Summer activities for kids should be chosen wisely so that you are offering the best sensory input for their brains and improving fine motor skills while they play and explore.
Summer is the best time of year for kids! Obviously for them, they get a break from the school year. But what they don’t know is that they are gifted so much extra time to build essential skills for learning.
When kids play and explore during the summer months, they give their body sensory input that nourishes the brain for learning.
The extra time moving outdoors, riding bikes, swimming, hiking, climbing, playing at a playground, etc offers sensory input that supports emotional regulation, gross motor skills, fine motor skills, and visual motor skills needed for a child’s development.
I loved summer when my kids were little. They had time to explore, interact with nature, build executive functioning skills, and enhance their creativity. I always made sure my kids were participating in my occupational therapy activities, but the best part was learning from them as they played and explored!
One of our favorite summer memories was when they built a community in a wooded hillside at my parents’ house. They had a house for the boys and one for the girls (with all details and necessities in place.)
The wooded space even included a golf course! They used sticks and rocks for the clubs and balls. I loved watching their hours of creativity, and they had so much fun!
Summer activities for kids are endless! Check out these occupational therapy activities and make your summer bucket list.
I’m sharing summer activities for kids in the following categories: nature activities, sensory activities, fine motor activities, and summer crafts for kids.
Nature Activities for Kids During Summer Break
Spending time outdoors is extremely beneficial for children. Actually, it’s more than beneficial. I would say it’s necessary because it builds important skills for the brain and body!
Nature offers simplicity that boosts mental and physical well being. Fresh air, sunlight, and warmth are good for the mind and the soul.
Additionally, nature provides the best sensory information, opportunities for motor skill development, promotes creativity, and teaches kids responsibility. Time outdoors also helps children develop far vision.
Kids learn independently as they explore and interact with the natural world. The Child Mind Institute shares several articles on the reasons kids need to spend time in nature. Make sure your kids’ summer fun activities involve nature and being outdoors.
“Teaching children about the natural world should be treated as one of the most important events in their lives.” Thomas Berry.
Choose some or all of these nature activities for kids and add them to your summer bucket list.
Plant Flowers
Plant from seed, in planters, or in the ground. Teach kids to care for them by watering and weeding around them.
Pick Produce from a Garden
Plant a garden to teach kids about growing and harvesting fresh food. Kids can learn so much from cultivating their own food. If you don’t have space for a large garden, grow produce in planters or even a small space in the landscape. Or take routine trips to a local farmer’s market.
Clip Lavender
Cut pieces of lavender, place in a vase, or create a collage. Have children crumble the lavender and place in a dish for a calming scent.
Scavenger Hunt
Make a list and look for items in different categories (animals, plants, flowers, shapes, activities.) Or create a scavenger hunt where kids have to find something of each color of the rainbow.
Pick Flowers
Pick a variety of colors and shapes and types of flowers. Trim the stems and pinch and pull the leaves off before putting in a vase. Use the discarded parts for a craft picture or as painting tools with different textures to make pictures.
Climb a Tree
There isn’t a better heavy work and hand strengthening activity than climbing a tree! It also requires motor planning and core strength.
Build a Fort
Encourage imaginative play through creating and building. They can build “houses” or “forts” for themselves in nature, or for an animal or a play figurine.
Use a Magnifying Glass
Explore nature’s intricate details using a magnifying glass. Check out bugs, flowers, plant leaves, bark, rocks, and more.
Catch Fireflies or Tadpoles
Briefly light up or the hands a jar with a firefly. Catch critters in streams or ponds.
Read a Book Outside
Find a shaded spot in the grass, a hammock, or a rocking chair for reading.
Dig for Items
Use a shovel to work on power grasp for fine motor skills; this also provides calming heavy work for the hands. Have kids dig for natural rocks or to look for bugs and critters.
Draw a Nature Picture While Under a Tree
Use an easel or clipboard to draw an object in nature or a landscape. Try drawing with objects in nature such as a rock or a stick dipped in paint to boost sensory and fine motor skills.
Have an Outdoor Picnic
Go on picnics or enjoy snacks and meals outdoors.
Listen to Sounds of Nature
Pick a spot to sit and listen to water, birds, crickets, or the wind blowing the trees.
Look for Pictures in the Clouds
Gaze at the clouds and see what they look like.
Lie on a Blanket and Gaze at the Stars
Find a great spot to enjoy a summer evening full of stars.
Sleep in a Tent
Try an extra fun outdoor adventure with camping in your yard.
Sit by a Campfire
Roast marshmallows, hot dogs, or mountain pies over a fire. Sing songs and tell stories.
Go on a Hike
Find a trail or a park for a good hike. Or venture through the woods, hills, or mountains.
