Choose a theme for your game. For example, if your child is excited about trains, find train stickers and two small trains to use as playing pieces. Another option is to cut your game board into the shape of a train, or use large train shaped cut-outs as the background for your game board.
Choose the type of game you would like to make. Some good preschool options can be path games, in which players move game pieces along a path toward a finish line; grid games, during which players place small objects on their game boards to fill a grid up to a certain volume first to win; or "all-gone" games, where players remove pieces from their boards until one player's pieces are all removed.
For a path game, place several stickers on a file folder to form a simple path. You can get creative with your path design and include points where children make a choice of which path to follow. Label one point of the path as the start and a point on the opposite side of the board as the finish. Paths should ideally contain 15 to 20 spaces so that the game is not finished too quickly, but is not overwhelming for young children.
Place the two small toys you have chosen as game pieces at the start of the path. Players take turns rolling the die or spinning a numbered spinner and moving their game piece that number of spaces along the path. Play ends when one piece reaches the end of the path.
To make a grid game, draw one grid with rows and columns of 4 or 5 spaces each on both top sides of a file folder. You can fill these grid spaces with themed stickers, number them, or leave them blank. Each player works on his own grid.
Players take turns rolling the die or spinning the spinner and then placing that number of small counters into the grid spaces on their side of the board. For example, if a player rolls a 4 on the die, he will place one button into four of the spaces on his grid. The object of the game is to fill your grid first.
For an "all-gone" game, draw a large shape that corresponds to the theme you have chosen, or glue a paper cut-out shape onto one side of the file folder. Draw or glue an identical shape to the other side of the top half of a file folder. Each player works on his own side of the game board.
Determine the number of small counters -- such as beans, small snacks, or buttons -- each player will start with. Ten is a good number to start with for preschoolers, but as they develop more advanced counting skills, you can raise the number of counters. On his turn a player will roll a die or spin a spinner and take the corresponding number of counters off his side of the game board. The first player to remove all of his or her pieces from the board is the winner.