Struggling to get your kids to spend screen-free time outdoors this summer? This big list of 40+ best outdoor kids activities should help. ⬇️⬇️
Estimated reading time: 21 minutes
Spending time together in nature is a great way for families to make memories in every season. Whether you're planting a spring garden or building a solar oven together in the dog days of summer, getting kids outside daily is important for their mental and physical health.
How much time should kids spend outdoors every day? Ideally, 4 to 6 hours is best, but that's not always doable with modern-day work schedules and responsibilities.
Thirty to 60 minutes, though, can give a child a world of good, even if it's broken into 10-minute increments. And yes, kids should spend time outdoors in the winter, too.
Use the nature activities for kids below to schedule and inspire some outdoor fun for you and your whole family.
Nature Art Ideas
Go for a walk or stroll into your backyard or garden to gather natural materials for these simple wildcrafting and nature art ideas.
DIY Nature Craft Set
Construct your own nature craft set using items that are available to you. The Craft Train shares how to make one to get kids engaged in open-ended play. It's imaginative and fun!
Build ducks, turtles, butterflies, dragonflies, mushrooms, and more using leaves, pine cones, walnuts, seeds, fronds, and other interesting items.
Mountain Snail Unit Study and Craft
Go on a family nature hike to see if you can spot some empty snail shells for an interesting snail unit study with the kids.
Though this activity is geared toward mountain snails, you can modify it to suit the snails local to your area.
Learn all about snail anatomy, and use the foraged shells for a fun DIY pet craft. Remember to clean the snail shells before making this craft from The Crazy Outdoor Mama.
Easy Leaf Crafts
Thimble and Twig demonstrate seven super-easy leaf crafts kids can make using paint, glue, and imagination. The salad spinner idea is so much fun, and the leaf bugs are creative, too.
Have the kids label their leaf insects to learn more about the parts of an insect, such as the thorax, antennae, and of course, the number of legs.
Grab our fall leaves printables to practice leaf sorting and categorization.
Nature Murals
Use this idea from Days With Grey to upcycle some cardboard or unused wood pieces and work with natural materials. Anything goes for the nature mural—leaves, grasses, flowers, paint, chalk—whatever! It's a simple and fun way to spend a "crafternoon."
Clay Nature Faces
Go on a nature collection walk to find materials to create clay faces on some of the trees in your yard. This outdoor art idea from Messy Little Monster will get kids excited about spending time outside.
We especially love the "dandy" lion face made with pieces of dandelions.
Nature Frame
Making a nature frame is a fantastic idea for any season. The Crazy Outdoor Mama's version is a fall nature frame with leaves, acorn caps, snail shells, and reeds. What can you find to do a spring, summer, or winter version?
Nature Boat
Can you make a raft that really floats? Don't worry; you don't have to build a full-sized one. This nature boat craft from Thimble and Twig is kid-sized, fun to build, and even more fun to play with.
The challenge is only using items from nature (plus a bit of string) to build the rafts. Find a nearby stream to sail them down, or use your swimming pool, if you have one.
Leaf Painting
Gather leaves of different shapes and sizes to try leaf painting. The Best Ideas for Kids shows us four different leaf painting techniques: leaf stamps, watercolor leaf prints, silhouettes, and puffy-painted leaves.
Fall is the perfect time for leaf art if you want many natural colors, but autumn leaves are often very dry. Summer leaves, however, are a lot easier to work with if you're decorating the leaves themselves.
Journey Sticks
Nature walks are way more fun when you make a memento of your adventure. If you've never made one, this is called a journey stick. It can be a stick or a piece of cardboard decorated with leaves, flowers, seeds, feathers, and any other nature treasures you find during your walk.
Take a look at the ones from Growing Family to get some inspiration.
Spring Flower Butterfly Craft
Turn flower petals, twigs, and grass into the cutest butterfly crafts ever.
If needed, you can find a butterfly template for this project from Fantastic Fun and Learning, but it's pretty easy to make one by folding a piece of paper in half and cutting out one side of the butterfly's body.
When unfolded, you'll have a complete butterfly ready for flower petals.
Flower Crown
Want to get the dandelions out of your yard? In addition to adding them to your salads or making some tasty dandelion jam, they're also perfect for flower crowns. You need nothing but the flowers themselves (leave the stems long) to weave a crown made for a fairy princess.
Check out the step-by-step photos from Red Ted Art if you've never made one before.
Nature Mandala
Gather gorgeous wildflowers to make a colorful nature mandala. Use the designs from Rediscovered Families for inspiration. If you can't find flowers (for instance, if you want to make one in the winter), use acorns, nuts, rocks, twigs, and other materials to make your mandala.