Walk in the Rain
Enjoy a stroll in the rain. Don’t be afraid of mud puddles. We have washing machines!
Play in Mud!
Create a construction site; make roads and rivers and lakes. Make pretend food or mud sculpture.
Occupational Therapy Summer Sensory Activities
The nature activities listed provide tons of multi-sensory input. Sensory activities and sensory experiences are so easy during the summer months!
Outdoor activities offer a great opportunity for play and exploration. Children not only get sensory input (vestibular input and proprioceptive input) from movement and heavy work tasks, but they also can stimulate so many other sensory systems while playing outdoors.
Summer is full of beautiful sights, smells, and tactile input experiences for kids.
If you’re searching for summer camps, make sure they focus on time outdoors and use whole body sensory activities. Sensory input is the foundation for development, as well as important for behaving, attending, and learning.
Here is a list of sensory summer activities for kids.
Body Painting
Use finger paint or shaving cream for body painting. Work on crossing midline as children paint their own arms and legs. If you really want to make it fun, have your kids engage in mud painting or a mud fight! Just have the hose or sprinkler ready after!
Wheelbarrow Races
Weight-bearing activities on the hands are a fun way to build hand strength, upper body stability, and core strength. Young kids don’t even realize they’re building fine motor skills when they play fun games. This is also a great heavy work activity that is calming and organizing for the nervous system.
Potato Sack Races
Kids build hand strength when holding on tight to the potato sack as they jump and race. This is great for movement and proprioceptive input to the legs when jumping. It’s also a great way to work on core, balance, and upper body strength.
Obstacle Course
Work on gross motor skills, sequencing, and problem solving with an obstacle course, while offering sensory input for the movement and body systems. Jump over sticks, crawl under a chair, balance on a log, roll down a hill, run around objects, etc
Parks and Playgrounds
Make sure you take advantage of local parks and playgrounds. Encourage heavy work on monkey bars and climbing structures, as well as intense movement opportunities (vestibular input) on the various equipment.
Bikes & Riding Toys
Movement activities on riding toys provides much needed vestibular input for kids. Make sure you’re offering non-motorized bikes, scooters, roller racers, etc!
Walking Stilts and Pogo Sticks
Challenge balance skills on stilts on a flat surface. Try big feet, bucket stilts, or walking stilts. If your child is successful, try a bouncy pogo stick. All of these are great for working on coordination skills.
Hoppity Ball
Hop balls give great movement and proprioceptive input. They also improve postural muscles to strengthen the core as kids bounce.
Hopscotch
Use chalk to draw a hopscotch path on concrete or blacktop. Or make one with sticks in grass or use hoops and squares.
Relay Race
For social interaction with peers or siblings, have relay races.
Tug of War
This is a great way to offer heavy work proprioceptive input. Try group or individual competitions.
Water Play
Fill buckets of water and use large brushes to paint siding, brick, wood fences, or concrete walls. Fill bins, pools, or water tables with water for floating vs. sinking games. Play in a sprinkler, with a hose, or on a slip ‘n slide.
Water Parks and Amusement Parks
For the most intense sensory experience, take a trip to a water part or an amusement park. Water parks offer tactile input and vestibular input, while amusement parks offer thrilling rides for the vestibular system.
Sand Play
Dig, scoop, pour, build, and explore in a sandbox or sand table.
Swimming
Pool time is a great way to beat the heat and to work on social skills. Have your children practice asking for items and using manners at the concession stand, as well as meeting new friends.
Roll Down a Hill / Run Through a Field
Rolling offers intense vestibular input. Find low grade hills and steep hills to feel the difference in the speed. Explore fields and run through the textured filled spaces.
Wash a Car
Strengthen hands with a hose to wet and rinse the car. Use a large, soapy sponge to scrub the car. Dry with a soft cloth to encourage crossing midline.
Paint with Ice Cubes
Add drops of food coloring, washable paint, or natural colors to water in an ice cube tray. Make each cube a different color.
Place popsicle sticks or Q-tips in each one before freezing. Paint outdoors on large pieces of paper with the colorful ice cubes.
Straw Games
Create a racing game with straws and floating toys. Blow through a straw to move a toy or small boat across water. Oral sensory input is very calming and organizing for the brain, and improves eye muscle strength.
Blow Bubbles
Oral sensory input, as previously stated, is very calming and organizing for the nervous system. My favorite bubbles are the squeeze containers with a pop up wand. Why not work on hand strengthening while offering oral sensory input!
Make Mountains of Bubbles
This is another great way to offer oral sensory input. Place a small amount of water and dish soap in the bottom of a cup. Use a straw to blow air into the soapy water to create a mountain of bubbles.
