50+ Sizzling Ideas For A Summer Themed Unit Study

Summertime is probably the season that is most looked forward to in my house! My family loves spending our days outside soaking up the sun and playing water activities. There always comes a time during the day though when we need to come inside and take a break from the heat. As a mom of three, I know that the best way to prevent boredom and sibling arguments during the summer is to have some super fun indoor summer activities lined up and ready to go! You are going to love this incredible list of amazing summer activities that are sure to keep your kids entertained and busy this summer. There are so many ideas for you to have a fabulous summer and summer unit study!

Sizzling Ideas For A Summer Themed Unit Study

No matter what your role is this summer, we’ve got you covered! Preschool teacher looking to engage your preschoolers and get them excited about learning this summer? We’ve got activities for you! Parent trying to fight boredom and keep your kids entertained? We have activities for you too!

The wonderful thing about all of these summer themed activities is they all require very little time to set up, and most use materials you probably already have lying around your house!

Benefits of Summer Themed Activities:

Prevent the Summer Slide: If you aren’t familiar with the summer slide, you can check out this informative article from Scholastic about it, but basically it is learning loss that takes place over the summer when kids are not in school. If you have a child preschool age or older, you can help prevent the summer slide by doing activities like these! The best part is, they are so much fun, your child will never even know they are learning and sharpening their knowledge and skills!

Encourage Creativity and Imagination: These summer activities are the perfect way to encourage your child to be creative and use their imagination! Sensory bins, games, and art activities provide the perfect opportunities for new ideas and creations to come to life.

Strengthen Fine Motor Skills: All of these activites require your child to use their hands and fingers in some way. Whether they are digging in a sensory bin, moving the marker pieces in a game, or manipulating materials to create a craft project, they are strengthening their hand and finger muscles and improving their fine motor skills.

Inspire New Interests: By providing your child with all of these new activities to try, they may find a new interest or hobby that they didn’t even know they liked!

Those are just a few of the MANY ways your children will benefit from these summer activities!

Check out our amazing list of summer activities and ideas below!

50+ Hands-on Summer Activities for Kids

Summer Themed Art Activities

Summer art activities are the perfect way to cool down on a hot summer day. Now, these aren’t your normal art projects. They use unique materials and non-conventional art tools to create some pretty amazing works of art! These activities are not only wonderful for promoting creativity, but they are also fantastic for fine motor skills and hand/eye coordination.

1. Puffy Paint Ice Cream Cones

I just know that this DIY Puffy Paint Ice Cream Cone Art Activity is going to be a huge hit with your kids! It combines two of my children’s favorite things- art and ice cream! Bubble wrap is used to make the super cute cones and DIY puffy paint creates the adorable mounds of ice cream. This will definitely become a favorite art activity in your household too!

2. Toilet Paper Roll Sun Painting Activity

Bring the sunshine indoors this summer with this adorable Toilet Paper Roll Sun Painting Activity. Kids will love repurposing toilet paper rolls to create a sunshine stamp in this art activity! These super cute suns are sure to brighten your day and put a smile on your face.

3. Ice Cube Painting Summer Art for Kids

Ice cubes are the canvas for this fun summer art project! Kids will love painting, mixing colors, and watching as the ice cubes slowly melt in this Ice Cube Painting Summer Art for Kids. Best of all, this activity requires minimal set up, minimal materials, and minimal clean up – sounds like a big win for moms and teachers!!

4. Star Ice Cube Painting Summer Art for Kids

I have another super cool ice activity for you, but this time, the ice is the paint brush! This Star Ice Cube Painting Summer Art for Kids activity will keep your kids cooled off and entertained this summer.

5. Hydro-drip Sand Dollars Art Activity

Have you ever tried the hydro-dip method of painting before? If so, I don’t need to tell you how amazing the results are. If you haven’t, prepare to be amazed! Check out this Guide to Hydro-Dipping Sand Dollars Art Activity to find out just how easy it is to turn your sand dollars into incredible works of art. The beautiful swirling paint will mesmerize your child and have them begging to do it over and over again.

6. Unicorn Ice Cube Painting Summer Art for Kids

Unicorns are the star of this process art ice painting activity! A unicorn charm, glitter, and water all get frozen together to create Unicorn Ice Cube Painting Summer Art for Kids. Your child will find the fun trail of glitter left behind by the ice paint brush as magical as a unicorn!

More Summer Themed Art Activities for Kids

• This Sponge Sailboat Craft For Kids is fun to make and then play with in water!
• DIY Sidewalk Foam Paint will bring hours of outdoor fun and sidewalk decorating.
• Make a cute Watermelon Paper Plate Craft with tissue paper.
• Create colorful Sponge Painted Ice Cream Cones!
• Surfs up! Color Surfboards in this activity.
• Use a pool noodle to make this adorable Pool Noodle Fish Craft.
• Make an Amazing Bubble Art masterpiece!