Making mandalas is relaxing and a good study of symmetry and concentric circles.
Scavenger Hunt Ideas
Who doesn't love a good scavenger hunt? Here are several fun ideas and themes to keep the kids entertained and engaged outdoors.
Build a Nest Scavenger Hunt
The Crazy Outdoor Mama has a Build a Nest scavenger hunt perfect for spring. Children can learn how the American Robin builds its nest using the printable.
Because you're building a nest in a bowl, it's simple enough for kids of all ages. However, older children may want to skip the bowl and work on weaving their materials together instead.
Gather grasses, twigs, and feathers, if you can find some. Use mud to hold the nest together. Fill your nest with rock "eggs." Kids will find the illustrated printable very easy to use.
Bug Hunt
Summer's the time to bug out over bugs! Go on an insect scavenger hunt to collect some specimens for study (or to catch and release, if you prefer). (You could even build an insect hotel!)
The printable from Barley and Birch includes pictures of each bug to make it easy for kids of all ages to identify the insects they come across.
Musical Scavenger Hunt
Enjoy a warm sunny day with your toddlers and preschoolers trying this musical scavenger hunt game from Days with Grey. You'll need some colored chalk and music to begin.
Draw out the color circle, play a song, and when it stops, the children run to grab an item that's the same color they're standing on. It's a fun way to practice color recognition, plus toddlers can strengthen their gross motor skills as well.
Flashlight Scavenger Hunt
Nothing is more thrilling for a kid as playing outside in the dark. Plan a night of family fun with this flashlight scavenger hunt from Frugal Coupon Living. Look for spider webs, animal prints, moss, and mushrooms.
Check each item off on your list as you go. Make it competitive by seeing who can complete theirs first!
Pond Scavenger Hunt
Do you have a pond nearby? Go to observe all the wild, wonderful animals, bugs, and plants available there. Take this pond scavenger hunt from Homeschool Share with you to document your findings.
Park Bingo Scavenger Hunt
Go to a local park for a round of park bingo. Use the free printable activity from Coffee and Carpool to set up this cheap and fun activity for your kids and their friends.
The park is a great place to get fresh air, work on gross motor skills, practice balancing and climbing, and interact with other children. But if you don't enjoy it so much as a parent, this printable makes things a lot more fun.
Beach Scavenger Hunt
Even summer vacation is a great opportunity to learn (without the kids even realizing it). Take this beach scavenger hunt from The Ladybirds' Adventures along on your next seaside excursion.
Find shells, driftwood, a feather, and other easy-to-find items commonly available on beaches. Save your findings to create a nature collage when you get home.
Forest Scavenger Hunt
Take this forest scavenger hunt from Homeschool Share along on your next camping trip. How many forest finds can you spot? The printable encourages children to use their observation skills to find woodland animals, acorns, pinecones, and more.
Spring Walk Scavenger Hunt
Take a springtime stroll with the kids, and don't forget to take this spring walk scavenger hunt from Rock Your Homeschool along with you. With 15 items to look for and a few extra challenges, if you're up for it, this is a fantastic way to spend a few hours on a spring afternoon.
Outdoor Escape Room
This outdoor escape room from Teaching Ideas is ready to print and play with no complicated setup! They encourage problem-solving and creative thinking skills.
Plus, they're just plain fun. If you don't have a large yard of your own, head to a local park instead.
Outdoor Learning Activities
Learning is loads of fun when you're outside! From tapping into your inner explorer to learning about maps, these easy outdoor activities will provide your family with hours of fun.
Geometry with Natural Materials
Use this idea from The Wise Owl Factory to practice geometry with items you collect from your backyard or on a nature walk.
Make shapes with sticks, rocks, leaves, or flower petals. Practice basic shapes with your toddlers and preschoolers or more advanced polygons with older children.
DIY Explorer Kit
Build your own explorer kit using these ideas from Barley and Birch. This DIY observation kit will come in handy as you collect various plant and animal specimens for homeschool (or just for fun).
The kit is mostly made with common household materials, so you won't need to spend money on anything except test tubes and a magnifying glass if you don't already have those.
Foraging With Kids
Get the kids off the couch with a fun foraging trip into the forest (or local strawberry patch). If you're new to the practice, we recommend these wild edibles which are easy for most folks to find: dandelions, berries, chamomile, chickweed, and plantain.
As always when foraging with kids, close supervision is required.
Map Activities
Although many of us rely on GPS these days, map skills are still important for kids to learn. Get a map of your local area or of a nearby hiking trail, and head outdoors to practice the cardinal directions, reading a legend, and using a compass.
