Learning Activities for Kids

Outdoor Shape Activities for Kids

May 9, 2022 By Terri Thompson

Whenever the weather is nice, it’s always so much fun to take your learning outside.

You can play, explore, and learn all at the same time.

These fun outdoor shape activities for kids are great ways to play and learn with your toddlers and preschoolers.

Your kids will be having so much fun, they won’t even realize how much they are learning.

Outdoor shape activity collage showing several activities like sidewalk chalk shapes, rock shapes, and water play

Disclosure: There are Amazon Affiliate and other affiliate links in this article which means, at no additional cost to you, we could receive compensation for our recommendations. You can read our full disclosure policy on our Disclosure Page for more details.

Fun Outdoor Shape Activities

Get moving, explore nature, and get creative with all of these fun ideas.

They’re perfect for anytime of the year and a great excuse to get outside and learn with play.

Outdoor Shape Activities

These fun outdoor shape activities for kids are great ways to play and learn with your toddlers and preschoolers.

Shape Hopscotch Outdoor Game

Learn shapes with a fun sidewalk game when you play our version of Shape Hopscotch.

Driveway Shape Maze

Find your way through our Driveway Shape Maze and learn all about shapes as you go.

Outdoor Shape Hunt

Grab a camera and hunt for shapes when you go on our fun Outdoor Shape Hunt.

Running Circles

Get your wiggles out by running circles and other shapes with our fun driveway game.

Geometry Game

Photo Credit: simpleplayideas.com

Explore big shapes by measuring, walking, and creating them with your body with this geometry game from Simple Play Ideas.

10 Ways to Play with Rocks {Sensory Summer} - Mrs. Plemons' Kindergarten

Photo Credit: mrsplemonskindergarten.com

Create shapes with rocks with this fun idea from Mrs. Plemons' Kindergarten. (You'll find several other cool rock ideas in this post too!)

Scooping Shapes Bubble Water Play

Photo Credit: www.fantasticfunandlearning.com

Play in bubbles with this bubbly water shape sorting game from Fantastic Fun and Learning.

Find & Erase the Matching Shapes

Photo Credit: Hands On As We Grow

Find and erase shapes with water with this fun activity from Hands On As We Grow.

Making Shapes With Acorns Fine Motor Shape Activity

Photo Credit: www.creativelittleexplorers.com

Build shapes with acorns with this simple idea from Creative Little Explorers.

Nature shapes outdoor math activities

Photo Credit: nurturestore.co.uk

Use nature treasures to create shapes with this fun activity from NurtureStore.

I don’t know about you, but I’d love to do all of these outdoor shape activities! Which ones do you think you’re going to try with your kids?

Outdoor shape activities for kids collage showing water play, grass shapes, and sidewalk chalk shapes.

You May Also Enjoy One of These Other Fun Outdoor Activities:

10 Fun Walk Ideas for Families

Driveway ABC Game

Silly Races

You can find all of our toddler activities at this link.

Smaller outdoor shape activities collage showing the different activities talked about in this post.

My Recommended Shape Resources

It’s so much fun to learn shapes through play. You can play these fun outside games or try one of these great shape toys for toddlers. Here are a few more playful ways to learn shapes:

Shape Hopscotch Outdoor Game

May 4, 2022 By Terri Thompson

Shape hopscotch, a fun outdoor shape game, is not a new idea to us, nor is it new to this blog. (I shared it here in the very first months of this blog.)

But, I wanted to share it again for a few reasons.

First, it’s fun and we play it often.

Second, it’s easy to do and it’s a great way to get outside.

And third, both toddlers and preschoolers will love learning with this fun outdoor shape activity!

Two pictures of children playing shape hopscotch with the words shape hopscotch overlayed. You can see the children jumping on shapes drawn with sidewalk chalk on the driveway.

Set Up Your Shape Hopscotch Game

Grab a few fun colors of sidewalk chalk and a bare spot of cement.

Draw several shapes in a line; the same as you would do for a regular hopscotch game.

Get moving and learning with this fun outdoor shape activity, Shape Hopscotch. It's easy to set and so much for for preschoolers and toddlers.

I used simple shapes as a review for my 3-year old, but you could make things even harder by using octagons, polygons, and any number of shapes

Find a couple of rocks, grab the kids, and start playing.

How to Play Shape Hopscotch

For our version, the girls took turns throwing their rock onto the shpaes. They had to hop to the shape closest to their rock.

They practiced jumping on one foot and they also had to name each shape as they landed in it.

For these two, the hopping on one foot was a much bigger challenge than naming the shape.

Shape Hopscotch Variations

You can mix up this game any way you want!

If you’re playing with toddlers, just have them jump (or run) to each shape and then name the shapes as they stand in them. If they’re just learning their shapes, you can call out the name of the shape. This is such a fun and active way to learn shapes!

You can also call out a shape and have your kids run to that shape.

