Two Small Mazes for Ages 4-5 — Set 404201
Looking before moving is a new idea for many 4 and 5 year olds, and these two small 8 by 6 mazes offer a first practice in spotting a dead end before the pencil gets there.
1 A4 page · for home and classroom use
Maze: small (ages 4-5)
How to use this worksheet
- Before drawing anything, ask your child to put a small dot wherever a corridor stops at a wall.
- Talk about which corridors lead to those dots and agree to stay away from them.
- Draw the route from entrance to exit on the first maze; on the second, try to find the dead ends by looking alone, without dots.
What this worksheet teaches
Small grids have only a few blind alleys, so a preschooler can actually find them all. Marking them first builds the habit of scanning a whole picture before starting, an early form of planning, and it makes the pencil route smoother because fewer wrong turns need erasing.
Play idea
Call the dead ends sleepy corridors: your child points to each one and whispers not this way. Once every sleepy corridor has been found, the path that is left leads to the exit.
Questions and answers
Questions from parents
Can a four-year-old really plan a route in advance?
In a simple way, yes; noticing one or two dead ends before drawing is exactly the kind of planning this age is ready to begin.
Why are there two mazes on the page?
The first is for practicing the dot method together, and the second for trying it independently on the same small 8 by 6 grid.
What counts as a dead end?
Any corridor that ends at a wall without reaching the exit; each maze has one correct route and several of these blind alleys.