Are you looking for hands-on and engaging summer preschool activities for math & literacy? Keep reading to see our favorites!
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SUMMER PRESCHOOL ACTIVITIES
Summer is the best time of year! School is out, which gives your little one even more time for fun games & free play, which they absolutely need!
But…don’t forget to spend time practicing the academic skills they learned during the school year…or they’ll fall victim to the dreaded summer slide.
Luckily, this academic practice doesn’t have to be boring. Little ones get SO excited when participating in activities about summer, which then leads to interactive play and STEM exploration. So get ready to dive into the pool of summer learning!
Keep reading for over 30 summer activities for your preschool, pre-k, and kindergarten students. These ideas include printables for math & literacy, fine motor, gross motor, sensory play, art, and more! Oh, and there are a few freebies, too!
If you want a copy of my yearly themes (including an editable version where you can type in your own themes), check out this freebie. (*Please note: You will need to download this file to your computer and then open it with Adobe in order to add your own themes. You cannot add your themes from your web browser.)
SUMMER PRESCHOOL ACTIVITIES: LITERACY
Before you get started with your summer activities, make sure you have your books all ready to go! You can check out our favorite books for this theme in this post. There are over 20 books for you to choose from! Make sure to request these from your local library (or order them from Amazon) a few weeks before you start your theme.
Phonological awareness skills are the key building block to reading success, which is why they should be practiced a little bit every day. In order to keep things fresh & engaging, I like to use phonological awareness games that go along with my current theme. Click here to check out these summer phonological awareness games that will help your little ones become strong readers in less than 10 minutes a day (and with zero supplies!)
In order to know what your child should be working on this summer, it’s important you understand the goals we have for students by the time they leave Pre-K and head to Kindergarten. This FREE Pre-K Goals freebie shares where your little one should be in their development by the end of Pre-K. Summer will give you the opportunity to work on any skills that they’re having trouble with. *If you want to see where students should be by the end of kindergarten, check this freebie out!
And one more thing before you get started…time to get organized! This Editable Summer Schedule is the perfect way to set up your summer for fun, adventures, and learning! Click here to read more and download your own copy that you can customize for your family.
You’re definitely going to want to start your summer activities with these vocabulary cards! These are the perfect way to introduce your little learners to the vocabulary they’ll need for the different activities in this unit. You can use these words in your writing center, as a Write the Room activity, as a Color the Room activity, or as a picture match.
For this activity, your little one will find letters in a sensory bin and sort them by uppercase and lowercase. They can also sort them in other ways, including: holes vs. no holes; in my name vs. not in my name; straight lines vs. curvy lines vs. both types of lines. These cards can also be used to play games such as Memory, Go Fish, or to make CVC words. All these activities improve letter identification, which is a key foundation for learning to read and spell.
If there’s one skill that our students need more practice with to set a strong foundation for reading, it’s rhyming! This activity has your little one choosing a fishing rod picture, identifying the word, and finding a word card that rhymes. Can they tell you other words that rhyme? There is also an optional activity page about rhyming words. Your little one will look at the picture on the left side of the page and color the rhyming picture in the row.
It’s important that our little ones know both the name AND the sound associated with a letter. Beginning sound isolation is the first step on the road of developing phonemic awareness skills. This activity has your little one saying the name and sound of the letter on the cone. Then, they will clip a clothespin on the two pictures that begin with that letter sound. Can they name the letter & sound that the other pictures on the cone start with? Can they find other items around the room that start with the letter on the cone? So many possibilities to extend the learning!
Not all handwriting practice should be letters and numbers. In fact, before our preschoolers can write their letters and numbers, they should be able to make different types of lines: straight lines, curvy lines, wavy lines, jagged lines, and more! Tracing these lines is the first step to correct letter formation later on. This activity has your little ones connecting the zoo animals with different types of lines. They can trace them or create their own lines on the blank mats or use this in a tray of sand, salt, or rice.
Want to practice scissor skills instead of tracing skills? This is a fun way to do it that is a continuation of the previous activity. Your little one will cut along the lines that connect the animals. If you need kid-safe scissors that bounce back, we like these.
