Summer Activities for Preschoolers

Summer is here and it brings with it the ever smiling sun, fresh breeze and blossoming flowers. Summer is the time when all of us just want to break free and head outdoors to enjoy the pleasant weather and sunshine all around us. Children are no different. Come summers and they would want to go to beaches and swimming pools, play with water, eat ice creams, to beat the heat and also to enjoy themselves. Summer activities should be designed keeping all these aspects of summer in mind. So, whether you are a teacher or a parent, below are some unique games and activities, which you can conduct during summers to instill creativity in children and for their overall development.

Sun and the Beach
Make the preschool children understand what is a summer season, by letting them experience it. And what better way to experience summer than by creating a beach scene. For this, take the kids to a park or to the school ground itself. Carry along a few beach towels, straw hats, suntan bottles (make sure they are empty), a picnic basket which contains food and some cut outs of the beach from a magazine. In order to carry out these outdoor activities, you will need some construction paper, crayons, scissors, and pencils as well, so carry these too. Once you reach there spread out the towels, give the hats to kids to wear and pretend as if all of you are on a beach. Show the children beach pictures and ask them questions like, "have you been to a beach?", "why do people go to the beach?", etc. Afterward, give the construction paper to the children and ask them to draw things they think are found near or in the sea or simply ask the children to draw objects like the sun, fish, boats, fishermen, and fishnets. When the kids are done, you can cut out the things they have drawn and put them on the walls of the class room, once you reach back. Preschool themes such as creating a make-belief beach, are one of the most fun summer activities.

Summer Special Fair
If you are ready to put in the effort, then another fun and challenging summer activity for preschoolers can be a summer fair wherein they get to indulge in activities such as face painting, bubble blowing, ice cream tasting, ring tossing, etc. For this, you need to install booths at different places on the playground, which will be manned by parents. You can have a stall wherein eight to ten different flavors of ice cream are available for children to taste. At another booth, you can arrange for a large bathtub, where children can take a bath and play with each other in the water, by throwing water balloons at each other. At the food stall, arrange for different kinds of foods such as strawberries, pineapples, melons, apples and oranges. Have them cut in chunks and placed on a low lying table from where children can see them. Ask one of the parents to show to a group of children how fruit is put into a bamboo skewer. The children have to do the same i.e. put fruits in the skewers, while naming the fruits as they do so and afterward they can enjoy eating them.

Hand Sunflowers
If you are looking for some summer crafts for preschoolers, then a good idea is to have them paint sunflowers with their hands. To conduct this activity, you will need construction paper, yellow and brown paint. Give all the children construction paper, after writing their names at the top of each of the papers. Next, paint the hands of the children in yellow color and ask them to make hand prints on the paper, in a circle. You can show how to do it to them to make it clearer. Once they are done, collect the papers and stick them on the walls. Then ask the children to come up one by one and find their own sunflower on the wall. When they do that, put some brown paint on their thumb and ask them to place the thumb in the middle of the hand sunflower so as to make brown seeds. This is one of the most enjoyable craft ideas for preschoolers, which will make them feel proud of themselves too when they see their name on the wall, over their own handmade sunflower.

If the summer activities for preschoolers are well-planned and conducted, it can serve as a great learning medium for them, not to mention how much fun and enjoyment they can be for the kids. So, be creative and organized, when planning summertime activities, to let the kids have the time of their lives.