Practice your gross motor skills by hopping, standing on one foot, skipping, etc. The possibilities are endless.

The best part is that it gets you outside and gets your kids moving!

Have you ever played shape hopscotch?

Find more shape activities here:

Get Crafty: Shape Collages

Shape Hunt

Driveway Shape Maze

10 Shape Activities for Toddlers at Hands On As We Grow

12 Shapes Themed Sensory Bins for Preschoolers at Fun With Mama

Fun Toys for Learning Outside

It doesn’t take fancy toys to learn outside. In fact, a package of sidewalk chalk is about all you need. But, if you want to kick it up a few notches, here are some fun tools and toys for learning outside.

Find and Tally Sight Words Activity

April 28, 2022 By Terri Thompson

Since my youngest daughter is heading into first grade in the fall, we’ve been focusing a lot on ways to learn sight words.

She’s got a great handle on some, but as you know, there are many to learn.

We’re trying to keep up the practice over the summer, but I definitely want to keep things simple.

That’s where this fun Find and Tally Sight Words activity comes in. It’s easy to prep. Simple to do. And, it’s fun.

Learn sight words with this fun reading game that adds a little math in with your reading practice with this Find and Tally Sight Words activity.

How to set up your Find and Tally Sight Words activity

This activity was so easy to set up.

I started by making a list of sight words that my daughter needs to learn. I chose only six because I didn’t want her to be overwhelmed by too many.

Next, I made it into a pretty chart to make the activity all the more appealing. But, this is not at all necessary, you can just grab some paper and jot down a few sight words leaving room for your sight words.

Now it’s time to tally sight words!

Now, it’s time for the fun. Let’s practice our sight words!

Give your child the chart and a book. They need to go through the book and make a tally mark each time they find one of the words.

It can be slow going and they may not get through the whole book. We didn’t. Our focus was on sight word identification and not reading, so we just did a few pages. We’ll read the book together later.

At the end, add up the tally marks. Which word did you find the most often? The least?

Learn sight words with this fun reading game that adds a little math in with your reading practice. Sight Word Tallies is easy to set up and fun to play for your beginning readers.

Can I give you a quick word of advice?

I made the mistake of not comparing my list of sight words to the book when I did this with my oldest. Oops. It was a lesson in frustration. Page after page and no sight word in sight.

Take the time to make sure the sight words are actually in the book you’re using. The activity is so much more fun when you can actually find the words!

I loved this sight word activity because it was easy to prep and fun to do. Plus, it added in a bit of sneaky math practice with the tally marks.

We’ll do this fun Find and Tally Sight Words activity over and over again for a fun way to practice our sight words.

Choose a great book for this activity:

We found success using a book that my child was already familiar with. I’d suggest you turn to your own library of books for inspiration.

You’ll want a book with several instances of the sight words you’re working on. Do check to make sure the sight words you need are in the book!

Here are some great options:

Panda Reading Pointer Craft

April 25, 2022 By Terri Thompson

A reading pointer is a great tool for beginning readers. It helps them track the words on a page and trains the eyes to follow along.

You can grab any sort of reading pointer, but if you’ve got a kid that loves animals, they’re going to definitely love this fun panda reading pointer.

Use a craft stick to make this simple panda reading pointer for kids. It's a fun tool for beginning readers and animal lovers!

Also, CraftProjectIdeas.com sent me some of the supplies used on this project. All ideas are my own.

Supplies needed for your panda reading pointer

Jumbo craft stick
White craft paint
Black craft paint
Black felt
Glue
Small googly eyes

How to make your panda bear reading pointer

First, paint the entire front and back of your craft stick with white paint. Allow it to dry completely.

While your paint is drying, cut two small circles from your black felt to use as your ears.

Once your white paint is dry, add your details with the black craft paint. Add two ovals for the eyes and a small circles underneath for the nose. Draw your simple mouth details. Finally, add two half circles under your face for your paws. Let all your black paint dry.

If you need something to do while your waiting for paint to dry, read a great book about pandas! Goldy Luck and the Three Pandas by Natasha Yim is a fun choice. It’s a Chinese American retelling of Goldilocks and the Three Bears.

After your paint is dry, glue your felt ears to the back of the top of your craft stick.

Attach your googly eyes on your eye ovals. I found that using self-sticking googly eyes made this step really easy!

Once your glue is dry, your reading pointer is ready to use! Let this cute panda help your child practice reading.

Make this simple panda bear reading pointer for your beginning readers.

Yield: 1 Reading Pointer

Panda Reading Pointer

Make this simple panda reading pointer out of a craft stick. It's a great tool for your beginning reader.

