Thinking of rainy day activities for preschoolers and toddlers isn’t always easy. Here’s 101 rainy day activities to enjoy even the gloomiest of days.
Imagination Activities
- Animal pretend – act out different animals and guess what they are (our son calls this playing ‘Wild Krats”)
- Dress up – never gets old
- Store, restaurant, or library – practice counting money, writing orders and following directions
- Act out a story – act out a favorite book or bible story. Record it for another rainy day
- Indoor camping – roast marshmallows over the stove
- Closet fort – a very private, very dark fort
- Go on a trip – pack ‘bags’ and take a trip on a couch-airplane
- Shadow puppets – a great activity for that closet fort. Silly voices and a silly story make them tons of fun
Hands On Activities
- Bubble wrap – Pop!
- Dominoes – set up and watch them fall
- Build a toy city – block homes and businesses, masking tape roads
- Blanket fort – a pile of books and flashlights. Be sure to climb in and read to them in the ‘dark’
- Play Doh – change it up with cookie cutters, silverware, Lego men, matchbox cars or simply explore color mixing
- Opposites – learn what opposites ARE, then get silly practicing doing the opposite
- Obstacle course – send them through, around, over and under
- Tongs pick up – give tongs to pick up toys
- Marshmallow and toothpicks – build bridges, buildings and more
- Puddles – make good use of those rain coats and rain boots and splash like you won’t get wet!
- Foam letter tiles – call out different letters to find and stand on, put them in alphabetical order, or create words
- Float or sink bath party – put on swim suits and guess which toys will float or sink, then test it out
- Expanding foam capsules – found a pack for $1 at Target. Just as fun as when we were kids
- Balloon rockets – tape a straw to a balloon and send it down a string. Set up a few ‘tracks’ and race them
More Hands On Activities
- Giant Tic-Tac-Toe – use masking tape for a giant Tic-Tac-Toe board
- Indoor bowling – set up an indoor bowling lane with empty plastic bottle ‘pins’
- String spider web – grab a ball of string or twine and crate a web – ‘cut it out’ when it gets too tangled
- Dance or jump party – find some peppy music and let loose
- Indoor sand – fake sand is so fun!
- Paper airplane games – throw through hoops, see how far it can go, throw from top of stairs
- Board games
- Hide and seek – focus not only on hiding but on counting!
- Simon Says – we usually play this outside but it’s a great activity for a rainy day
- Puzzles – do as many as they can OR find a puzzle a little (or a lot) out of their skill level and work on it together
Hands On Activities