>>>Looking for more zoo activities? Check out this post!<<<
In this activity, little ones will be making CVC words. They will choose a card with the two-letter ending and sound it out. Then, they will tell you the beginning sound of the pictures in the top-left corner to make words. (There are 3 pictures, which means they can make 3 new words with the same two-letter ending). Are they able to come up with more letters that can be used to make more words with that same ending? Are the words real words or nonsense words? Do they recognize that they are making rhyming words? So much learning happens in this one summer preschool activity!
Syllable awareness is an important phonological awareness skill that little ones need to become strong readers. This activity asks your little one to sort pictures based on the number of syllables in the word (1-4 syllables). They’ll put the picture below the correct syllable number card. Clapping or stomping to the syllables can be helpful for them to hear the syllables! An optional activity page is also included. Little ones will circle the correct number of syllables and write that number on the line.
>>>Looking for more camping activities? Check out this post!<<<
This is another activity matching lowercase and uppercase letters, which is so important for your little ones to work on. But this time it’s ice-cream themed…because most kids LOVE ice cream! Have your little one say each letter name and sound as they match the ice cream scoop to the cone. The letters can be used to form CVC or high-frequency words, too. Your child could even spell their name!
As a continuation of the previous activity, have a tray of sprinkles available for your child to trace the letters or write their name! This is a multisensory way to work on fine motor skills without having to put a pencil in their hand…plus it’s a lot of fun!
For this activity, your child will practice four high-frequency words at a time. Have them use a spinner to find out which high-frequency word gets a tally on the tally chart. At the end, have them count the tally marks and write the numbers on the line. Which word has the most tally marks? There are several suns with different sets of words to practice. There are even blank suns for them to write their own words to tally.
Like the previous activity, little ones will spin to read a high-frequency word, but this time they will make a bar graph of the results. Then they will count how many blocks are colored in for each word to find the winner and write that word on the line. This is a great introduction to graphing!
One of my favorite summer books is And Then Comes Summer. I like to do a book project base on this book which includes the following:
- Comprehension Questions
- Poem: Ice Cream, Ice Cream
- Art Project: Ice Cream Art
- Snack: Waffle Ice Cream
- Song: The Ice Cream in the Cone
Even with all these fun summer preschool activities, don’t skip the MOST important thing you can do with your child…read to them! This freebie is a great way to make sure you’re reading to your child every day! Maybe they can put a sticker on one book for every book you read to them, or just mark off one book for each day you read together (no matter how many books you read in a day). Consider planning a simple celebration at the end of the month, like a dance party or play date at the park, to celebrate all the books you read!
>>>Grab my Summer Preschool Activity Pack to get all these ideas!<<<
SUMMER PRESCHOOL ACTIVITIES: MATH
This is a great activity to do for the 4th of July! After talking with your little one about the holiday and the patriotic symbols on the picture cards, they will complete rows of patterns with the correct picture. Explain about the different types of patterns, including AB, AAB, ABB, and ABC. Can they make their own pattern rows with missing pictures for you or others to solve?
Here’s another patriotic activity that’s perfect for the 4th of July, but fair warning…this freebie will definitely make your little one want a popsicle! For this activity, they will put the popsicle pictures in order from largest to smallest. It also includes patriotic picture cards that you can hide in a sensory bin (such as dyed pasta). Have them find a card and tell you the name of the picture! Download your freebie from THIS post.
>>>Check out all of my patriotic printables in this Amazing America pack!<<<
This activity has your little one rolling one or two dice, counting the dots, and finding the bug card that matches. Then, they will place the bug card on the correct jar. You can talk about the difference between odd and even numbers (odd numbers are red and even numbers blue). For more fun, they can find and count small objects around the room (or pretend bugs!) to place on the numbered jars.
For this activity, your little one will be measuring pictures using a variety of summer rulers. The answers will all be different because the units on the summer rulers are all different sizes, which will give you the opportunity to talk about standard and nonstandard units of measurement. Have your little one measure the same pictures using a standard ruler and compare their answers. They can measure items around the room and maybe make a tower of blocks that is the same length or width of of the item measured.
