Two Small Mazes for Ages 4-5 — Set 257249

A toy car driving across the paper makes direction words easy to learn, and these two small 8×6 mazes give a child aged 4 to 5 lots of corners where the car must change course.

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1 A4 page · for home and classroom use

All printables: Mazes

Maze: small (ages 4-5)

How to use this worksheet

Agree that 'up' means toward the top edge of the paper and 'down' toward your child's tummy.
Drive a toy car through the first maze while your child calls out each change of direction.
In the second maze, swap the car for a crayon and let your child say the word just before drawing each new stretch.

What this worksheet teaches

Short corridors mean a new direction every few cells, so there is plenty of repetition. Linking each word to a movement your child can see helps preschoolers build the spatial language they will meet at school, such as 'start at the top' or 'write from left to right'. Planning a route and holding a crayon steady come along in every maze.

Play idea

Dance the maze. After both mazes, stand up and act out one route with the whole body: arms up for up, a crouch for down and a big step to the side for left or right. Doing it again slowly from memory turns the words into movements your child can feel.

Questions and answers

Questions from parents

Should I correct my child when they say left instead of right?

Gently, by asking them to show you their left hand first; mixing the two up is normal at 4 and 5.

Why use a toy car on the first maze?

A moving object makes each change of direction easy to see and name before the crayon takes over.

Are the two 8×6 mazes on the page the same?

No, each has its own layout and one correct path, so the direction words come in a different order the second time.