Ultimate Health Report

If the words ‘I’m bored’ make you cringe, this list of fun Outdoor Activities for Kids is your solution for getting your kids outdoors, moving their bodies, and having fun in the sunshine! Scroll for my free printable with all 75 kids outdoor activities.

Why is Outdoor Play Important?

When the weather is nice, it should be easy to get your kids to go outside to play. Right? But kids can be surprisingly reluctant to skip out the door for playtime.

Many kids in the upcoming generation are replacing outdoor play with indoor, sedentary activities like iPad games, texting, or social media. They’re also more involved in knowledge-based downtime like homework and studying than kids from past generations.

Studies have shown that kids who spend more time outside might be happier and more relaxed. Time outdoors can even improve short-term memory, concentration and cognitive skills. (It’s almost like nature makes us smarter… amazing!)

75 Fun Outdoor Activities for Kids

1. Go on a bug hunt. Give your kids a container and have them collect different kinds of bugs. Or print a picture list of bugs and have them identify bugs and mark them off the list.
2. Turn your yard into an obstacle course. Use cones, sticks, a hula hoop, and other items from your garage or backyard to create fun obstacles.
3. Organize an outdoor playdate.  It is always more fun when your kids have friends to play with and they are most likely to want to stay outside longer.
4. Let your kids plant a mini-garden.  If they are in charge of it, then they will have to go outside to water, weed and watch over it.
5. Help your kids built a fort outside with a rope and an old sheet.   Suggest other items that might be fun for them to use on their fort.
6. Go for regular walks, bike rides or runs as a family.  Many urban communities have trails and bike paths through parks, riverways or lakefronts.
7. Have a picnic lunch at the playground or park.
8. Create an outdoor scavenger hunt where your kids collect items from nature.
9. Try geocaching. If you have never heard of it, geocaching is a real outdoor treasure hunting game using GPS-enabled devices.  You navigate to a specific set of GPS coordinates and then attempt to find the geocache hidden at that location.  This is a great guide to get you started.
10. Make a bucket list of different parks you want to try and visit.
11. Blow gigantic bubbles. Fill up a sheet pan with a bubble mixture and dip an over-sized wand to see who can blow the biggest bubble.
12. Play with water. Kids will jump at the chance to go outside and splash in water. There are lots of creative ways to do it: wash the car, water the garden, run through sprinklers, go down slip-n-slide, jump in blow up pool, or build a water table.
13. Try a new sport. Sometimes a friendly game of dodgeball, wiffle ball, or soccer is a great way to get kids to enjoy playing outside.
14. Make Sidewalk Art. Give your kids a big bucket of sidewalk chalk and let them go to town. Give them some ideas with printed photos, or even stencils to color with.
15. Take your kids ‘bouldering.’  Kids love to climb on things. Take them somewhere that has rocks available to climb.
16. Eat dinner on your porch, deck or in your backyard.
17. Make a boat to float down a stream. Your kids will be eager to test it out, but you will probably have to go on a hike to get to a stream!
18. Create challenges for your kids to do outside, like in the TV show ‘Survivor’.  This is even more fun if there is a prize at the end (one on one time with Mom or Dad, a night off of helping clean the kitchen, etc.)
19. Use an outdoor toy rotation strategy. Kids are lot more excited to play with toys they haven’t seen in a while or can’t access. Divide your outdoor toys into 3 bins, and have one big bucket of toys out at a time. This might include bubbles, balls, kites, jump ropes, skateboards, sports equipment, and water squirters.
20. Make an outdoor activity jar. This helps with kids who have a hard time thinking of things to do, or making decisions. Write different activities on popsicle sticks. Let your kids choose an activity and then head outside. Make the activities easy to act on – go to the park for 15 minutes, water the plants, set up a water shooting range, pick a dandelion bouquet, draw something with sidewalk chalk. There are so many fun ideas!
21. Do your normal everyday activities outside. Do homework, eat meals, craft, read books, or play games all outside! Even if you don’t have a formal outdoor living space, find some shade and throw down a blanket!
22. Outside art projects. If you are tired of your kids projects making a mess in your house, then bring them outside! A few fun ideas: a playdough picnic, where you let your kids make pretend food out of playdough. Nature art – collect leaves, flower, sticks, seeds, and pine cones to make natural artwork. Outdoor painting – bring an easel and paint out to your backyard so your kids can enjoy painting nature scenes.
