July brings us another wonderful month of summer fun! For our July preschool activities we’re learning about America and the 4th of July, and then diving into some fun summer themes. We’ll even spend a week having some dinosaur fun before ending the month learning about shapes. Here you’ll find a wide variety of engaging July preschool activities for little learners.
The free printable July kids’ activity calendar is full of fun things to do with kids at home or in the classroom. Use it yourself, or send a copy to parents so they have a little inspiration for hands-on fun and learning.
Read over the brief descriptions of the July preschool activities below. Then download your own free printable July activity calendar, and you’ll have a full month of activity ideas at your fingertips. The free download includes links to each post so you can click through online for more information, and you can also print it out to use as a quick reference.
We’re also always creating new activity ideas, and I know you want to stay up to date on those was well. In addition to an introduction to the activities originally included in the free printable calendar, I also add new activities we create related to each theme so you’ll have more options to choose from. Those are listed below each week’s original activity suggestions but are not reflected in the free printable calendar.
For some themes we have full theme planning guides and printable lesson plans. If those are available for a particular theme, there are also links to those resources included with the related weekly theme.
July Preschool Activity Themes
For our July preschool activities we’re exploring the following topics:
Week 1: America
Week 2: Watermelon
Week 3: Shells
Week 4: Dinosaurs
Week 5: Shapes
Note: The free printable does not include dates. Simply pick and choose which theme you want to do for each week, and change the order as necessary.
Week 1: America
LOW-PREP IDEAS…
- LEARN A SONG ABOUT THE USA: Pick your favorite patriotic song and learn it. Discuss what some of the phrases mean. The Star Spangled Banner is a great place to start.
- CREATE RED WHITE AND BLUE ART: Practice making stars. Then provide kids with white paper to create their own USA inspired art.
- WORK ON COLOR RECOGNITION WITH TODDLERS: Go on a scavenger hunt for red, white, and blue items. Gather them up. Sort them, Count them. Use them for additional learning activities.
America Activities from the Free Printable July Activity Calendar
Fireworks Straw Rocket – This easy fireworks straw rocket is super quick to make and so much fun for little ones to play with. It’s a fun STEM toy for 4th of July gatherings!
Jar Candle Craft – Jar candles are a fun summer craft for kids, and this one is perfect for Fourth of July. It looks GORGEOUS lit up at night.
4th of July Bracelet and Fireworks Rings – These DIY jewelry crafts make great little party favors if you are having a gathering. Kids can also wear them to community parades or 4th of July events. We also especially love using the fireworks rings to create fireworks paintings.
Yarn-Wrapped Star – This easy yarn-wrapped star craft is fun for kids of all ages. Hang it on display for the rest of the July.
Fireworks Play Dough – My kids always talk about fireworks for weeks after seeing them. They love how they light up the sky and make such pretty designs. Build on that excitement by inviting kids to create a “night sky” full of sparkly fireworks.
Additional Resources
America Theme Preschool Lesson Plans
Coming Soon! We’ll be releasing this theme in our shop in early June.
Week 2: Watermelon
LOW-PREP IDEAS…
- MAKE WATERMELON SHAPES: Cut large slices of watermelon. Then give kids basic 2D shape cookie cutters and have them press to cut out different shapes. Discuss the features of each shape (the number of sides, vertices, etc). Then eat it of course!
- PLANT SOME WATERMELON SEEDS: Even if you can’t grow the full watermelon vine it can be fun to watch the first stages of the growing process.
- W is for WATERMELON: Find all the objects in your home or classroom that start with /w/ like watermelon
Watermelon Theme Activities from the Free Printable July Activity Calendar
Watermelon Squish Bag – Sensory squish bags are fun for babies, toddlers and preschoolers. Kids love to squish the contents and watch what happens. As they do they are working those fine motor muscles in their hands that will help later with handwriting. This watermelon sensory bag is especially fun to place in the window. The sunlight looks so pretty coming through!
Watermelon Sensory Bin – This watermelon sensory bin uses water beads for some summer sensory play fun for kids, especially toddlers and preschoolers! But trust me, it’s fun for kids of all ages!
Watermelon Play Dough – This watermelon play dough invitation is SUPER easy! Add a bit of watermelon Koolaid and pink food coloring to your favorite homemade play dough recipe. It smells AMAZING!
Watermelon Art – This sponge painting art activity will invigorate the senses, spark creativity, and add in a little bit of math all in a tactile way!
Watermelon Sensory Tray – Practice writing numbers, letters, sight words and more in this fun watermelon sensory writing activity.
Additional Resources
Watermelon Theme Preschool Lesson Plans
Get a full week of watermelon theme lesson plans and activity ideas.
Watermelon theme lesson plans also available for home preschool.
Week 3: Shells
LOW-PREP IDEAS…
- SORT SHELLS: Invite kids to sort a set of shells. They might choose to sort by kind, size, or color After they sort them ask them to tell you how they sorted the set (this is also know as identifying the sorting rule if you want to incorporate that vocabulary). When they finished challenge them to think of another way to sort the same set of shells.
- BUILD LETTERS WITH SHELLS: Use shells as a tactile tool for building letters. Younger kids can use shells to build one letter of the alphabet. Kids who are ready can build their whole name if you have enough shells!
