Fun summer activities for kids: ideas you’ll want to try in childcare and at home
In the hot summer, children spend more time indoors both at daycare and at home.
For those wondering, “What can we play indoors with the kids?”, here are some perfect summer activities.
Games using water and ice are especially popular this season.
Cool sensations and hands-on activities are exciting for children.
It’s also a great experience to help them feel connected to nature or to incorporate traditional summer events—these memories really stay with kids.
Try these ideas at home, in daycare, or in kindergarten.
Through summertime activities, let’s help children create lots of fun memories!
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Fun summer activities for kids: 41–50 ideas you’ll want to try at daycare and at home
Water play & mud play
Summer-only fun! Let’s enjoy water play and mud play.
Many kids are usually told to avoid touching mud, but feeling the texture of mud and making mud dumplings is so much fun, isn’t it? After getting muddy, rinse off with water play to get clean—it’s fun, refreshing, and kills two birds with one stone.
You can make a big puddle in the sandbox, build waterways to play with, or fill a tub with water and enjoy some fishing.
Have fun exploring different stations and free play areas!
So cold! Sensory play
Cool sensory play is a summertime classic.
When you touch something cold, the summer heat won’t bother you as much.
Speaking of sensory play, slime is a staple, but there’s also moon sand play and making pretend ice treats from ice.
Don’t just enjoy the finished results—take the opportunity to have fun with the making process, too.
For slime, gradually mix borax solution into liquid laundry glue.
To make moon sand, combine flour with baby oil.
For the ice treats, prepare colored water in various hues, insert popsicle sticks, and freeze them.
Ice Cream Kendama
Delicious ice cream turned into a kendama! Here’s a craft idea where, if you succeed at the kendama, it becomes an ice cream.
Draw a cone pattern on brown construction paper and mark the middle of either long side.
Align the end of a piece of kite string with the mark and tape it down, then roll the paper into a cone shape and secure it with tape.
It’s safer to tape down the stringed area as well.
Attach the other end of the kite string to the center of a sheet of newspaper with tape, and crumple the newspaper into a ball.
Cover it with your favorite color of origami paper from the top and secure it to make the ice cream part.
Draw patterns on the ice cream, and you’re done!
Collage Ice Cream
Here are some ice cream craft ideas that also let you enjoy making collages.
Cut the cup or cone bases out of cardboard, then decorate them by drawing patterns with pens or using colored paper.
For the ice cream scoops, basically cut circles out of construction paper, and have fun adding various toppings with small pieces of colored paper or stickers.
It’s also cute to make “collage ice cream” by gluing torn newspaper or flyers onto the round paper scoops.
Once your ice cream is done, attach it to the base to finish.
sponge toy
Introducing jellyfish and fish toys made from sponges that are perfect for water play.
Sponge toys are a big hit with kids because they can soak up water and be squeezed for fun! Give it a try.
Prepare two mesh sponges.
Cut the net of one sponge and remove the sponge inside.
Cut the sponge into a jellyfish shape and make a hole in the center.
Thread a string through the top of the net to make a loop, pass the loop through the hole in the sponge, then cut the net to create the tentacles.
For the other sponge, cut it into a fish shape, tie a rubber band between the body and the tail fin, and draw patterns with a pen.
Indoor ice play
Put small toys and water into an ice tray and freeze to make ice.
Once the ice is ready, transfer the cubes to another container and try pouring water over them or rubbing them with your hands to rescue the toys.
You can use plain water, or add paint or food coloring—it’s highly recommended.
As the ice melts, you’ll get colored water, and it’s also fun to see how the colors mix and change into new ones.
Wanting to get the toys out will inspire kids to think in different ways.
It’ll be exciting to see what ideas they come up with.
Colored water & ice play
Playing with colored water can involve using paint or plants and flowers, but this time let’s try using tissue paper.
Tear the tissue paper into small pieces, put them in a clear paper cup, and pour in water.
Then, mix it with a spoon, kneading it gently to make colored water.
Prepare tissue paper in various colors and enjoy each color on its own or the shades you get by mixing them.
Once your colored water is ready, how about everyone playing juice shop together? You’ll surely have a beautiful lineup of colorful “juices.”