Prep Time 5 minutes

Active Time 15 minutes

Total Time 20 minutes

Difficulty Easy

Estimated Cost Under $5 (depending on the supplies you already have on hand)

Materials

Tools

Instructions

Paint your entire craft stick with the white paint. Let dry.
While your paint dries, cut two small circles out of your black felt for your panda's ears.
Once the paint is dry, add details with your black paint. Add two ovals for your eyes and a small circle for the nose. Add a simple mouth and two half circles for your paws. Let dry.
Once your black paint is dry. Glue your two ears to the back of the craft stick at the top.
Add your two small eyes to the black ovals.

Notes

If you don't have any black felt you can use craft foam or black card stock instead.

Marshmallow STEM Activities

April 19, 2022 By Terri Thompson

If you’re anything like me, you’ve got a stale bag of marshmallows in your cupboard.

It’s wasteful to just throw them away, but nobody wants to eat them. So, what can you do?

Try some STEM projects, of course! Here are 12 fun marshmallow STEM activities that will use up all of those stale marshmallows.

Build, learn, and explore with these fun marshmallow STEM activities for kids.

STEM Activities with Marshmallows

Grab that bag of stale marshmallows and a few addition supplies. Pick out one of these fun marshmallow STEM activities, and get started learning with your kids. These activities are all fun and easy to do. And, you probably already have all the supplies you need.

Marshmallow STEM Activities

Build, create, and learn with these fun STEM activities with marshmallows.

Marshmallow Engineering STEAM Building Challenge

Use toothpicks and marshmallows to create some fun STEM building challenges.

Giant Marshmallows and Glow Stick Structures

Photo Credit: www.3princessesand1dude.co.uk

Take your marshmallow building up a notch by using glow sticks and giant marshmallows!

Easter Bunny Launcher: A Peeps STEM Experiment

Photo Credit: team-cartwright.com

Build a fun launcher for you Peeps! And, don't worry, you don't have to wait until Easter to build this. You can find Peeps for any holiday, or just use large marshmallows in your launcher.

Easy Marshmallow Catapult Activity

Photo Credit: littlebinsforlittlehands.com

Build a catapult with your marshmallows to launch even more marshmallows. So much fun!

How To Make Edible Marshmallow Slime Recipe (Strawberry)

Photo Credit: littlebinsforlittlehands.com

Use your marshmallows as the main ingredient in this edible slime recipe.

Building Shapes with Marshmallows and Toothpicks

Photo Credit: homeschoolpreschool.net

Combine math and engineering to build 2-D and 3-D shapes with toothpicks and marshmallows.

Marshmallow Shooter Kids Activity

Photo Credit: www.123homeschool4me.com

Build a shooter for your mini marshmallows.

Marshmallow Science Experiment-Color Change

Photo Credit: www.fantasticfunandlearning.com

What happens when marshmallows dissolve? Find out with this fun marshmallow science experiment.

Marshmallow Science Experiment

Photo Credit: www.fantasticfunandlearning.com

Use different liquids to see if it makes a difference in how marshmallows dissolve.

Hot Chocolate Marshmallow Science

Photo Credit: www.adabofgluewilldo.com

Does the temperature of hot chocolate affect that rate at which a marshmallow dissolves. Find out with this fun experiment.

PEEPS Parachute STEM Challenge

Photo Credit: thepreschooltoolboxblog.com

Create parachutes for your Peeps (or jumbo marshmallows) and experiment with gravity.

Marshmallow Star Constellations for Kids

Photo Credit: www.kcedventures.com

Use your marshmallows and toothpicks to build and learn about star constellations.

Fun Marshmallow STEM Activities for Kids

More STEM Activities for Kids

Hot Chocolate Science Experiment

Balloon STEM Activities for Kids

Spinning Tops Color Mixing STEM Activity

Winter STEM Projects for Kids

Get STEM Projects Through the Mail

Every month, we get a fun STEM box through the mail. Our Green Kid Crafts boxes that we get every month have been so much fun. We’ve explored bubbles, the human body, slime, and more fun stuff.

Each box comes with 3-4 fun STEM activities based around a certain theme. You can do like we do and subscribe to a monthly box. You can also buy single boxes based on specific themes.

Check out all the Green Kid Crafts boxes here.

Learning Activities for Kids

Fun Outdoor Shape Activities

You May Also Enjoy One of These Other Fun Outdoor Activities:

My Recommended Shape Resources

Set Up Your Shape Hopscotch Game

How to Play Shape Hopscotch

Shape Hopscotch Variations

Find more shape activities here:

Fun Toys for Learning Outside

How to set up your Find and Tally Sight Words activity

Now it’s time to tally sight words!

Can I give you a quick word of advice?

You may also like one of these sight word activities:

Choose a great book for this activity:

Supplies needed for your panda reading pointer

How to make your panda bear reading pointer

Materials

Tools

Instructions

Notes

Recommended Products

You may also like one of these animal crafts

Use your panda bear reading pointer with one of these great books:

STEM Activities with Marshmallows

More STEM Activities for Kids

Get STEM Projects Through the Mail

Subscribe to get Family STEM Challenges delivered to your inbox

Footer

Categories

Archives