Rainy days can sometimes feel like a challenge when kids are stuck indoors—but they don’t have to be!
Whether it's drizzling outside or mid-downpour, a gloomy day provides a great opportunity for creativity, connection, and fun. To keep the kids in your life occupied this rainy season, we’re so excited to share our free printable Rainy Day coloring page for kids to fill in as they complete the activities on it! From cozy crafts to active play, here’s our top 20 exciting rainy-day activities children will love.
Creative and Crafty Activities Ideas for a Rainy Day
- DIY Cardboard Creations: Give kids some old boxes and cardboard pieces, letting them create spaceships, castles, or a mini grocery store!
- Make your own Storybook: Encourage creativity by having kids write and draw out their own book, stapling pages together to make it an ‘official’ family read.
- Sensory Bin Exploration: Fill a spare bin with rice, pasta, or beans, hiding small toys of varying textures inside for a fun experience.
- Finger Painting Fun: Bring out safe paints, sticky fingers, and let children paint all afternoon! We love to even use cookie cutters as paint stamps for added fun.
- Sock Puppet Theatre: Decorate old or too-small socks with buttons and felt, and put on a puppet show with silly voices, music, and imaginative stories!
Active Indoor Play Ideas for a Rainy Day
- Indoor Obstacle Course: Use pillows, chairs, blankets and more to create a fun course kids can crawl under, jump over, and weave through.
- Balloon Tennis: Blow up a balloon, and use fly swatters or wooden spoons as rackets. Team up and keep it from touching the ground as it floats from room to room!
- Flashlight Hide-and-Seek: Perfect for a stormy evening, play hide-and-seek in the dark with flashlights to make it even more thrilling.
- Freeze Dance Party: A twist on musical chairs, put on some music and have a dance-off, freezing every time the music stops.
- Animal Charades: Easy for kids and adults to get in on the fun, take turns acting like different animals while others guess. We love this one for the giggles and movement!
Educational, Brain-Boosting Activities for a Rainy Day
- Puzzle Competition: Pull out some of the puzzles in the house, and challenge kids to complete them head-to-head or as a team as fast as possible!
- Kitchen Science Experiments: If you’re looking for something more hands-on, try conducting some simple experiments like a classic baking soda volcano.
- Storytime with a Twist: Read a beloved science-fiction or brainy book together, and then draw or act out an alternate ending, talking about its effect on characters.
- Board Game Bonanza: Dust out some of your favorite brain-boosting board games like Family Trivial Pursuit or Clue, and hold a family game tournament with snacks!
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Alphabet Scavenger Hunt: Challenge everyone in the house to find the most unique objects that start with each letter of the alphabet. Bonus points for creativity!
Relaxing and Cozy Activities for a Rainy Day
- DIY Hot Chocolate Bar: Let kids customize their own rainy day hot chocolate by laying out cups beside marshmallows, whipped cream, sprinkles, and more!
- Write Letters to Future You: Sit everyone down, listen to soft music, and write letters to your future selves. Seal them and set a date to open them later in the year!
- Indoor Beach Day: Lay out towels, put on swimsuits, sip lemonade, and play with water toys in the bathtub for an easy way to feel like you’re on vacation.
- Movie Marathon Time: Pick a theme (animated classics, adventure films, etc.) and enjoy a cozy movie day with popcorn and some Organic SuperFruit Freezie Pops!
- Create a Cozy Reading Nook: Gather blankets, pillows, and fairy lights to make a snug corner for reading favorite books together for the evening.