Summer Themed Math Activities

Working on math skills has never been more fun than with these summer math activities! Eye catching posters, exciting games, and a cute counting book are just a few of the ways you can help your child practice and learn their numbers this summer. All of these activities require just a few materials, are easy to set up, and can be used over and over again this summer!

1. Summer Counting Book for Preschool

Never under estimate the power of an emergent reader book! Simple sentences and adorable summer themed pictures make this the perfect way to practice counting and reading this summer. Kids will love making this Summer Counting Book for Preschool their own by coloring in all of the pictures. This book can be used alone or with another activity for extra counting practice!

2. Summer Theme Printable Number Posters

My kids love chasing crabs on the beach during the summer time! We try to count them, but they are so fast, we lost track of them quickly! The good news about these Summer Theme Printable Number Posters is that your kids will love the cute crabs, and they won’t be scurrying away. Hang these posters up in a playroom, classroom, or on any empty wall in your house for a great counting visual this summer. Be sure to check out the blog post with all of the other creative ways to use them!

3. Under The Sea Counting With Free Printable Ocean Grids

Practice counting to 10, 20, and 100 this summer with these fun Under The Sea Counting With These Free Printable Ocean Counting Grids. Colorful ocean animals on the counting grids are sure to keep the attention of your preschooler as they work on their counting and practice their number recognition. Use ocean themed counters, mini erasers, or another summer themed manipulative that you have around the house or classroom to add to the fun!

4. Watermelon Counting Summer Preschool Math Activity

Practice numbers three different ways with this Watermelon Counting Summer Preschool Math Activity. This watermelon themed counting activity provides preschoolers the opportunity to practice writing the number word, drawing the number numeral, and counting the number of seeds in the ten frame. What a fun way to help build number sense this summer!

5. Watermelon Roll and Count Math Game

Whenever we eat watermelon, my kids love to count the seeds. This activity is a super cute (and way less messy!) way to keep the fun of watermelon seed counting going! Watermelon loving preschoolers will have so much fun as they roll, count, and write their numbers while playing this Free Watermelon Printable Roll and Count Simple Math Game.

6. Lemonade Theme Free Printable 2D Shape Posters

Get ready for some shape fun with Lemonade I Spy Game and Posters. This free shape poster download will give you so many options for shape review this summer! Hang them up, set up a scavenger hunt, or make a shape book. No matter what you decide to do with them, your kids are guaranteed to love these Lemonade Theme Free Printable 2D Shape Posters.

More Summer Themed Math Activities

• Place Value Ice Cream Match is a great way to practice place value.
• How many pom poms can you count and stack in this Summer Math For A Preschool: Ice Cream Theme activity?
• Match the number of seeds to the numeral with these Watermelon Clip Cards.
• Toddlers will love this Summer Sun Shape Sorting Activity.
• Kids will love this Water Squirter Math Game !
• Try this fun and exciting Rubber Duck Math Race.
• Can you be the first to ten in this fun Firefly Catch: Free Math Game?

Summer Themed Literacy Activities

Reading books together is one of our favorite ways to keep up with our literacy skills over the summer (if you love reading too, check out this great List of Fun Alphabet Books for Kids!). But, there always reaches a point when my kids are ready to put the books down and have some interactive literacy practice. That’s when activities like these super fun summer literacy ones come in handy! All of these activities provide fun and engaging hands on practice of foundational reading skills for preschoolers.

1. Summer Beach Themed CVC Word Building Mat

When you can’t be at the beach building a sand castle, you can have fun building words with this Summer Beach Themed CVC Word Building Mat. Preschoolers and Kindergartners will love looking at the adorable CVC pictures inside the suns and practicing building and writing the word on the CVC word mat. With 96 different words to choose from, this activity can used over and over again this summer!

2. Ice Cream Rhyming Words

It’s ice cream themed rhyme time! This Ice Cream Rhyming Words Printable for Kindergarten is perfect for preschoolers and kindergartners who are working on finding patterns in words and identifying words that have the same ending sounds. They will love finding the pair of rhyming words and creating a double scoop ice cream cone with the match!

3. Summer Ocean Theme Spin and Stamp

Parents and teachers know that repetition is key when learning the letters of the alphabet. Repetitive (and FUN) practice is exactly what you will get with these Ocean Theme Letter Recognition Activities: Spin and Stamp. Kids will love spinning the spinner, reading the lower or upper case letter, and stamping the letters into the correct box onto the worksheet. The adorable summer ocean theme only adds to the fun!

