Outdoor summer activities for children
Summer is here, which means better weather is ahead to enjoy. This means it’s time to explore the outdoors in fun and exciting ways to get the most out of summer. It’s important for children to have time outside and to get stuck into lots of different activities.
To give you inspiration for outdoor summer activities to do with children, we have sourced some fun activities for you to try. These are perfect as a class before the summer holidays and during the summer holidays too.
Make outdoor crafts
A great way to enjoy the summer weather is to make crafts in the outdoors. Children love to get creative and make things, so why not take it outside? Soak up the sun and use natural materials that surround you. Look for materials on the ground, such as sticks, leaves and petals to incorporate into your crafts.
There are many different crafts children can create, from making trees from sticks to mud painting using soil and water. You could even encourage children to create a natural collage of a summer background or animal.
Pick fruit
There are plenty of wild fruit or fruit farms to pick a tasty summer treat together. Look for wild blackberries that ripen from late July. You could eat a few whilst exploring the outdoors or save some to put in pies or jam. Be careful when picking wild berries though. Make sure to correctly identify them by using a bramble guide, as some wild berries can be poisonous.
If you are unsure about picking wild fruits, have a day out at a fruit farm and let children pick tasty fruit to eat and use. You could go apple picking or strawberry picking and create yummy treats with the fruit children have chosen. From smoothies to cakes and pies, enjoy fresh summer fruits and have a fun day out.
Read together outside
This is one of the simplest outdoor summer activities that children will love and remember. Provide comfortable seating, such as beanbags or soft blankets to sit on to read. Choose some popular children’s books to read and read together as a class or during summer holidays. Children can soak up the sun and delve into all sorts of tales and lose themselves in stories. You could even get children to read out loud with you or by themselves to improve their literature and speaking skills.
Have a scavenger hunt
This is a perfect activity to do as a class or during the summer holidays to get children outdoors. Create a list of items that you can find outside and challenge children to find them. You could give visual representations to help them. Think about where you will go for the scavenger hunt and what will be there to find, such as trees, leaves, birds and flowers.
You could make it harder by tasking children to find items that begin with each letter of the alphabet. Allow children to work together to build their social skills. You could create teams to go head-to-head and see who wins. Offer stickers as a reward for everyone partaking and sweets or chocolates too.
Track wildlife
Woodlands and gardens have lots of different wildlife during summer. Plants, trees and animals thrive in the warm weather, so it is the perfect time to do some wildlife spotting. Use a bug and plant kit to help children examine a wide range of mini-beasts and plants.
Look out for all sorts of bugs and plants such as:
- Ladybirds
- Butterflies
- Dragonflies above water
- Bees pollinating flowers
- Different types of birds flying and nesting
- Developing tree seeds or flowers.
Create an outdoor obstacle course
Get children excited about the outdoors with a fun obstacle course. Use materials around you to create the obstacle course, such as pinecones to create a slalom or small trunks as hurdles. If it’s not possible to create an obstacle course, why not visit one to use? You could split children into teams and let them race each other through the course. Time them to see who wins, or if you decide on a non-competitive game, you could use a timer to record personal bests.
Camp in the garden
This is one of the most perfect summer activities to do during the summer holidays. Discover nocturnal wildlife by camping under the stars in the garden. Children can get excited about camping as it’s something different to do and a fun way to bond with others. Set up some games and activities to do whilst camping to entice children even more and see how many stars you can spot too.
Have a picnic
A great way to enjoy the sunshine during summer is to have a picnic. Pack all the favourite treats that your kids will love and find the perfect spot. Whether it’s in a park, woodland or field make sure to choose a spot with plenty of wildlife to see. Watch bees pollinate or butterflies flutter by whilst enjoying tasty food.
Make sure that everyone can enjoy the summer weather comfortably by packing blankets, cushions and even chairs or beanbags too.
Exercise outdoors
Get children moving outdoors to enjoy the good weather by exercising. There are many different exercises children can do outdoors and games that they can play together too. You could organise a game of football or netball for children to expand their teamwork skills. Or you could go down a calming, softer exercise route of yoga where you can do poses related to all things outdoors. An example of this could be doing the tree pose, where children stretch their arms above their heads like branches. They then will pull one foot up onto the opposite leg and sway gently like the leaves in a summer breeze.
Try out these fun outdoor summer activities for children with your class or during the summer holidays. Let children connect to nature and explore what the outdoors has to offer. They can have fun with each other and play with natural materials that surround them too.
Make sure to keep children safe from the sun whilst outdoors with high UV sunscreen and appropriate clothing such as hats. This ensures that children are safe whilst enjoying and exploring nature. For more information on UV protection, check out our blog.
