Spy. This game teaches color recognition to preschoolers. For example, tell your pupils, "I spy with my little eye something red." Students then look around the room, search for something red and try to guess what the item is.
Starfall (see Resources) is an educational website which has "ABC" and "Learning to Read" sections that include games for preschool children. The games teach children how to recognize upper- and lower-case letters and the sounds they make, as well as teach them beginning phonics to help them learn how to read.