More Summer Themed Literacy Activities

• Keep track of reading this summer with this Printable Summer Reading Log!
• Work on letter formation with Alphabet Tracing Popsicles.
• Don’t lost track of your page! Check out these Summer Reading Bookmarks to Color!
• Build A Flower Letter Sounds is a great way to practice identifying beginning letter sounds.
• Buckets and shovels get matched up in this Beach Bucket Uppercase and Lowercase Activity.
• Write down everything you want to do this summer with this Summer Bucket List Craftivity.
• Practice story telling by making Camping Themed Story Stones.
• Sprinkles make a great writing tray filler for Alphabet Writing Practice.
• Cool off and practice identifying the letters in your child’s name with this Splash Letter Recognition Game.

Summer Themed STEM Activities

I think every season is a great season to do science activities, but there is just something about the summer that makes little ones more curious! It could be that we tend to travel more to new places over the summer, or maybe it’s because we are outside more enjoying the warm weather and exploring our backyard and neighborhood. No matter the reason for their curiosity, I always love to capitalize on the chance to do some super fun science activities in the summer! Check out some of our favorites below!

1. Ocean Currents Science Experiment

There’s no better way to learn about ocean currents than through a fun science experiment! Your kids will love watching ocean currents form right before their eyes in this Ocean Currents Science Experiment. The set up is super simple and I’m sure you have all the materials you need already lying around your house!

2. Fizzy Ice Experiment

The only thing better than ice on a hot summer day? Fizzing ice! Most kids are familiar with the baking soda and vinegar science experiment, but if you have never added ice, you have to try it! This Fizzing Ice Experiment will be a hit with scientists of all ages!

3. Color Mixing Ice

This Color Mixing Ice Preschool Science Activity is the perfect way to cool off and explore colors this summer! Simply color some water, freeze it overnight in fun silicone shaped molds, and you are ready for icy color exploration. Be sure to check out the blog post for more tips and tricks for this activity!

More Summer Themed STEM Activities

• This Zoo Themed STEM Activity is perfect for little engineers who love building!
• Bubble Snake Makers will be a hit with the bubble lovers in your life.
• This Fizzy Sun Sensory Bin STEAM Activity is the perfect combination of sensory play and science!
• See how long you can get your stick raft to float in this Stick Raft Building STEM Project.
• Find out what colors are the coolest with this Hot and Cool Colors Outdoor Science Experiment.
• This Rock & Minerals Experiment is great for any aspiring geologist in your house!
• Create an Ice Cream Volcano!
• Use baking soda and vinegar for a fun Melting Sandcastle Experiment.

Summer Themed Sensory Activities

Summertime is a great time for sensory exploration! Eating ice cold delicious popsicles, splashing around in water tables, and outdoor scavenger hunts are just a few of the many ongoing sensory experiences of summer. The sensory exploration doesn’t have to end when you come inside though. Sensory bins, I Spy games, and sensory bottles are just some of the amazing sensory activities for kids you need to check out below!

1. DIY Lemonade Sensory Bin for Kids

Eye catching pink and yellow dyed rice are the base of this super cute DIY Lemonade Sensory Bin for Kids. Kids of all ages will love scooping, pouring, and running their hands through this sensory bin. I always love watching my kids make their own pretend lemonade stand with this sensory bin. I’m sure your kids will have a super fun creative idea for this bin too!

2. Summer Flip I Spy Game

Everyone loves a good game of I Spy! This Summer “Flip” Printable I Spy Games for Kids puts a fun twist on the traditional I Spy game. Bright, eye catching pictures and cute cards make this game extra special. You will love this game and the colorful sensory experience for your eyes!

3. Summer Theme Sensory Bin

If you can’t go to the beach, bring the beach to you! This Summer Theme Preschool Sensory Bin Activity will transport your child to a sandy beach where they can dig, scoop, and sift sand. Add some adorable beach themed props to take your bin to the next level!

4. Lemon Sensory Bottle for Summer

The bright yellow color of a lemon is the star of this sensory bottle! Sensory bottles are a wonderful way to provide younger children with a sensory experience that’s not too messy or overwhelming. If you’re just beginning your sensory play journey with your toddler this post on How to Make Lemon Sensory Bottles for Summer is the perfect place to start!

5. July 4th Play Dough Tray

This 4th of July Play Dough Activity Tray for Preschoolers is the perfect way to keep little ones entertained this summer! They will love manipulating the play dough and making incredible red, white, and blue creations with this tray. This play dough tray is a great way to keep kids busy and working on their fine motor skills while they are waiting for the fireworks to start this 4th of July!

