Rainy Day Activities for Home and School

April 5, 2025 by Sarah White Leave a Comment

Years ago when my daughter was still a toddler and still at home all day, I compiled a list of 64 rainy day activities to do with your toddler (also great for sick days, or any other day you need something to do without a lot of effort or leaving the house). Some of these would work in a classroom or with a small group of kids, though some are pretty at-home specific.

I’ve also shared rainy day crafts before, but it feels like there’s always a need for fresh ideas of things to do when the weather is yucky.

It’s always good when you can get kids moving on inside only days, so why not build an indoor balance beam like this one from How We Learn, or make a full on obstacle course with things from around the house or in the classroom? You can use lines of tape for jumping or other motor activities; get ideas from Hands on As We Grow. They’ve also got a post about walking on pillows that is great for doing at home or adding to an obstacle course.

If you’ve got a garage or covered outdoor area you can make a chalk obstacle course, track for playing with cars (that’s How We Learn again) or just let kids draw with chalk.

Building with blocks is a classic rainy day activity, and you can also use blocks to make games, like this block ring toss game from Stir the Wonder. Or grab some balls and make up games like these from Frugal Fun 4 Boys and Girls.

Of course crafts are great for rainy days, too, and you can even make crafts you can enjoy when the weather is better, like this recycled wind chime craft (add some bells to make it really chime rather than just being decoration) from Rainy Day Mum.

I’d love to hear about some of the things you do with kiddos at home or in the classroom to make rainy days a little more fun!

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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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