Get Ready for Kindergarten: 105 Activities to Keep Your Preschooler Learning All Summer

Hello! It's been a while since I've blogged! We had a new baby this summer and my son has been busy with preschool! Even though we've been busy, I'm so excited to share something I've started with my son to help prepare him for kindergarten!

I wanted to have some simple and fun activities I could do with my son every day that would help prepare him for school. The activities aren't just sitting and writing letters or identifying numbers on a flashcard It's important that these activities be fun and hands-on! Getting ready for kindergarten isn't just about learning letters and numbers too. These activities incorporate other skills like fine motor (sooo important), comprehension, social skills, and more!

Please note, this blog post may contain affiliate links. That means I can receive a small commission, at no extra cost to you, if you purchase from one of the items linked. Affiliate links allow me to keep blogging and providing free resources! You can read more about this at the end of my post.

Set-Up:

I put together 105 activities that you can do with your child this summer to help to prepare them for kindergarten or preschool. These ideas are meant to be put in a jar or some kind of container so your child can pick one out. I've found that having each activity as a fun "surprise" has been much more motivational for kids too!

free activities to get ready for kindergarten this summer

To start, I printed all of the activities. They are organized by indoor, outdoor, and activities where you will need to leave the house. I color-coded these activities. You don't need to color code the activities but it did help me quite a bit! I did this so we could easily pick an activity that worked for our schedule that day. For example, if it was raining, we picked an indoor activity. If we had a lot of time for an activity, we picked one where we would need to leave our home.

Keep reading to grab these FREE PRINTABLES!

cut out the free activities for kindergarten this summer

After you have printed and cut out the free summer activities, you can set aside any activities you do not have materials for or throw away any activities you do not want to do.

Once I had all of the activities cut and ready to go, I put them in a plastic jar I had purchased on Amazon. Recently, I started using my Cricut machine (I'm not great at it as you can tell from the air bubbles in my design 😝) to label it.

Make the jar!

Grab everything I've shared above to get your free preschool learning activities ready to go!

Activities

Now the fun part...the activities! Most activities are low prep and can be done with things you already have around your home! As I mentioned before, you can always take out any activities you don't want to do or don't have materials for yet. I would also really recommend color-coding them if you can. I also have quite a few activities that include FREE printables. Yay!

Even if you don't want to use all of the ideas from the jar, you may want to just try a few of these fun activities. These are just some of the activities included! Here are a few of my favorite activities that we have done so far along with a few great links...

Dandelion Shape Board

fine motor summer learning activity for preschool or kindergarten

Why I love this activity:

Target fine motor skills
Incorporate counting
Gets kids outside and moving
Teach shapes
Less than 5 minutes to prep
FREE!

Learning isn't just paper and pencil or memorizing things on flashcards! To create this activity, I took an old Amazon box and cut out a shape. Then, I took a pencil and poked holes in it. That's it!

Cut out a shape from cardboard

Poke some holes!

I gave the shape board to my son and we found dandelions all over the yard to add to his shape board. You can talk to your child about the shape of their board and count how many dandelions they have added. Encourage them to add the dandelions on their own so they can build up their fine motor strength! Tip: remind your child to pull the dandelions out by the stem so they can fit through each hole.

Have a Picnic!

Why you should do this...

Fun bonding activity
Teach your child how to open things you will pack in their lunches
Reduces anxiety about school lunches and will reduce frustration in the future

Picnics in the summertime just make sense! Pack up a picnic using your child's lunchbox, water bottle, and any containers you plan to send with them to school. This might seem small but, it will make a huge difference when they start school. Your child will be expected to open their lunch and all containers themselves.

Check out some of my favorite teacher and parent-approved lunch and snack containers for the school year!

Nature Counting

Why I love this activity:

Number sense and counting
Gets kids outside and moving
Less than 5 minutes to prep
FREE!
This is another simple activity to prep! All you have to do is write some numbers with sidewalk chalk and have your child find some items to represent each number's quantity.

Play a Game

Why you should do this...

Great bonding activity
Teach turn taking
Teach how to be a graceful winner or loser
Teach strategy
Many board games incorporate academic skills...check out some of my favorites below.

ready for kindergarten preschool learning

Rip Some Paper

My son completing a paper ripping art activity. Keep reading to get a free activity.

Why I love these activities:
Builds fine motor strength
Allows kids to practice using an appropriate amount of glue
Less than 5 minutes to prep
A great way to reuse paper scraps
Many ways to complete the activity
FREE!

I wrote out my son's name and had him go over the letters with glue and ripped paper.

Kids can make works of art or trace their names, words, numbers, or letters with pieces of ripped paper.

This free printable is included

When all else fails...read!

read to your child summer reading kindergarten or preschool

Probably one of my favorite photos ever. 💖

Reading is one of the most beneficial things you can do with your child! Just a few of the benefits of reading with children are...
Improves vocabulary and language skills
Increases concentration
Improves memory
Strengthens your bond and builds a love of reading and learning new things!
I know the days get busy and you may not have a chance to do an activity. That's OK! It happens to me often... One of the best things you can do is read to your child. I've included quite a few reading activities, too! Just a few ways to make reading a little more exciting are to read a book outside, build a fort and read in it, or show your child your favorite children's book.

Not sure where to start to get your little one reading? Check out the Bob Books! These books are simple, sequential, and perfect for building confidence in young readers! I highly recommend checking them out. They were the first books my son ever read.

If you like these summer activities, check out some of my favorite items to help get your child ready for school!

Ok now for the freebies! Grab all the ideas for this summer and several FREE printables delivered to your inbox.

Happy teaching!

Glitter and Glue 4 K-2 is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com

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