Outdoor Play

Outdoor Shape Activities for Kids

June 2, 2018 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 ides will be having so much fun, they won’t even realize how much they are learning.

Toddlers and preschoolers will love learning outside with these simple and fun Outdoor Shape Activities for Kids. Learning can be so much fun!

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.

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

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

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

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

Get your wiggles out by Running Circles and other shapes with our fun driveway game.

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

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

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

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

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

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?

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.

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:

Do more fun activities with your kids

Join our fun Facebook community, Creative Family Fun for Busy Families, for daily activities that are great for kids and families. We’ll chat, share, and have fun. It’s a safe and private place to share ideas for family and kids activities.

I’d love for you to join me! Just click the link below, request to join, and answer the questions (they’re easy, I promise). Come join the fun! Join the Creative Family Fun for Busy Families community here.

10 Fun Walk Ideas for Families

April 9, 2018 By Terri Thompson

Going on a walk is not only good exercise, it’s also a lot of fun. And, it’s a easy and simple family fun idea.

In case you want to add a little variety to your neighborhood walk, here are 10 fun walk ideas for families.

So, let’s get outside, get moving, and have some fun with our family.

Fun Walk Ideas for Families

1. Go on a counting walk. Count the number of trees you see or count the parked cars. Come up with a few things you see routinely on your walks and have the kids count them.

2. Take binoculars and look at your neighborhood up close!

3. Make it a scavenger hunt. Look for something big, something tiny, something rough or something smooth like we did in our backyard scavenger hunt.

Family walks are a great way to get exercise and have fun together. Here are 10 fun walk ideas for families that will get you outside and having fun.

4. Play “I Spy” while you walk along. “I spy something brown and green and taller than a house.” Whoever guesses first gets to come up with the next clue.

5. Go on a color hunt. See how many different colors you can find.

6. Take your camera. Document all the things you see on your walk, then turn it into a book when you get home.

7. Bring a bag and look for nature treasures like we did when we went leaf collecting.

8. Go on a listening walk. How many different things do you hear on your walk. Here is a fun idea for a listening walk along with a printable checklist.

9. Stop and climb a tree. You can read about the benefits of climbing trees over at Childhood Beckons. If you don’t want to climb a tree, stop and examine a leaf, smell a flower, make a snow angel or jump in a puddle. In other words, enjoy and experience!

10. Find a new-to-you place to go for a hike. Your walk doesn’t have to be around the neighborhood! In case the idea of taking young children on a hike makes you nervous I have some simple tips to make it easy on everyone.

Even more fun:

Check out this article on finding the balance between outdoor safety and adventure from Teach Preschool. So, why not climb a hill and run back down it!

What is your favorite fun walk ideas for families?

If you enjoyed these fun walk ideas for families, the above photo is perfect for sharing on Facebook or you can save the photo below on Pinterest.

Let’s Go On a Listening Walk

March 22, 2018 By Terri Thompson

If you want to add a peaceful element to your next walk with your kids, go on a listening walk.

Take the time to enjoy the peace and quiet or even the hustle and bustle of your neighborhood with this fun walk idea for families.

Listen carefully… what do you hear?

You can take an informal walk where the goal is to see just how many things you can hear.

Do you hear a cricket chirping? A car horn? Tweeting birds?

Emphasize quiet where the only time someone talks is when they want to share what they hear.

This is such a nice way to wind down together as a family at the end of a busy day. Or, it’s a fun morning activity to get the day started.

Use your ears to go on a fun listening scavenger hunt while you walk around your neighborhood with this fun walk idea for families, a listening walk.

You can also bring along a list of items to create a listening scavenger hunt.We keep a stack of lists on a small clipboard that’s easy to grab and take along outside. You can print out our list here or you can make your own lists.

Here are some ideas you can add to you listening walk list:

A dog barking
Cars driving by
An airplane flying overhead
Geese honking
People talking
Children giggling
The wind whispering
Buzzing bees
Crows cawing
A car door slamming

Use your ears to go on a fun listening scavenger hunt while you walk around your neighborhood with this fun walk idea for families.

When making your list, think about the sounds you often hear in your neighborhood. If you live in the country, add a lot of nature sounds. A city walk could include vehicle noises, people, or construction noises.

Print your list here. Prints in landscape format.

Listen and learn about your neighborhood! What sorts of noises would you hear on a walk around your town?

You may also enjoy one of these outdoor family fun ideas:

Go Outside! Cards

Go Outside: Counting Walk

10 Ways to Make a Walk More Fun

My Five Senses Walk at Great Family Reads

Originally published 8/5/2013, updated March, 2018.

Go Outside: Shape Hopscotch

September 11, 2017 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 their shapes with a simple game of hopscotch.

Disclosure: This post contains Amazon Affiliate links. Please see my Disclosure Page for more details.

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.

Set up is easy.

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.

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. 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.

You can mix this game up as much as 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.

Or, 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?

Originally published April 3, 2013. Updated September 11, 2017.

Find more shape activities here:

Get Crafty: Shape Collages

Shape Hunt

Driveway Shape Maze

Outdoor Shape Activities for Kids

10 Shape Activities for Toddlers at Hands On As We Grow

12 Shapes Themed Sensory Bins for Preschoolers at Fun With Mama

Sidewalk Chalk Outdoor Clock Game

June 7, 2017 By Terri Thompson

I never did discover just how much fun math can be until I had kids of my own. It’s not just a pile of worksheets after all!

I try to support my girls’ math learning at home all the time. And, when it comes to math practice at home, I’ve got one criteria – it has to be fun!

So we grabbed out sidewalk chalk and went outside to practice math with a fun outdoor clock game.

This outdoor clock game is a fun way to get outside, get moving, and practice telling time with a giant sidewalk chalk clock.

This Sidewalk Chalk Clock Game is a fun way to get outside, get moving, and practice math. Can math practice be anymore fun?

Set up your outdoor clock game

Before we began the game, we drew a big clock on our driveway with sidewalk chalk.

Your kids will need to move around the clock and use their bodies as the clock hands, so you need to make a large clock.

I drew the circle and the marks for each hour. I had the girls fill in the numbers for the hours and the extra lines in between each. It truly was a collaborative effort.

How to play this clock game

The game works best with two people. One person is the hour hand and the other person is the minute hand.

Since my girls are at two different levels in math, I had my youngest daughter (1st grade) be the hour hand and my older daughter (3rd grade) be the minute hand.

Once we were ready, I called out a time. The girls had to stand on the correct location.

For instance, If I said “1:30,” one child would stand on the 1 and the other child would stand on the 6. In order to challenge my oldest, I would call out harder times like 3:56, 5:18, and 12:23. Keep with whatever level your child is at.

Easy game variation for one child

If you are playing with only one child, get in and play the game with them!

Or, use rocks for one or both of the hands. One rock for the hour hand and one rock for the minute hand. Instead of standing in the correct locations, place the rocks in the correct location.

This outdoor clock game is tons of fun and can be easily adapted for any level.

My girls always love to take their learning outside – and who can blame them?

Draw a clock on the driveway and you’ll have tons of learning fun, at least until the next time it rains!

Outdoor Play

Outdoor Shape Activities for Kids

Fun Outdoor Shape Activities