23. Star gaze, or look for shapes in clouds. Set up a blanket, binoculars or a telescope and enjoy the sky!
24. Have a bonfire. Make sure you practice good fire safety habits and supervise all campfire activities.  But this is a great way to bond with your family, create memories and enjoy the outdoors.
25. Clean up Litter. Kids can be surprisingly passionate about caring for mother nature (and proud of their efforts!) You can also make it a game: a mission to save the planet!
26. Find a local race to participate in. Push a jogging stroller if needed for younger kids and run together as a family.
27. Ride scooters, bikes or tricycles. Set up a mini race and compete on wheels.
28. Have your kids pull weeds. We pay our kids one penny per weed and it definitely gets them outside in the yard
29. Find a local ‘pick your own’ and let your kids pick produce straight from the plant.
30. Play Bug or Leaf Bingo. Find 10 different bugs or leaves and identify them.
31. Photograph nature. Let our kids borrow your phone camera and see how many different types of wildlife they can find and photograph.
32. Sidewalk Chalk Games. Here are some really fun ideas to do with sidewalk chalk.
33. Make a movie in your backyard with your phone camera.
34. Make paper airplanes and have a contest to see whose plane can fly the furthest.
35. Gather sticks and make a stick raft. Can your kids build a raft that really floats?
36. Make Sponge Water Bombs and have a water fight.
37. Make Tie-Dye Shirts. Use old white shirts or buy inexpensive white shirts and tie dye them in your backyard.
38. Paint Pet Rocks and place them around your yard.
39. Go fishing.
40. Play frisbee.
41. Have a campfire and s’mores
42. Go kayaking. You can rent kayaks if you don’t own any and go in a local lake, river or pond.
43. Make a time capsule and bury it with your kids.
44. Go Camping in the backyard.
45. Ride bikes on a trail.
46. Run through sprinklers.
47. Water balloon fight.
48. Play a game of kickball.
49. Play capture the flag. For older kids, take it to the next level and fill socks with flour and to ‘tag’ an opponent, you have to tap them with your flour sock.
50. Have a watermelon seed spitting contest.
51. Attend an outdoor concert.
52. Create your own lemonade stand. Even if your kids don’t sell much, they will have fun waiting for potential customers outside.
53. Go ice blocking. You just need a block of ice, towel and a grassy hill.
54. Create a backyard spa with a kiddie pool.
55. Make ice cream in a bag. This is a great recipe and instructions.
56. Set up a treasure hunt outside.
57. Write nice messages on neighbors driveways with sidewalk chalk.
58. Make a fairy garden.
59. “Cook” with mud. Get some old dishes, pots or pans and let your kids make mud pies.
60. Create rock stacks and see how high your kids can stack rocks before they tip over.
61. Make your own puffy sidewalk paint. Make it with common household items.
62. Make a frozen ocean and have your kids rescue the ocean animals from the ice.
63. Set up a scooter/bike obstacle course. Use small plastic cones or something similar to create a course and have your kids ride their bikes or scooters through it. Time them, and see if they can improve their time each round.
64. Go bird watching with binoculars.
65. Make a sandcastle village.
66. Decorate bikes and have your own parade in your neighborhood.
67. Spray bottle water fight. Fill inexpensive spray bottles with water and go crazy!
68. Try a sidewalk science project. These outdoor science projects are learning and getting outside at the same time!
69. Make a butterfly feeder and watch for butterflies.
70. Have a whip cream battle. Give each kid a bottle of spray whip cream and let them battle it out in the backyard.
71. Play with an old sheet on a windy day. Let your kids use the sheet as a cape or sail in the wind.
72. Collect acorns, pinecones, and seed pods and use them to stamp playdough.
73. Build a bug hotel and check it for any friendly creatures everyday.
74. Have a hula hoop contest to see how long you can hold it up for.
75. Play jump rope games. All you need is a jump rope and some game ideas.

How To Help Your Kids Get Outdoors

Kids model their parents behavior in a lot of ways. If you want your kids to get outdoors more, getting outdoors yourself is a great way to help your kids! Creating fun outdoor experiences as a family, is a great way to start creating a regular habit of playing outdoors.

There are so many fun, simple, and creative ways to help your kids get outside–and they don’t have to cost a lot of money, time, or planning. Print this list and get your kids involved!

Free Printable Outdoor Activity Ideas for Kids

Just click on the photo below for the printable version of this list!