Not only are map skills essential for navigating their surroundings, but they also help kids develop spatial awareness and problem-solving skills.
Take Them Outside has several great suggestions for map games kids will enjoy. A navigation box is a smart purchase if you don't already have these tools.
Camouflage Science
Mama Smiles recommends taking kids outside to look for examples of camouflage in nature. Her kids studied a moth, observing how it blends in with local vegetation. Use a magnifying glass to get up close and personal with any little camouflaged critters you encounter.
Geocaching
If you've never tried geocaching as a family before, you should! People hide caches all over, and you can easily use a smartphone to enter the coordinates and find the location of the treasure.
You never know what you'll find. Get the details on how to do it at Explore More Clean Less.
DIY Rain Gauge
Follow this tutorial from Mombrite to make a rain gauge using a recycled plastic bottle. The next time it rains, set it outside to collect and measure the rainfall.
It's reusable, so put it out every time it rains for a week or a month to get an average for your location.
Cloud Spotter
Learn the difference between cumulus, stratus, and cirrus clouds with this handy cloud spotter idea from Red Ted Art. It includes a window for viewing the clouds, a picture of each type of cloud, and a short explanation of what they look like.
Fire Starting
Kids should know how to safely start a fire. Not only is it handy for camping and cooking outdoors, but it is a valuable skill should he or she be in a survival situation.
Get a fire box or make a DIY version for kids to practice their skills (with adult supervision, of course).
Nature Journal
Every child should have a nature journal, particularly homeschoolers. Forest schooling, foraging, and keeping a nature journal are all excellent ways to encourage children to observe and explore the world around them.
More Fun Outdoor Activity Ideas for Kids
From fun outdoor games to sensory play, here are even more fun projects for the summer months and beyond.
Rock Balancing
Rhythms of Play offers some great tips for rock balancing. It's a neat art form that's been done for centuries across many different cultures. This relaxing, creative activity will be a hit with older kids as well as the younger ones.
Frozen Flowers Sensory Play
Freezing different objects and using them for sensory play is a great idea for warm weather. Find some gorgeous wildflowers or pick some from your garden to freeze in a muffin tin.
Pop them out, and use various methods to try to melt them. Hold them between your hands, set them out in the sun, or melt them in water. Get more frozen flowers sensory play ideas at The Best Ideas for Kids.
Flower Soup
Talk about an easy sensory bin—all you need is water and flowers for this fun idea from Taming Little Monster. You probably made flower soup yourself as a child.
Most of us pretended to be chefs, adding flowers, leaves, rocks, and dirt to our "soup" until it was perfected.
Color Matching Nature Walk
Practice color matching while on your nature walk. No, it's not just an activity for toddlers and preschoolers, though they can benefit from color identification. It's also a wonderful way for older children to see the various shades and hues in nature.
All you need are some color samples and your walking shoes for this fun idea from Fantastic Fun and Learning.
Bug Hotel
Provide a home for bugs of all sorts by building a bug hotel like this one from Red Ted Art. Use a plastic bottle, a tin can, or even a wooden box to make a safe place for insects to come in and lay their eggs.
This version is made with a plastic bottle cut down to size, but you can use the same fillers in other containers.
Fishing With Kids
Whether you're going ice fishing for the first time or headed to the local lake to catch some trout, fishing is a fantastic outdoor activity and life skill for kids. It teaches kids how to secure their own food even when conditions aren't ideal.
Mud Pies
Making mud pies is a classic childhood activity that has sadly fallen out of fashion due to so much preoccupation with screens. It's time to bring it back in a big way!
You can set up a mud kitchen for the kids or just give them some old pans to take outside and play with in creative ways. Provide pretty rocks, gems, and flowers to top the mud pies. Younger kids love getting their hands messy!
Obstacle Course
Kids love the challenge of an obstacle course, and they're a fun way to work on gross motor skills like running, jumping, and sliding. This one from Kids Activities Blog has a Super Mario theme, but your obstacle course doesn't need a theme at all.
It's super simple to use logs, boulders, ropes, trees, and fences to run an obstacle course without much prep at all.
Water Balloon Piñatas
Whether you're hosting a party or want to cool off on a hot day, water balloons are a great way to have family fun. Set up some water balloon piñatas like these from Hello Wonderful to turn getting soaked into more of a challenge.
Using a blindfold makes it more fun since the person swinging the bat won't even see it coming!
Your family is sure to have a good time with these simple outdoor activities. What could be better than fun games and quality time together? Let us know which ones you're going to try in the comments!
Bonus: Looking for activities for older kids and teens? Why not try making a bird feeder from recycled materials?
