It’s finally summer! We love spending time outside running around in the sunshine! The boys enjoy riding their bikes and just running around. Somedays though, they need a little help getting outside or I want to add in some extra learning. I’ll set up a quick activity and then their off, running around and enjoying their time outside!
Chalk Obstacle Course
When Blake was in preschool they used to do this all the time! When I’d pick him up I saw different obstacles that they created for them and it always looked like so much fun. One afternoon, when we were playing outside the boys, wanted to go in. To keep them out a little longer I created an obstacle course with chalk. They loved it and we kept adding to it! This is great to work on their gross motor skills! Here are some ideas:
- Waves – swimming motion
- Zig Zag lines – walk on it
- Circles – to jump on (like jumping on
- Curley lines – put arms like an airplane and walk on the line
- Lilypad shapes – hop like a frog onto them
- Letters/words – say it as they stomp on it
- Music notes – sing when they’re running through it
Rainbow Bubbles
These fun bubbles are so pretty! I saw them on Hello Wonderful’s Instagram and knew it would be a hit! (Hello Wonderful has the prettiest art ideas that are usually simple and doable for kids of all ages)
Supplies
- Water bottle
- Socks
- Bowl of water
- Food coloring
- Soap
Steps
- Mix soap into the bowl with water.
- Cut the water bottom of the water bottle off.
- Put the sock over the bottom of the water bottle you just cut off.
- Put drops of food coloring all over the sock.
- Pump soap onto the sock.
- Dip it into the soap and water mixture.
- Blow through the mouthpiece of the water bottle.
Water Bottle Spray Learning
This activity is perfect for kids of all ages and works their fine motor skills with the spray bottle. You can do this on a piece of paper or chalk on a wall. I wrote with chalk on the wall letters in Jake’s name. Everyone has their own opinions on what letters children should learn first, a preschool teacher mentioned that she tries to work with the letters in the child’s first name first so I went with that. Some variations are using all letters, sight words, and numbers. I then called out the letter and had Jake spray it. For his older brothers, we used the different variations.
Bug Journal
For St. Patrick’s day, we made leprechaun hunting binoculars. I had painted toilet paper rolls green and we used our Kiwi Stix to decorate them. After they were done I hot glued the toilet paper rolls together. I punched two holes on the sides and added a string. These bug journals are a printable from the Magic Playbook but you can simply make one on your own! It’s a fun way to get kids to observe their surroundings and become curious outside!
Water Plants
One of the boys’ favorite things to do outside is to water our plants. It’s something I’d normally do but one day they asked to water the plants and had so much fun. We bought a small watering can at Target for them. This smaller size is perfect for them. It forces them to go back and forth, which takes more time and burns their energy! Plus it isn’t as heavy so they’re able to easily carry the watering can. Although this isn’t groundbreaking I thought I’d add this in case you didn’t think about it, just like me!
These activities are perfect for spending time outside! They’ll be learning, working on fine and gross motor skills, as well as burning off tons of energy! Looking for more simple activities, check out last month’s post, easy bug themed activitieszz, and our BIG list of simple activities!