15+ Summer Learning Activities for Preschoolers
Planning engaging summer learning activities for preschoolers can be just as refreshing as the season itself. With a mix of sunshine and structure, the right summer preschool theme ideas bring learning outdoors while keeping your preschoolers little minds just active as their bodies.
Whether you’re working through a full summer camp curriculum or offering flexible programming, this season offers unique opportunities to build skills in the best ways. Themes that tie into nature, water, or simple science keep preschoolers motivated and excited to come to preschool.

Summer is a great time to refresh your preschool plans with a lighter, more flexible approach to learning. With warm weather and a shift in schedule, planning summer learning activities for preschoolers that maintain engagement without exhausting them is key.
And that’s where creative summer themes for preschool come in. They offer you structure while giving children plenty of room to explore, move, and just play.
These ideas can guide your choice of books, songs, sensory bins, and small group work, keeping everything tied together and purposeful.
The best part about summer themes is how easily they lend themselves to outdoor exploration. Activities that include water play, scavenger hunts, or sidewalk chalk can support fine and gross motor development while tying back to your academic goals. You don’t need to overhaul your program; just tweak it to match the season. Children stay excited to come to school, and you stay on track with developmental goals.
With a thoughtful mix of fun and focused instruction, your summer can be both productive and relaxed, all while supporting continued learning.
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Summer Activities for Kids
Warm days and open-ended play make summer the perfect time to try new things with your preschoolers. If you’re looking for summer activities for preschoolers that check all the boxes, (think hands-on, fun, a little messy), but still focused on learning, then you’re in the right place.
This season is all about relaxed routines and teaching through experiences that feel like play, not pressure. Check out these super fun learning activities for summertime, anc check out this post featuring 20+ free summer printables for preschoolers.
Educational Summer Activities for Preschoolers
Summer is the best time for preschoolers to explore hands-on learning activities. These fun summertime learning activities for preschoolers feature crafts and activities promote a variety of learning such as art concepts, science, fine motor skills, and sensory input. And the best part is most of them can be taken outside!
Dyed Beans Summer Sensory Bin
This brightly-dyed beans sensory bin just screams summer! Preschoolers will have so much fun scooping and pouring the beans in and out of cups. They won't even realize they're practicing important fine motor skills!
Try a Sink or Float Water Sensory Bin This Summer
Take your learning activities outside this summer with this sink or float water sensory bin. Preschoolers will have a blast experimenting with different objects and playing in this simple water sensory bin.
Orange Creamsicle No-Cook Playdough Recipe
You learn how to make a sweet smelling, no‑cook playdough using just three pantry staples—flour, salt, and a scented mix—without needing a stove or oven. This quick and easy recipe gives you sensory‑rich playdough that smells like a dreamy orange creamsicle, perfect for hands-on preschool fun.
Science Art for Kids: Oil and Water Droplet Painting
Get ready for a mesmerizing, mess-free art adventure with oil and water droplet painting! You’ll drop vibrant, floating droplets onto paper that burst with color and sparkle, creating magical, bubble-like designs. It’s an amazing and sensory-rich way to explore textures and patterns—plus, clean-up is a breeze!
One Ingredient Sidewalk Chalk Paint Recipe
You’re going to have a blast whipping up this one-ingredient sidewalk paint! You mix up vibrant hues, then let your little artists swirl and splash color onto the driveway or sidewalk. It’s simple, super satisfying, and washes away easily. This is a must for any outdoor summer learning activity for preschoolers!
Cool Off With a Scooping and Pouring Water Table Sensory Bin
Get ready for a super cool sensory splash! Try this water bead bin filled with juicy, squishy beads perfect for scooping and pouring! You’ll fill cups and buckets, feel the bouncy beads slip through your fingers, and watch the vibrant colors swirl around. It’s a refreshing, tactile playtime that’s sure to beat the heat and bring big smiles!
Free Number Formation Cards to Add to Your Preschool Writing Center
Get ready to level up number writing with these colorful, free number formation cards made just for preschoolers. Preschoolers trace each numeral step by step, starting at the green dot and finishing with confidence. They're great for building skills at an independent writing center.
Super Fresh Lemon Playdough Recipe
Preschoolers will love whipping up this soft, squishy lemon playdough that smells just like summer! With a splash of lemon juice and a burst of yellow color, it’s a bright and cheerful sensory activity from start to finish. The dough is easy to mix, fun to play with, and stays fresh for weeks—perfect for lots of creative play. Add this playdough to your summer learning activities by having kids make nature impressions!
Squirt the Letter! Summer Alphabet Game
Here is a fun, hands‑on letter recognition game using sidewalk chalk and water. You write a target letter on the sidewalk, and preschoolers “squirt” it away with a water toy as you call out the letter or sound. It’s a playful and refreshing way to reinforce alphabet learning. What a way to cool off on those hot summer days!
Stacking Fruit Loops and How It Develops Fine Motor Skills
Preschoolers will love threading colorful Fruit Loops onto dry pasta or a straw, building towering stacks with each careful placement. As they pop loops on one by one, they’re secretly practicing hand-eye coordination, finger strength, and fine motor control. It’s a tasty, playful way to sneak in early math skills like counting, colors, and patterns—all while having a delicious snack on the side!
Ocean Art for Preschoolers
Ready to bring the ocean to your art table? This creative process art activity lets preschoolers explore waves, sea creatures, and textures using bubble wrap, bright paints, and simple tools. It's messy, fun, and packed with sensory learning. Try this with your other educational activities for summer learning.
ABC Letter Stack Game
Want to make ABC learning a even more fun? Preschoolers will stack foam or wooden letter blocks to build towers while matching uppercase and lowercase letters. This engaging game sparks letter recognition, fine motor skills, and early literacy. This is a fun activity for summer that can by played all seaosn long!
Baking Soda and Vinegar Ocean Sensory Bin
Ready to spark scientific thinking with an ocean twist? This sensory bin has preschoolers using pipettes to drip vinegar onto baking soda “ocean waves,” triggering bubbles and fizz that feel just like a mini undersea volcano. They’ll investigate cause and effect, practice fine motor skills, and dive into sensory play. Who wouldn't want to add this to their learning activities for summer preschool?!
Don't Feed The Raccoon! Plus 12 Other Number Identification Game
Looking to spark number recognition skills in a silly, fast-paced way? Don’t Feed The Raccoon! challenges preschoolers to pick the right numbered “fish” and feed them to the crafty raccoon, all while avoiding the wrong ones. This hands-on game boosts teen‑number fluency, fine motor control, and friendly competition.
FREE Summer Pattern Blocks Printable Mats
Bring some sunny fun to your math time with these free summer pattern block mats. Preschoolers will love matching colorful shapes to pictures of fish, sandcastles, boats, and more. It’s a playful way to build spatial awareness and fine motor skills while keeping little hands busy and engaged.
Science Investigation: What is Yeast's Favorite Food?
Want to turn kitchen supplies into a mini science lab? Preschoolers will experiment with yeast, warm water, and different “treats” like sugar to see which makes bubbles best. They’ll observe yeast “eating” and producing gas to blow up balloons, asking questions, making predictions, and discovering cause and effect.
Summer Math That's Perfect for a Preschool Ice Cream Theme
This ice cream cone math activity is the perfect summer learning activity. With this activity preschoolers will practice number recognition, counting, and fine motor skills.
Ice Cream Summer Art Project
Nothing says summer more than ice cream cones! This fun ice cream art project is a cool way to celebrate summer while getting creative. It's also a fun way to work on fine motor skills!
Summer Alphabet Relay Obstacle Course for Preschoolers
Summer is a great time to get outside and move your body. With this summer alphabet relay obstacle course, preschoolers will work on their gross motor skills and also practice letter recognition.
Magic Fizzing Popsicle Paint
These magic fizzing popsicle paints are an awesome summer science project for kids! Nothing would be more fun than spending a summer day outside doing an art and science project!
Sandcastle Texture Summer Art Project
This sandcastle texture art project is a great activity for kids to create in the summer. With this project, preschoolers will explore colors and textures as they make a collage masterpiece.
Orange and Lemon Playdough - The Imagination Tree
Citrus scents and flavors always remind me of warm summer days. Preschoolers will have so much fun playing with this orange and lemon playdough while being surrounded by summertime aromas.
Color Theory For Preschoolers Part III
Get ready for a colorful mess that teaches, too. Preschoolers will mix red, yellow, and blue paints to see what new colors they can create—watching magic happen right before their eyes. It’s a fun, hands-on way to explore color mixing while building early science and art skills through play.
Summer Theme Activities for Preschoolers
What summer preschool themes do you teach in the summer? Or, need some summer preschool lesson plans? I’ve got you covered!
- Summer Lesson Plans for Preschool
- Ocean Preschool Lesson Plans
- Pirate Preschool Lesson Plans
- Water Preschool Lesson Plans
- Beach Lesson Plans for Preschool
- Ice cream Preschool Lesson Plans
- Watermelon Lesson Plans for Preschool
Get our Summer Alphabet Activities Printables
Support literacy growth all summer long with our printable activities—and get those kiddos ready for kindergarten!
Shop our Summer Math Activities
Add a splash of learning to summer with our hands-on summer math activities!