This is another activity that has your little ones rolling one or two dice, counting the dots, and placing a small manipulative on that number. You can choose to focus on numbers 1-6 or 1-12. For more interactive learning, you can have them clap or jump as many times as the number on the dice. How high can they count for you?
Looking for more pattern practice? This is a fun and FREE activity that builds on the earlier pattern-making activity. This has your little ones creating rows of popsicles in patterns according to their colors. Download them for FREE in this post (scroll to the bottom for downloading directions).
Tell your little one it’s beach day! They will find a summer kid picture hidden in a beach sensory bin or around the room and match it to the correct ten frame card. There is a blank ten frame for them to put small manipulatives on to correspond to the summer kid card. Can they put the ten frame cards in numerical order? You can also use these cards to make addition problems by asking them how many more pictures (or manipulatives) they need in the boxes to make 10.
>>>Grab my Summer Preschool Activity Pack to get all these ideas!<<<
SUMMER PRESCHOOL ACTIVITIES: FINE MOTOR, SENSORY, ART, & SNACKS
Play dough is such an engaging way to work on the small muscles in your little one’s hands, fingers, and wrists. These summer play dough mats are perfect for this, and they also include a traceable vocabulary word at the top of the card.
Sensory bins inspire little ones to use their imagination and creativity! This one is filled with kinetic sand to represent beach sand and blue vase filler to represent the ocean. Your child can dig for shells (rocks) or make sand sculptures. They can also trace letters or shapes in the sand.
We love going on nature walks in the summer, and taking along these binoculars makes them even more fun! Check out this post for the directions for making this easy summer craft!
This is the delicious treat included in the book project mentioned earlier in this post! It starts with 1/4 of a waffle placed on the plate to resemble an ice cream cone. Then you add fruit to look like the scoops of ice cream. Don’t forget the sprinkles, whipped cream, and the cherry on top! A great summer snack! Enjoy!
Summer always makes me think of camping and fishing…and this fishing snack is the perfect treat after working hard on your summer preschool activities! Check out this post for all the details!
These edible USA flags are easy to make using graham crackers, icing or cream cheese, and any fruit or candy to complete the flag. We used strawberries and blueberries for one and sprinkles and Twizzler Pull-n-Peels for the other. Have your little one use their imagination on what to use to make their flag! *Pair this snack with some great Patriotic books you can see HERE!
For our littlest learners, you can work on sorting colors with a dyed pasta sensory bin. Fill the bin with two different colors of pasta and small toys of the same two colors. Have your little one sort the items in the bin by color.
Using the same two colored pasta from the previous sensory bin and some yarn or pipe cleaners, your little one can make bracelets or necklaces. This is a good activity for fine motor skills development and is super fun!
Here’s another use for the two colors of pasta sensory bin. Your little one can practice making patterns with the pasta. Have them make the patterns AB, AAB, ABB, and AABB patterns.
And one more activity before you put away your dyed pasta sensory bin…this time, pair it with play dough! Little ones can make different shapes with the play dough and add the pasta for decoration. What creations can they come up with?
Here’s one more sensory bin idea for summer…water beads! But if you choose to play with them, I have to give you an IMPORTANT WARNING…water beads are NOT okay for babies or young toddlers. If you have a little one who still puts things in their mouth, DO NOT use these! They are VERY harmful if swallowed and can cause your little one to need surgery to remove them. It’s scary!
Please do not use water beads until your kiddos are old enough to play with them safely AND you commit to watching them like a hawk! You can’t take your eyes off them for even a second while they’re playing with these. If you’re not sure if your kiddos are ready or not, it’s best to wait. Better safe than sorry! (Oh, and make sure you don’t put these down the drain, either! They can also cause problems with your plumbing.)
You can read about how we use water beads in this post.
SUMMER PRESCHOOL & PRE-K FUN
I hope these ideas helped you fill-in your summer lesson plans for your preschool classroom or homeschool! The printables for this unit can be found in my Littles Love Summer Math & Literacy Centers.
What are your favorite summer preschool activities? Do you have any fun activities that would be great to add to this list? Comment below or find me on Instagram [@littleslovelearningblog] and let me know!
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Happy Learning!
