Summer Activities For Toddlers

Need some activities to fill your summer bucket list with your toddler? We’ve compiled a wonderful collection of fun summer activities for toddlers that you and your little one are going to love. With the upcoming warm weather and slower-paced days, you’ll need a break from the usual routine to cool down or just get those wiggles out.

You’ll find plenty of water and ice activities as well as lots of ideas for sensory play and easy-to-set-up activities that you can get ready in just a few minutes. Not only are these activities just plain fun, but they’ll help your toddler with fine motor skills, gross motor skills, letter recognition, color recognition, and so much more.

Summer activities can be super fun and there is so many activities to enjoy in your own backyard!

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Fun Summer Activities for Toddlers

Memorial Day Sensory Bottle from Craft Play Learn: Our patriotic sensory bottle is the perfect calming activity for your toddler for Memorial Day or the 4th of July. Kids will be mesmerized watching the red, white, and blue stars flow through the liquid.

Frog Sensory Bin for Toddlers from Craft Play Learn: Set up this frog sensory bin for a hoppin’ good time! This sensory bin uses Pluffle (play foam) as the ‘water,’ but if you don’t have any and want to set this up quickly, shredded blue paper or blue dyed rice would work just fine, too.

Make Way for Ducklings ABC Activity from Growing Book by Book: This wet and playful activity helps little ones match lowercase and uppercase letters. If older siblings are joining in, you can also practice letter sounds.

Play Dough Ice Cream from A Little Pinch of Perfect: Set up a little ice cream shop for the kids with a totally taste-safe playdough recipe made with frosting. This stuff scoops like ice cream, but you don’t have to worry about it melting.

Animal Washing Station from Lorena & Lennox: Bring out some of your child’s toys and set up a washing station. Not only is this a simple and fun sensory activity, but it’s a great way to clean those toys regularly in the summer.

Color Golf from School Time Snippets: Work on colors through play! Focus on one or two colors for this game of color golf. It’s fun to do with siblings, too, where each child is assigned their own color.

Icy Grab Activity from Happily Ever Mom: Foster fine motor skills by allowing your toddler to use tongs to transfer ice cubes in this simple summer sensory bin.

Water Pistol Painting from Messy Little Monster: What could be more fun than playing with water pistols? Why, making a piece of art while playing with them, of course. You’ll be surprised at the gorgeous, colorful paintings your little ones can create.

Summer Lemon Sensory Bin from Taming Little Monsters: You’ll be surprised at how something as simple as water can provide hours of entertainment for toddlers. This lemon sensory bin, for example, is made with just lemons and colored water, but toddlers can have a blast scooping and pouring the stuff.

Frozen Dinosaur Eggs from Natural Beach Living: Use some of your child’s dinos to make these cool frozen dinosaur eggs. Playing with them is a terrific way to cool off on a hot summer day. Children can excavate them, melt the ice using water or salt, and so many other things.

Sensory Rice from Active Littles: This red and blue sensory rice would make a fun activity for toddlers for the 4th of July. Add some stars and something to scoop with, and you’re all set.

Watermelon Slime from Taming Little Monsters: Make your own red slime or buy some, and add black ‘seeds’ such as black beans, coffee beans, black pom poms, etc. to make the seeds. You can also add watermelon extract for scent if you’d like to add another sensory element to the activity.

Sidewalk Chalk Obstacle Course from Toot’s Mom is Tired: Set up an obstacle course in just a few minutes! All you need is a piece of chalk. This is a terrific activity for kids of a wide variety of ages.

Ocean Sensory Bin from Natural Beach Living: Start teaching your tot about the creatures in the deep blue sea with a fun ocean sensory bin.

Colored Ice Play from Crayons and Cravings: Cool down when the temperatures are rising! Colored ice lets your toddler explore color mixing while engaging in a fun sensory activity.

Toddler Activities Perfect For Summer

Frozen Ocean Sensory Bin from Simple Everyday Mom: Here’s another take on ocean sensory bin that uses water beads and ocean animals frozen into balls of water beads for added fun.

Alphabet Ice Boats from School Time Snippets: Work on letter recognition while beating the heat. Freeze foam letters into ice, add sails, and you have a bunch of ABC ice boats on hand. Add them to a water table or water sensory bin, and you’ll come up with all sorts of ways to play with them. Race the boats, rescue the letters, and more.

Water Balloon Yo-yos from Mombrite: This activity takes just minutes to set up, and the kids will have a blast playing with the yo-yos. It’s so simple!

Colors of Nature Scavenger Hunt from Messy Little Monster: Go on a nature walk or just head to your backyard to complete this scavenger hunt. It’s an engaging way to help toddlers practice their colors a few at a time.

Ocean Sensory Bags from A Little Pinch of Perfect: Looking for a mess-free activity for toddlers? Make one of these ocean-themed sensory bags. They’re squishy, colorful, and delightful to watch and play with.

Construction Zone Sensory Box from Lorena & Lennox: Grab some toy dozers, dump trucks, etc., along with rice and beans, to set up an engaging sensory bin that’ll provide hours of fun and play.

Paper Straw and Play Dough Fairy Forests from Barley and Birch: Combine playdough and nature to make these lovely fairy forests. The paper straw pieces make it easy to stand the flowers up in the playdough.

Edible Sensory Play Balls from Kids’ Craft Room: Here are some sensory balls that kids can squish, squeeze, and taste! They’re made with Jello, so you know it’s safe if your little one takes a big bite.

Pin this list of summer activities for toddlers so you’ll be inspired to set up fun activities all summer long.