FAQs About Teaching Preschoolers in the Summer
Lessons for preschoolers in the summer are mostly the same as during the other seasons. Preschoolers still need to learn literacy, math and prewriting skills, as well as science concepts and social-emotional skills. All those things remain important.
But summer learning activities open up additional themes that we might not teach during the traditional school year. Some topics that are best learned during the summer are swimming and water safety, fire safety, and bike safety. You can also do a dessert theme, a watermelon theme, or an ice cream theme!
A good way to teach preschoolers about the summer season is to show them a calendar and explain that summer occurs during the months of June, July, and August in the Northern Hemisphere, or December, January, and February in the Southern Hemisphere. Try these free summer theme preschool lesson plans.
Then you can talk about the weather that we experience and the activities people enjoy during the summer. Remember that summer can feel different based on where you live, so try doing some science experiments, stem activities, and loads of sensory activities, too.
There are many themes that preschool teachers can cover during the summer. Think about it…what do you like to do in the summertime?
Some popular summer themes for preschool include ocean theme, beach, sports, ice cream, camping, transportation, desert, zoo animals, and gardening. You can teach about dinosaurs, around the world, construction, bubbles, insects, or flowers and trees.

I’m Sarah, an educator turned stay-at-home-mama of five! I’m the owner and creator of Stay At Home Educator, a website about intentional teaching and purposeful learning in the early childhood years. I’ve taught a range of levels, from preschool to college and a little bit of everything in between. Right now my focus is teaching my children and running a preschool from my home. Credentials include: Bachelors in Art, Masters in Curriculum and Instruction.