6. 4th of July Sensory Bottle

Get ready for a July 4th party in a bottle! This sensory bottle captures the spirit of July 4th perfectly. Red, white, and blue beads and buttons will catch the eyes of your kids as they drift back and forth in this fun sensory bottle! Easy 4th of July Sensory Bottles for Preschoolers are super simple to put together and will provide lots of sensory fun this summer.

More Summer Themed Sensory Activities

• Create your own ocean for sensory play with this Sea Foam Sensory Bin.
• Summer Lemon Scented Rice makes a great sensory bin filler.
• This Summer Play Dough Kit makes an easy grab and go activity.
• Try this Super Simple Beach Sand Slime Recipe.
• Jell-O Soap Foam is bubbly, colorful, and smells super good!
• Kids will love saving ocean animals in this Jell-O Toy Rescue Activity!
• This Watermelon Soap Foam is wonderful for sensory play and pairs perfectly with our watermelon themed math activities!
• Toddlers will love these Watermelon Squish Bags for mess free sensory exploration.

Summer Themed Fine Motor Skills Activities

Playing at the playground, swimming in the pool, and riding our bikes are all some of our favorite summer activities. They are also fun and easy ways for us to work on our gross motor skills over the summer! We also love working on our fine motor skills over the summer. We have so many amazing fine motor skill activities at Life Over Cs, and here are just a few of our favorite summer ones!

1. Sunflower Sensory Bin for Fine Motor Skills

Sunflowers are one of our favorite summer flowers! We love watching them grow in our garden over the summer, and even more, we love to play with their seeds in this Sunflower Sensory Bin for Fine Motor Skills. Brightly colored rice, sunflower seeds, and other sunflower themed accessories make this bin wonderful for fine motor skills and a great addition to your sensory bin rotation this summer!

2. Easy DIY Suncatcher Craft for Kids

What better way to celebrate summer and work on fine motor skills than with this Easy DIY Suncatcher Craft for Kids! Fine motor skills will be strengthened as your child strings beads onto this sun catcher and creates a beautiful craft to hang outside or in the window! The best part is, there are so many possible designs your child can create that it can be done over and over again all summer long.

3. Ocean Animal Fine Motor Pattern Block Mats

Pattern blocks are so versatile and can be used to teach so many concepts. The fun shapes and colors of the pattern blocks make them the perfect building tool for preschoolers. This Printable Ocean Animal Pattern Block Activity for Preschool will have your child working on their fine motor skills as they create adorable ocean animals!

More Summer Themed Fine Motor Skills Activities

• Work on fine motor skills and scissor skills at the same time with these Summer Scissor Skills Practice Strips.
• Summer Q-Tip Art is great for working on fine motor skills and creating fun artwork.
• Create colorful popsicles with this Fine Motor Craft Activity.
• Summer Themed Lacing Cards will give little fingers a great work out!
• Working with play dough is a wonderful way to develop fine motor skills. Check out these Summer Themed Play Dough Mats!
• This Q-Tip Painted Dragon Fly is another adorable art activity that will help fine motor skills.

Summer Themed Social and Emotional Development Activities

Summer has a way of bringing out the big emotions in little ones!  Long, hot days lead to super tired kids, which can cause them to get upset more easily.  Summer also means less structure and routines for some kids, which can also mess with their emotions.  These two fabulous games are a wonderful way to help your child learn to identify and talk about their emotions and feelings.

1. Ice Cream Social Emotional Skills Preschool Board Game

Ice cream always puts a smile on my face!  But, summertime is not always all smiles in a house full of little kids.  Emotions can run high in the summer, and this Ice Cream Social Emotional Skills Preschool Board Game is the perfect way to cool off and learn about emotions in a fun way!

2. Printable Summer Sun Identifying Emotions Board Game

Family game night is one of the ways we love to come together and spend time together over the summer.  This Printable Summer Sun Identifying Emotions Board Game would be a great game for your next family game night.  It is an awesome way to bring your kids together to talk about their emotions and play a fun game at the same time!

More Summer Themed Social Emotional Development Activities

• This cute Emotion Handprint Craft is super fun for preschoolers learning about emotions.
• Emotions Play Dough Mats are a fun way to work on fine motor skills and practice emotions!
• Who will be the first to shout “Bingo!” in this Emotions BINGO Game?
• Work on identifying emotions by matching up these Monsters Feeling Cards.
• Practice reading and learn about emotions with this Emotions Emergent Reader.

Fun Activities for a Beach/Ocean Theme:

• Ocean Animal Pattern Block Mats
• Beach Scavenger Hunt
• Beach CVC Word Building Mat
• Ocean Sensory Bin with Sand Foam
• Ocean Animals Ice Excavation

More Seasonal Unit Studies To Try: