Top Gifts for 5 Year Olds

Last Updated on August 5, 2026 by Jordyn Koveleski Gorman

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Do you have a 5-year-old’s birthday party coming up? Or are you shopping for a kindergartener during the holiday season? Finding a gift that’s both fun and age-appropriate can be a challenge, so we’ve done the hard work for you. We searched high and low to round up the best gifts for 5-year-olds.

You’ll find educational toys, arts and crafts, toys for imaginative play, outdoor fun, and a lot more. No matter what your 5-year-old is into, there’s something here to inspire play.

Favorite Toys for 5 Year Old Boys

1. Buildable Dino Toys: These toys are a great building toy for dinosaur lovers. Put them together with the included tools, disassemble, and put it all together again. 
2. Remote-Control Robot: This is such a neat toy. Use the remote and gesture features to move the robot all around the house. 
3. Dinosaur Fossil Eggs: Use the digging chisels and brushes to find the dinosaurs. Each of the 12 eggs has a different dinosaur and a card full of facts for learning, too. 
4. Magnatiles Space Set: We love Magna-Tiles in this house! They’re fun building toys with lots of possibilities. Snag this space set for the 5-year-old that loves outer space. 
5. Construction Kinetic Sand Set: Kinetic sand is always fun at this age. Engage in sensory play while at the construction site!
6. Stomp Rocket Planes: Trust me, these are so fun for kids of all ages. Jump up, stomp on the pump, and watch the planes fly.  
7. The Big Dig: The perfect hands-on toy for any construction-loving kid. This sturdy sandbox digger can rotate 360 degrees and really works!
8. Remote Control Stunt Car: This remote control stunt car performs exciting spins, flips, and tricks for action-packed fun. Designed to handle a variety of terrains, it’s built for indoor and outdoor play.
9. LEGO Classic Creative Vehicles: LEGOs are age-appropriate upgrade from DUPLO blocks for 5-year-olds. They can start handling the smaller pieces, building, and creating! Building with LEGOs is great for fine motor skills and problem-solving. 
10. Monster Truck Sticker Book: Kids love sticker books, but this one is super cool. You can build your own monster trucks! They also have sticker books to build your own dinosaurs, trucks, and cars. 

Toys for 5 Year Old Girls

1. Barbie Dream Pool Play Set: If you have a Barbie-lover, accessories like this one can really take the pretend play up a notch. 
2. Princess Vanity: This wooden vanity is truly fit for your 5-year-old princess! Both playful and practical, it provides a special place to store hair accessories, pretend makeup, and more.
3. Disney Princess Dress Up: Dress-up play is a wonderful way to inspire imagination and creativity. This set includes costumes and accessories featuring many of your child’s favorite Disney princesses. 
4. Nail Stickers : Perfect for little divas who love colorful nails, these fun nail stickers are sized just right for 5-year-old fingers. They’re easy to apply and add a playful touch to any at-home manicure.
5. Gabby’s Dollhouse LEGO Building Toy: This LEGO set combines imaginative play with your 5-year-old’s favorite characters from Gabby’s Dollhouse. It’s great for fine motor development and practicing following directions as well. 
6. Melissa and Doug Nails Set: This pretend play nail polish set is perfect for your child to open their own salon and do manicures and pedicures. It’s perfect for the girly girl. 
7. Dress-Up Fairy Sticker Book: These reusable sticker books are sure to keep your five-year-old busy dressing the characters in different outfits. There are tons of different themes to fit any child’s interests. 
8. Pretty Pretty Princess Board Game: We love board games for kids! This is the classic jewelry dress up game we all know and love but with Disney Princesses. Practice taking turns and racing to collect the crown! 
9. Kids Jewelry Box: If your 5-year-old loves her accessories, this is a great gift! It’s a special place to keep jewelry, accessories, and little treasures. 
10. Fancy Nancy I Can Read Book Set: Fancy Nancy books are so fun to read, especially if you have a “fancy” little girl of your own. These books support learning phonics with short and simple words to sound out. 

Educational Toys for 5 Year Olds

1. Magna-Tiles Sets: These educational toys help understand the concepts of building, construction, geometric shapes, and magnetism. They combine building, creativity, and pretend play. There are so many fun sets to choose from depending on your child’s interests. 
2. Alphabet & Number Dough Mats: Let your child practice writing and number skills with these dough mats. They can roll out Play-Doh or modeling clay to trace the letters and numbers on the mats. 
3. Sequence for Kids: Board games can teach so many skills! Sequence for Kids teaches logic and strategy, all while learning about being a good sport and taking turns, too. 
4. Handheld Electronic Magnifying Glass: This little gadget is so engaging for curious kids. It’s like a digital microscope that can also take still-life photos. Explore different plants, bugs, the outdoors, and more. 
5. Handwriting Practice Books: These are great for practicing writing numbers, letters, and other words. The grooved lines help guide your child and can improve handwriting. The magic pens write on the books then disappear!
6. Learning Resources Pixel Art: Your 5-year-old can create pixel art by following the included challenges. This “toy” mixes STEM, art, early math skills, and fine motor skills. 
7. Interactive Globe: An interactive globe like this is a great educational toy that can grow with your child. Kids can learn about where they live, where family members live, and learn more about other countries. Whenever they tap a country, they will learn about the culture, animals, and landmarks in that place!
8. 3D Puzzle Games: This set comes with 24 3-dimensional shapes and challenge cards to get your child problem-solving. You can start with beginner challenges that work on shape placement and work your way up to advanced challenges that require better spatial reasoning.
9. Zingo Sight Words: We love a board game that makes learning feel fun. Zingo Sight Words turns reading practice into an engaging game. 
10. Learning Resources Bucket Balance: This toy scale is a hands-on educational toy to start learning more about weight and measurement. Kids can compare the weights of everyday objects or create equal amounts using materials like Play-Doh or small manipulatives. They can use the included plastic chips to investigate balance and simple measurement.

Toys for 5 Year Olds That Encourage Imaginative Play

1. Dress-Up Outfits: There’s a reason dress-up has been a childhood favorite for generations. Whether they’re pretending to be a princess, superhero, firefighter, or astronaut, dress-up costumes encourage imaginative play, storytelling, and creative self-expression.
2. Melissa and Doug Dentist Kit: Kids can pretend to be dentists with a big toy mouth and all the dental tools. It’s a great set to practice good dental hygiene and reinforce teeth brushing! 
3. Fort Building Set: A fort building set inspires creativity and imaginative play by letting kids design and build their own forts, castles, tunnels, and more. Watch your child problem-solve and plan what they’re building and create a story around it. 
4. Play-Doh Sets: We absolutely love Play-Doh sets for hands-on imaginative play and fine motor skills. There are so many play sets with different themes that suit any interest. 
5. Karaoke Machine: This set turns any room into a concert stage, talent show, or music studio. Let your child sing, perform, or tell stories with this. You’ll be surprised with what they come up with as they build confidence! 
6. Digital Camera: Your child can get creative and pretend to be a photographer. Let their imagination run wild as they decide what to stage and take pictures of. 
7. American Girl Wellie Wishers: These dolls are designed especially for younger children and inspire imaginative, whimsical play. Sized just right for little hands, each doll comes with stories and an outfit that encourage creative storytelling and open-ended pretend play. There are many dolls in the set and additional accessories to add to the imaginative play!
8. My Own Mailbox: Sending cards is quickly becoming a thing of the past – but it doesn’t have to be! Teach your child all about letter-writing with their very own mailbox. Show them where the stamp would go, practice reciting your address, and then write a real letter and put it in the mailbox!
9. Play Cash Register: Take the grocery store or restaurant imaginative play up a notch with this realistic play cash register. Not only does it make playtime feel even more real, it encourages early math skills and introduces money in a fun way. 
10. LEGO Friends Pet Store Set: LEGO sets like these combine building, creativity, and story-telling as kids create play scenes and narrate what’s happening. There are lots of sets to choose from, so pick a theme your child would love! 

Arts and Crafts for 5 Year Olds

1. Foil Fun: This press and peel foil art is so much fun, you may even want to do it with your child! It’s great fine motor work that allows for lots of creativity. There are various themes to suit your child’s interests. 
2. Color Your Own Stickers: We all know kids love stickers. So it’s even more fun to grab the crayons, markers, and colored pencils to color your own!
3. Crayola Marker Airbrush Set: A fun kids’ art set that uses markers, water, and stencils to create airbrushed art!
4. Melissa and Doug Stained Glass Activity Kit: It’s a stained glass set made easy! Peel and stick the stickers onto the butterfly for a mess-free masterpiece you can hang in the window. 
5. Rock Painting Kit: This kit includes glow in the dark paints, glitter glue, stick-on gems, and googly eyes. Let your child get creative while designing rocks, then talk about where to put them!
6. Melissa and Doug Stamp-A-Scene: Stamps can be lots of fun and work on precision and hand strength. Use these farm-themed stamps to create a scene. 
7. Mosaic Art: Match the numbers to peel and stick the foam tiles to make beautiful pictures. This is a fun activity that works on focus, patience, and fine motor skills!
8. Poke In Art: Another craft that involves lots of fine motor skills. You poke into the foam pieces to pull fabric out. It’s so neat! Tons of different themes like ocean life, animals, princesses, and more. 
9. Dinosaur Molding Kit: Combine crafts, learning, and fine motor practice as you mold these dinosaurs. Your child can mold the colored clay onto the included dinosaur skeletons. Lots of dino facts included, too! 
10. 1, 2, 3, Draw With Me: If your 5-year-old loves to draw, this is a great gift! Kids will use the numbers 0-20 and follow visual prompts to draw different things with those numbers. It’s a really unique gift that’s highly rated by customers. 