Kitchen Fun
- Make their own recipe – help them choose and measure ingredients. Write down their very own ‘recipe’ (yogurt parfait, french toast and toppings, trail mix). Decorate their own recipe box
- Tea Party – boys and girls will enjoy this, especially with water in the tea-pot and snacks – make it extra fun by dressing up and talking in silly voices
- Homemade popsicles – juice, fruit, blend and freeze
- Jello juice jigglers – cut out shapes with cookie cutters
- Bake – practice following directions, measuring, mixing, and making observations (smell, color, texture)
- Make healthy trail mix – practice counting and picking healthy snacks – raisins, crasins, roasted soy beans or chickpeas (or nuts), sunflower or pumpkin seeds, and maybe surprise them with a few mini marshmallows
Create
- Paper plate frisbees – decorate and toss for some indoor fun
- Create ‘rain’ with shaving cream
- Pipe cleaner fun – make shapes, decorate a colander, sort them, make flowers
- Build a box car and enjoy a ‘drive in’ movie – what to do with old boxes and paper plates? Make cars. Add popcorn and a PBS show…
- Make photo prayer cards – print and cut out pictures of friends and family and glue onto index cards. Grab a few per night to pray for loved ones
- Activity jars – a fun idea to make together!
- Glue paper scraps – one of our son’s favorite activities is to take all his paper scraps and glue them into something (they turn out amazing – birds, houses, you name it!)
- Make a Mural – stretch out a long roll of paper and create a long story or one long picture
- Diorama – remember making these in elementary school? Provide a shoe box and help them make a scene from their favorite book, or a city of landscape for Lego people or mini dinosaurs
- Record a video – record a video message or photo sign message and send it to a loved one or friend
- Rainy day art – water colors make great rainy day pictures, or just open the box of art supplies and let them create
- Decorate and celebrate – let them decorate with leftover streamers and party supplies and throw a birthday party for their favorite bear or toy
- Write and mail letters – create cards, practice writing, and mail a special note or card to a loved one
- Explore color mixing – grab paints and explore mixing different colors together
Make
- Indoor snow storm – cut paper snow flakes and string them up all over
- Create a blog post – I’d love to post something the kids wrote if they are interested in doing so!
- Paper chain – make enough loops to count down to the next big activity, birthday or holiday
- Make up a song – encourage them to sing a silly song or make up their own words to a familiar tune
- Crazy crayons – you kept those broken crayons for a reason!
- Jewelry – practice fine motor skills with beads and string
- Life size portrait – trace their body (use the backside of wrapping paper if you don’t have a big roll paper) and let them decorate it
- Write and illustrate a story book – fold paper to create a book to illustrate and help them write their own story
- Make photo pendants – yes, even a child can do this with help
- Cut straws – cut straws into ‘beads’ then string together or glue onto paper
- Large connect the dots – on the biggest roll of paper you have – as high as they can count (and higher with your help!)
Science
- Explore capillary action – use food coloring and celery or some fresh-cut flowers
- Plant beans in a jar – you know that bag of beans you bought for soup but didn’t use? Plant some beans and learn about the plant life cycle
- Watch a documentary – find a kids animal or nature documentary on Netflix (watch for G ratings and be prepared to fast forward through animal hunting scenes as needed for your child)
- Make your own rainstorm – by exploring steam and condensation
- Tornado in a bottle – with two 2-liter bottles, water and duct tape
- Baking soda and colored vinegar – pour baking soda on a baking sheet + drops of food-colored vinegar = foamy colored bubbles
- Oil and water – explore both mixing and freezing
- Measure rain fall – put a container outside (bucket, cup, anything will do) and measure the rainfall as it comes down
- Learn about rainbows – and why God made them
- Explore speed and distance – set up a ramp and see which car goes the furthest and which is the fastest
And More
- Non standard measurement – see how many body-lengths a room is, then measure with their feet, their favorite blanket or toy. Measure with a measuring tape to tell them how big it really is
- How Crayons were Made – old school Mr. Rogers Neighborhood video of how crayons are made – and then do some drawing
- Homemade balance – explore weights
- Sensory guessing box – have them feel inside and guess what the items are
- Play I Spy
- Clean pennies – using vinegar and salt. Vary times and make observations
- Extract DNA from a banana – did you know you can extract DNA that you can SEE right at your kitchen table with supplies you have in your house? It is so cool! A preschooler can than do this (and yes, even YOU who may not know much about science)

Be Together
- Watch the storm – count the time between lighting and thunder. Explain what thunder and lightning are
- Read – start a chapter book or read as many picture books as they want
- Encourage – make a game out of telling each child what you like about them, what makes you proud of them, and what they are good at
Practice
- Sort change – dump change on a baking sheet and sort by size, color, or cleanliness
- Flash cards – numbers, letters, sight words
- Tape hopscotch – use masking tape – practice motor skills and counting
- Somersaults
- Learn and recite scripture memory verses
- Write the alphabet – big and small letters

Develop New Skills
- Gratitude list – help them write their own or start a gratitude journal
- Quiet time – set them up in a comfy space with their bible and those prayer cards – model what to do by doing your quiet time too
- Learning while cleaning – sort the toy box by color or shape as you clean it out and put things where they belong together
- Chores – at this age, it’s still fun to ‘help’. Put them to work matching socks, folding their own laundry and putting it away
- Photography – let them pick what to photograph and explore what different camera settings do
- Make music – find musical instruments (or make some). Record it
- Listen to classical music – explain what instruments are being played
- Tape balance beam – create a long straight or zig zag ‘balance beam’ out of masking tape
- Indoor scavenger hunt – make a list and send them hunting
- Yoga – kids can do yoga and they think it is pretty fun, especially with their own mat
- Hammer time – let them hammer golf tees into dense styrofoam, or for the more skilled child – nails into a board
- 10 Minute Challenges – so great!
Wow. This is a long and great list.
Thanks! It was actually a rainy-day project for me 🙂
I kinda love the marshmallows and toothpicks idea – I will use that one!
You cannot believe what amazing things you can build…bridges, buildings, catapults. Deliciously fun! Thanks for commenting and for following too!
Im putting some of your ideas on my bullet journal! Thanks for these!
You are welcome! Thanks for stopping by!
writing these on my bullet journal ! Thank you!
Thank you! Hope they bring some fun 😉
Posting this on the fridge for the next rainy day!
Excellent list!! Thanks for sharing