- PAINT SHELLS: Use some of your shells and tempera paint to create some seashell art. Kids can paint abstract designs or turn their shells into little shell creatures. Add in a few collage materials like googly eyes, sequins, and chenille stems to extend the fun.
Shell Activities from the Free Printable July Activity Calendar
Beach Small World and Sensory Play – Bring the beach to you with this fun beach small world invitation.
Beach Squish Bag – Use shells collected from a beach trip, sand, and just a few more simple items to create a beach squish bag.
Coconut Seashell Play Dough – The scent of this play dough automatically brightens our moods…it’s transports us to an imaginary beach vacation.
Seashell Counting Mats – Use your own collection of beach treasures, print out our beach theme counting mats, and use them to practice counting and beginning addition.
Seashell Sight Word Fine Motor Practice – For this tray seashell sensory writing tray we used a play dough base as our writing canvas and a pointed shell as a writing tool…this adds just enough novelty for even the most reluctant writers.
Additional Resources
Seashell Portraits Art Project
Shell Theme Preschool Lesson Plans
Get a full week of shell lesson plans and activity ideas.
Week 4: Dinosaurs
LOW-PREP IDEAS…
- DINOSAUR SYLLABLES: Work on phonemic awareness by clapping to count the syllables in your favorite dinosuar names. Make it even more fun by stomping like a dinosaur for each syllable.
- PAINT WITH DINOSAURS: Grab some plastic dinosaur toys and a bit of paint. Then use them to stamp paint dinosaur footprints for some process art fun.
- BUILD A DINOSAUR SMALL WORLD: Gather your dinosaurs and some loose parts to build a small world for pretend play. You might use natural materials like leaves, twigs, and rocks, or build your small world with blocks or Lego Duplo bricks.
Dinosaur Activities from the Free Printable July Activity Calendar
Dinosaur Small World – This dinosaur small world is one of our favorites to date! There are so many fun elements woven into it.
Dinosaur Counting Mats – Set out these free printable dinosaur counting play dough mats with various loose parts. As kids play they’re also learning to count, identify numbers and number words, and create sets for individual numbers.
Dinosaur Play Dough – Make your own sand play dough. Add in some toy dinosaurs and loose parts, and you have an amazing dinosaur play dough invitation kids will love playing with.
Beginning Sound Scavenger Hunt – Over the years I’ve noticed that weaving in dinosaur “eggs” during our dinosuar theme gets kids even more excited about a theme they already love. With that in mind I decided that our dinosaur beginning sound sort would be even more fun if we included dinosaur eggs. It was a hit!
Easy Dinosaur Craft – Sometimes you just need something EASY. For us low-prep craft projects are a great way to create together and chat. After reading some of our favorite dinosaur books we made this sparkly and easy dinosaur craft.
Additional Resources
Dinosaur Theme Preschool Lesson Plans
Get the dinosaur theme preschool lesson plans.
Dinosaur theme lesson plans also available for home preschool.
Week 5: Shapes
LOW-PREP IDEAS…
- GO ON A SHAPE HUNT: Scavenger hunts are always fun for kids! Pick a shape to focus on. Then have them search for different objects around you that are that shape (or have a surface that shape). This is great to do during car rides, too!
- MAKE SHAPES: There are so many ways for kids to explore making shapes. Try making shape snacks by giving kids assorted snack foods (pretzels, carrot sticks, etc) and encouraging them to make different 2-D shapes. As they do take time to discuss the attributes of each shape (the number of sides, the number of vertices–fancy word for corners, the similarities and differences between the length of the sides, etc)
- PLAY ATTRIBUTE I SPY: Gather a set of objects or toys that are differnet shapes and play I Spy. Give clues like…
-I spy an object that has three sides.
-I spy an object with four verticies.
-I spy an object with sides that are all the same length.
Shape Activities from the Free Printable July Activity Calendar
Shape of Me Book Activity – Introducing shapes to little learners? The Shape of Me and Other Stuff is a great book to start the discussion! If you aren’t familiar with the book, it is a simple text that encourages kids to think about the shape of things. The illustrations are in silhouette so kids can concentrate on the shape of things in a different way. We used this story as a sprinboard for an outdoor adventure and a shape matching game.
Scooping Shapes Water Play – This scooping shapes bubble water play is an example of how you can easily integrate specific skills into playtime.
Monster Shape Art – These are SO much fun! Kids create the most adorable Shape Monsters with this collage activity, and it’s a fun way to reinforce shape recognition. When we’re finished we use them for a few extension activities to layer in even more learning.
Stuffed Shape Craft – These stuffed shape crafts from Buggy and Buddy are fun to make, and you can use them for learning activities, too!
Play Dough Shape Mats – Using play dough to form shapes gives kids a lot of options! The can use dough cutters, use rollers to cut out shapes, create play dough snakes to form shapes, or mold shapes by hand. Here we add in an extra layer of fun and pretend play and invite kids to create play dough “pet food” in different shapes.
Get the Free Printable July Activity Calendar
Note: Updated version is slightly different from the one pictured here. It includes five weeks for July and does not have dates listed so that it can be used again and again from year to year.
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