Outdoor Toys for 5 Year Olds

1. Swimming and Diving Toys: These have been such a hit with our 5-year-old! If you’ve got a summer birthday or it’s warm year round where you are, we highly recommend these. 
2. Kids’ Basketball Hoop: If your child loves playing basketball, this hoop is a great upgrade from the Little Tikes toddler hoop. Even better, it’s adjustable and can grow with your child for years to come.
3. Portable Soccer Goal: Take the soccer pitch wherever you are. If you’ve got a budding soccer player, this is perfect for encouraging them to practice or playing scrimmage-style in the backyard.
4. Sidewalk Chalk: An affordable and fun option for playing outside. Your 5 year old can draw, write, or create their own obstacle courses. There’s a lot of imaginative play that can happen with chalk. 
5. 3-in-1 Carnival Games Set: We love this outdoor toy because it’s versatile. Use it to set up obstacle courses, or play ring toss. Move the cones around for a fun challenge each time. 
6. Kids Bike with Training Wheels: Many 5-year-olds are starting to learn to ride bikes with training wheels, or without them! You can find all of our favorite bikes for all skill levels in this post. 
7. Go Trax Scooter: A kids scooter is great for gross motor play and working on bilateral coordination. This is one of our favorite scooters that’s budget-friendly, too. 
8. Reusable Water Balloons: Trust me on these. On days with nicer weather, these water balloons are so fun for water play. No mess to clean up since they’re reusable! 
9. Youth Baseball Glove: If you’ve got a T-ball player on your hands, this is a great youth glove as they learn the fundamentals. The flexible mesh means you don’t have to break it in.
10. Ford Bronco Ride-On Toy: We recently got this ride-on toy and my 5-year-old loves it. What kid doesn’t love pretending to drive all over the backyard and sidewalks? Use sidewalk chalk to draw roads and obstacle courses to drive throught!

Practical Gifts for 5 Year Olds

1. Water Bottle: Everyday essentials make great practical gifts, and most schools require water bottles as kids start kindergarten. 
2. Pajamas: These are our favorite pajamas for kids made with 100% organic cotton. They’re so soft and the prints are all so cute and playful. 
3. Bentgo Kids Lunch Box: Whether your 5-year-old is in childcare or kindergarten, a fun lunch box is a gift that serves them well (and you!)
4. Barefoot Sneakers – A good pair of sneakers is essential for running and playing on the playground. We love these barefoot shoes!
5. Lalo Bento Box: I love any chance to ditch the plastic, so stainless steel bento boxes are winners in my book. These are great for snacks and picnics on the go, or for packing lunches. 
6. Washable Markers: Update some coloring supplies! These washable markers feature a dual-tip design: one rounded tip and a more chiseled tip. This helps as children grow and become more detailed with drawing and coloring. 
7. Kids Underwear: It may not be glamorous, but everyone needs underwear! We love these organic cotton underwear for kids that come in prints for boys and girls. 
8. Kids Backpack: Starting kindergarten is a big deal! A fun kid-sized backpack is another super practical gift for 5-year-olds that will serve them for years to come. These also have matching lunch box patterns.  
9. Elk and Friends Bento Box: This is another one of our favorite stainless steel bento boxes. It has nice portion sizes for this age. 
10. Kids’ Bike Helmet: As your child gets more confident on bikes, scooters, and other riding toys, it’s important to have a good quality helmet for safety.

Big Gifts for 5 Year Olds

1. Bounce House: Basically any kid’s dream. Bounce and play with so many different activities in this bounce house.
2. AirToobz: Arrange the tubes in different ways and watch the foam balls fly through and pop out. This is a STEM toy that fosters building and creativity. It’s fun to play with the whole family!
3. Yoto Player: This audio player is great for kids and can definitely grow with your 5-year-old. It uses physical cards to play songs, stories, and educational content. When a card is inserted into the slot on top of the player, the corresponding image lights up on the pixel screen. 
4. Razor Crazy Cart: This kid-powered go-kart doesn’t need any batteries or charging station. It’s completely driven by your child. They can drive, drift, and spin in this. Don’t forget to wear a helmet for safety! 
5. Space Dome Climber: This is perfect for the 5 year old who loves to climb and play outdoors. This climbing dome is a great gross motor activity and way to get energy out. 
6. PicassoTiles Marble Run: This building toy keeps kids engaged as they design, build, test, and redesign their own marble tracks. As they experiment with different layouts, children develop problem-solving, and critical thinking skills while exploring STEM concepts through play.
7. Barbie Dreamhouse: For any Barbie-loving 5-year-old, this Dream House features so many opportunities for storytelling and pretend play. 
8. Magna-Tiles: These open-ended STEM toys provide hours of pretend play. Magnetic building tiles can be used to create houses, castles, garages, and even art!  
9. Mud Kitchen: Inspire outdoor creative play with this mud kitchen. There are so many possibilities. Run a pretend restaurant, cook a meal, make nature soup, and more. Get some old baking tins and sand to make cupcakes, muffins, and baked goods.  
10. Figgy Play Couch: Kids’ play couches are so versatile. They’re not just great for gross motor play, they’re fun for lots of pretend play! Build a fort, or use our favorite couch swags to set a different play scene.  

Looking for more?

We have gift guides for all ages! Find our top picks for toddler boys and toddler girls, or search by age on our Favorites page.