Have Kids Help with Meals and Snacks
Involving kids in food prep is a great way to stimulate the senses. Use safety knives to cut cheese, Watermelon, or veggies. Have kids mix salads, add fresh herbs to foods, etc.
Make Flower Pictures with Food
Use fresh fruit pieces or fresh veggies to make pictures of flowers or other summer objects.
Make Fresh Lemonade
Have children squeeze a lemon into a glass or container for homemade lemonade.
Homemade Smoothies and Popsicles
Purée fresh fruits for smoothies and make your own popsicles with the extras.
Play Flashlight Tag at Night
Enhance body awareness and balance with flashlight tag in the dark.
Dance in the Dark with Neon Glow Jewelry
Have a nighttime dance party with glow jewelry.
Summer Occupational Therapy Fine Motor Activities for Kids
Many of the ideas so far involve nature and stimulating all of the sensory systems. Some also work on improving fine motor skills. Spend as much time outdoors and moving to work on sensory and fine motor skills, but also schedule down time in the shade or indoors.
Here are specific fine motor skills ideas for your summer activities for kids. Add these to your bucket list.
Clip, Wash, and Pinch Herbs
Interacting with fresh herbs is a great sensory activity and it also builds fine motor skills. Kids can snip herbs with scissors, wash in a colander or bowl of warm water, and then pinch the leaves to harvest the herb. Fresh herbs offer an amazing scent, different textures, and beautiful visual details on each one.
Water Plants
Children can water household or outdoor potted plants by squeezing a textured sponge or using a squirt bottle or squirt toy. To work on power grasping and core stability, have them carry large watering containers or buckets.
Weed a Garden or Flower Bed
Pulling weeds is a great way to build core and hand strength. These fine motor activities and sensory experiences are also great learning activities for science lessons.
Use Sidewalk Chalk on Brick or Cement Walls
Vertical surfaces are great for drawing, pre-writing, and writing. Use egg chalk for young children who need to build thumb strength. Try small broken pieces for older preschool children or for kindergarteners to encourage a three-fingered grasp.
Squirt Bottle Activities
When you use sidewalk chalk, make the pictures melt away with a squirt bottle. Kids love this, and it also builds hand strength! Or use a squirt toy to draw pictures on a wall or fence or to knock down a tower of light cups or small lightweight figurines.
Water Balloon Toss
Work on eye-hand coordination while tossing water balloons back and forth. (With a refreshing splash of water during the game.) Race during clean-up and improve fine motor skills. See how many pieces kids can pick up in just one hand.
Target Tosses
Work on eye-hand coordination with yard games such as yard darts, croquet, bean bag tosses, etc. These gross motor skills help develop coordination of the smaller muscles.
Paint with Water
Use various sized paint brushes to decorate brick, siding, blocks, or fences with water. The vertical surfaces are a great way to work on shoulder strength and wrist stability for fine motor development.
Pool Toys
Games and toys for the pool such as zoom-ball or squeeze balls help build upper body and hand strength.
Bubble Squeeze Toys
Strengthen hands with squeezable bubble toys that you dip in a lid of bubbles.
Clothespin Sun Plate
Paint a paper plate and clothespins yellow. Write letters or numbers on the tips of clothespins and corresponding ones around the edge of the plate. Kids squeeze the clothespins to match the letters or numbers on the plate.
Collect Small Rocks
Find small rocks of specific colors, shapes, or find specific types of rocks.
Gather Seashells
Find and collect seashells of all shapes and sizes. Use them for art projects and summer crafts.
Draw or Paint Nature Pictures
Use different colors of paint for pictures of birds, butterflies, flowers, plants, trees, squirrels, owls, etc
Pour and Dump
Use a water table, sand box, or outdoor nature sensory bin to scoop, pour, and dump. These activities are great for forearm strength and rotation as well as wrist stability.
Build Letters and Numbers with Sticks
Collect small sticks. Draw in sand or dirt to practice writing letters or numbers, or use them to build letters, names, and words.
Bug Catching Kit
Use shoulder muscles with a bug catching net. Work on scissor skills with bubble bug catchers. Strengthen the hands with tongs and small tools.
Card Games
Take a break from the heat or during a rainy day for card games such as Uno, Go Fish, Crazy 8’s, Skip-Bo, Old Maid, or Slap Jack. They’re great for building fine motor skills as well as work on problem solving, social skills.
Board Games
A variety of board games are great for improving fine motor skills, but also work on problem solving, coping skills, and patience. Create pictures with a Lite Brite game or a mini pegboard. Improve fine motor with Connect 4, Uno, Kerplunk, Jenga, Operation, Angry Birds building and launching game, or Mancala.
