Fun Outdoor Games for Fourth of July and Summer Events

June 19, 2025 by Sarah White Leave a Comment

I’ve written a lot about different Fourth of July activities and crafts over the years (see links below) but one thing I haven’t touched on much is the Fourth of July party. A backyard hangout and barbecue is a classic event, so why not bring some fun outside with red, white and blue games the whole family can play?

Games like these can help develop fine motor skills, and getting kids up and moving is always a good idea. If adults join in, so much the better.

Six Clever Sisters has collected a dozen fun Fourth of July games you can make for the backyard to play for the holiday or any time during the summer.

A lot of these are regular sorts of backyard games like hitting targets with squirt guns or tossing balls into buckets, but given a red, white and blue twist for the patriotic holidays.

These games would be fun throughout the year regardless of whether you put a patriotic spin on them.

For example the tic tac toe game shown here, which is from Hey Let’s Make Stuff, would be cute with x’s and o’s painted in any colors you like. And of course you could make it even easier and just play on the sidewalk with red, white and blue chalk if you don’t have a ready supply of wooden letters.

Check out all the ideas for backyard party games for the Fourth of July at Six Clever Sisters.

Looking for more things to do for the Fourth of July with kids? Check out these posts from previous years for even more inspiration:

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Printable Letter Books for Preschoolers

I did a post earlier this year with activities and ideas for teaching the alphabet, but a lot or learning letters and recognizing them just has to do with seeing them and working with them a lot.

That means coloring, tracing, identifying things that start with different letters and more.

One way to reinforce the letters is through little activity books like these cute printable alphabet books from Life Over Cs.

These are available for free when you subscribe to her newsletter, and I’d say that’s well worth it if you have a little one (or a group of little ones!) working on the alphabet and letter recognition.

Each mini book includes a collection of things that start with that letter to color, color and read with words that start with the letter, tracing the letter, finding the letter in a grid and other coloring pages with objects that start with that letter.

These little books are super useful reinforcing the different letters and giving kids different activities related to the letters.

If you do a letter of the day or letter of the week you can use a new book for each one, and then keep the copies in your reading center or in a basket where kids can look at them again.

And of course you can add in all the other letter activities you like, go on a scavenger hunt for items that start with that letter, read alphabet books, practice writing letters in rice or with pompoms or playdough or whatever sensory activities you like.

You can grab the free printables when you enter you email address at Life Over Cs, and check out her other great alphabet resources and activities while you are over there.

Do you have favorite activities for teaching letters to kids? I’d love to hear about them!

[Photo: Life Over Cs]

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