Chalk Games

 If you don't have a big tub of outdoor chalk yet, go get some! There are endless games and activities you can do without having to buy every single plastic toy out there. Here are a few ideas to get you started...

Color/Shape Jumping

This is similar to one of my very first posts. Draw several different colored shapes. Call out the color/shape you want your child to jump on ("Jump on the pink heart!").

Variation: You could also have your child toss bean bags or balls onto the shape you call.

Water Balloon Toss

Draw a big, multi-colored target with chalk. Have your child stand back a few feet and toss water balloons at the target. You can play until you wash the whole target away or until you run out of water balloons. 

Variation: You could use bean bags or balls instead of water balloons for this game as well.

Letter Toss

Draw the letters in your child's name. (If they already know those letters but need to practice other letters, use those instead.) Call out a letter and have your child toss a bean bag or ball on it. Rowin doesn't know the letters in his name yet, so I included the color to help him ("Throw the ball on the blue R").

Variation: You could have your child toss water balloons on the letters like the previous game. You could also have your child jump on the letters like in the first game. 

Hopscotch

Don't forget this old classic! This is actually really good practice in coordination/gross motor skills. I had Rowin try jumping several different ways (one foot, two feet, alternating, etc.).

Variation: If you want to practice number identification, call a number and have your child toss a ball/bean bag/water balloon on the correct number. 

Multi-Colored Ice Cubes

It's been so nice to be OUTSIDE!! We've been doing lots of walks, mornings at the park, picnics, and outdoor exploring. Finally feels like summer!
We busted out the water table a few days ago and made these ice cubes to play with outside. Just fill an ice cube tray and put a drop of food coloring in each cube.

We made these a lot over the winter and put them in the bathtub. They were a little messier when we took them outside-I recommend playing with them in a bathing suit or naked. Rowin chose naked so I didn't think any pics of him playing would be appropriate. :)
Just a fun little extra to spice up your kiddos' water table!

DIY Truck Puzzles

Oh man...after getting a taste of summer weather for a few days, this week of rain has been brutal! We've been trying to get out of the house as much as possible, but here's one activity we did when we were home.

Using different colored pieces of construction paper, cut rectangles, two circles for wheels, and a cab to create several semi-trucks.

Show your child what the trucks should look like and then mix up all of the pieces.

Have your child find the matching colors and put all of the trucks together!

I stuck all of the pieces in a ziploc bag to pull out again on another rainy day. If you have a laminator, that would definitely make them last longer. You could also put magnets on the back of each piece and have your child put them together one at a time on a cookie tray if you wanted to. If you have girls, you could do the same thing with flowers (a circle for the middle plus petals) or dolls (a head/body plus arms and legs).

Rainy Day Activities

Here are a few simple activites for your kiddos to do inside when it's too rainy to play outside. :)

Paint a Birdhouse

I bought these at JoAnn's (I think for about $1). I painted the whole thing white first and then let him paint it how he wanted-of course, with mostly his two favorite colors, black and brown. So springy!

Dominoes

We have these Jumbo Wooden Dominoes from Lakeshore, but any dominoes are fun! Show your child how to match the colors/numbers and see how long of a train they can make. Rowin actually liked this more than I thought he would!

Sticker Shape Match

We had some diferent shaped spring stickers that I used for this activity.  On a blank piece of paper, draw shapes that the stickers will fit it. Mine were all squares and circles. Have your child put the stickers inside the right shapes. This is good for fine motor and shape identification.