Check out these posts for more fine motor ideas:
- 107 Hand Strength Activities & Games for Kids
- Dexterity in the Hands: 43 In-hand Manipulation Games and Activities
- 93 Best Fine Motor Skills Toys
- Educational Toys and Games for Kids (several games listed in this post also work on visual perception – an important skill needed for reading, writing, and math.)
Summer Crafts for Kids
For those rainy summer days or when kids need a break from the summer heat, crafts are a great way to work on fine motor skills, visual motor skills, and concentration. They also offer a great opportunity for mindfulness and creativity.
Add summer crafts to your kids’ activities.
Build a Bird Feeder
Find a kit to put together to help kids work on problem solving. Paint and decorate the feeder. Then, have kids make sure it stays filled all summer to keep the birds fed!
DIY Bird Feeder Crafts
Hanging bird feeder treats can be rather pricey. Make your own homemade containers or seed shapes to hang around your property.
Fish Handprint
Paint the entire palm and fingers for a fish handprint. Add a googly eye, glitter, and sparkly bubbles to the picture.
Flag Handprint
Paint the palm blue with white dots and the fingers alternating red and white for the stripes.
Make Summer Jewelry
Use craft beads of seashells to make summer jewelry. Put together various colors for different occasions (red, white, and blue.)
DIY Garden Fairies
Use craft kids to make fairy gardens for your plants using pipe cleaner and flower pieces.
Build Metal Sculptures
Use nuts and bolts to make trees, flowers, and other summer objects.
Create Art with Nails
Use an old piece of wood and nails to create a design on wood using nails of different sizes.
Beach Picture
Use sand, seashells, bark, and leaves to make a textured beach picture. Or just use paint to create one.
Make Nature Picture Collages
Collect a variety of summer natural elements and encourage creativity with a picture collage. Snip grasses and flowers, and collect small rocks, sticks, pinecones, berries, and leaves to create a picture. Have kids create an animal, person, room, shape, design, or landscape picture with their small items.
Rainbow Picture
Use a large piece of paper to paint the rainbow. Encourage kids to cross midline as the paint each arc.
Q-Tip Flowers and Sponge Trees
Use a Q-tip as a paintbrush to make dot art flowers. Cut a small half inch of sponge for the green leaves on a tree. Fill in pictures or create your own designs.
Coffee Filter Butterflies and Flowers
Dip coffee filters into different paint colors. Fasten two together for a butterfly or place multiple ones together for flowers.
Watermelon Picture
Paint a watermelon outline and glue on real seeds.
Construction Paper Pictures
Use scraps of construction paper LINK to create pictures. Make a flower, fish, turtle, ladybug, or an entire summer landscape.
Glitter Glue Pictures
Find a picture outline or draw your own. Squeeze glue on the outline, then use a straw to blow glitter all over the glue. This is a great calming oral sensory activity. For more information, go to Fun Glitter Art.
Paint Rocks
Wash and paint rocks to decorate your potted plants or landscaping.
Paper Bag Puppets
Cut face parts or draw them on paper bags to make puppets. Encourage kids to create their own puppet show or skit.
Make Musical Instruments
Summer is a great time for outdoor music and noise! Use objects found in nature for some DIY musical instruments! Use small rocks inside two sturdy plates taped together, or place small rocks inside an empty, dry water bottle.
Squirt Bottle Painting
Place water color paint inside a squirt bottle or other squirt toy. Hang large paper at a vertical surface for a creative picture.
Splatter Paint
If you have a large outdoor space and a tarp or disposable table cloth, have your kids enjoy splatter paint art. Dip various colors into different sized brushes and use large arm movements to splatter the paint on the paper.
Footprint Painting
While you have your set-up for splatter painting, give the feet some extra tactile input and make pictures with footprints.
For more art projects and craft ideas, check out Easy Educational Art Projects for Kids. Get more ideas for mindfulness breaks and ideas for kids’ creativity during the summer!
Have fun during your kids’ summer break, and please be mindful of screen use. As a pediatric occupational therapist, I’m so worried about excessive screen time in children and what it’s doing to their bodies and brains. Make sure you’re doing your part to minimize screen use.
Related Posts
Check out the post, 81+ Outdoor Games for Recess & Sensory Activities for Kids. It shares low cost DIY games, as well as movement activities, motor coordination games, visual motor or eye-hand coordination activities. This post also explains how to make the most out of playground equipment.
Another post, 43 Occupational Therapy Motor Coordination Activities shares specific games and activities to improve coordination. The more kids coordinate the large muscles, the more it helps the small muscles during writing activities during the school year.
For rainy day ideas, check out 61 Fun Gross Motor Indoor Activities.
*Grab these summer activities for your kids on these two free PDFs to help you with your summer bucket list! Page one contains the nature and sensory activities, and page two contains the fine motor activities and summer crafts.
