Hello June! Hello Summer! While I hate to say goodbye to spring and all of its treasures, I absolutely love the slower pace that comes along with the summer months. Of course, we still like to mix in some fun and learning along the way. Throughout the month of June we start to dive into our preschool summer themes. Here you’ll find a wide variety of engaging June preschool activities for little learners.
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The free printable June 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. Note that this activity calendar includes Process Art as the first week. This theme was listed as the last week on the five-week May calendar and is intended to be used for the week that ends May and begins June.
Read over the brief descriptions of the June preschool activities below. Then grab your own free printable June activity calendar, and you’ll have a full month of activity ideas at your fingertips. The free printable 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.
June Preschool Activity Themes
For our June preschool activities we’re exploring the following topics:
Week 1: Process Art (continued from the end of May)
Week 2: Fish
Week 3: Ocean
Week 4: Summer
Week 5: Numbers
Note: The free printable does not include dates. Simply pick and choose which theme you want to do for each week in June, and change the order as necessary.
Week 1: Process Art
LOW-PREP IDEAS…
- NATURE ART: Head outdoors to collect small items from nature. Twigs, flower petals, small flowers, shells, and pebbles all work great! Once you’re back indoors let kids create with them freely. Use them as loose parts to create with over and over again, or glue favorite creations to a canvas of choice (paper, cardstock, cardboard, styrofoam, etc).
- FREE PAINTING WITH KITCHEN TOOLS: Go through your kitchen drawers and grab some items that will make fun designs (potato mashers, forks, spatulas, sponges, etc). Then let kids use paint and experiment with the different designs they can make. (A large roll of white paper can be great for these bigger projects!)
- BODY PART PAINTING: This one is messy…perfect for a summer afternoon! Grab that large roll of white paper again. This time let kids use their body parts to stamp paint! Painting with their feet is always fun, but you can also experiment with handprints, fingerprints, and elbows. After this one we just hose everybody down or set up a small baby pool!
Process Art Activities from the Free Printable June Activity Calendar
Slinky Painting– Did you play with slinkys when you were a kid? Me too! I loved them, but I never used them this way!
Bleeding Tissue Paper Art– Have you used bleeding tissue paper before? It’s a bit like magic, and the art creations are GORGEOUS!
Ping Pong Painting– Combining movement and art is always a win in my opinion. Have you ever played with DIY shooters to launch things like pompoms, marshmallows, ping pong balls and more? That was our inspiration for this ping pong shooter painting!
Yarn Stamp Painting-I love the bold patterns made by this yarn stamp art process.
Flower Garden Stamp Painting– Do you have pipe cleaners at home? Use them to make stamps for process art garden project.
A to Z Process Art Ideas
Get process art ideas for every letter of the alphabet.
Read more about using process art to reinforce letter recognition.
Week 2: Fish
LOW-PREP IDEAS…
- GO TO A PET STORE TO WATCH THE FISH: Do not underestimate how much fun this is for kids and how long they will stand there watching all the fish swim around.
- GO FISHING: Head to a local pond and try to do some fishing…or if you’re not up for that. Go to a local dock where OTHER people are fishing and watch.
- DO SOME RESEARCH: Choose a kind of fish to research and learn more about together. Head to the library and do some searching together on the internet to see what you can find out!
Fish Theme Activities from the Free Printable June Activity Calendar
Marbled Fish Art-Marbled shaving cream art is a very easy process art activity. What we love about it is how unique every creation is. Even with the same colors and shaving cream each piece of art turns out very different. It’s also a great way to create art with young kids.
For our fish theme we turned the creations we made into fish, and they turned out amazing!
Potato Masher Fish Art-Here’s one more way we used process art to create our own unique tropical fish. During our fish theme we use these art projects to make a large underwater ocean mural.
Fish Play Dough– Set up this fish play dough invitation so kids can create their own underwater scenes and stories.
Fork Painted Fish Art-Use a fork to paint “scales” and create another fish art project for your ocean mural.
Roll and Color Fish Math– This free printable excerpt from the full summer fish math games set can be used to practice identifying numbers that are one less than the number kids roll on their game cube.
Additional Resources
Preschool Fish Theme Planning Guide
Fish Theme Preschool Lesson Plans
Get a full week of fish theme lesson plans and activity ideas.
Fish theme lesson plans also available for home preschool.
Week 3: Ocean
LOW-PREP IDEAS…
- MOVE LIKE A SEA CREATURE: Brainstorm a list of ways different sea creatures move. Then have some fun moving like each of them.
- CHOOSE A SEA CREATURE TO RESEARCH: Pick on sea creature to learn more about. Then find books, videos, and additional information to learn some new facts together.
- CREATE AN UNDERWATER MURAL: Use a large piece of cardboard, blue butcher paper, or canvas and work on a collaborative undewater mural as you learn about different sea creatures throughout the week. (Bonus: If you started a mural last week for the fish theme, continue adding details to it.)
Ocean Activities from the Free Printable Ocean Activity Calendar
Sea Life Sensory Bag-Make an ocean inspired sensory squish bag for mess-free sensory play.
Egg Carton Sea Life-I love when craft projects can be used for pretend play! This egg carton sea life set is just perfect for that. We made an entire coral reef and then used it for story telling and pretend play
Coral Reef Play Dough-Learn about coral reefs. Then set up this play dough invitation for kids to act out some of the things they’ve learned and engage in pretend play.
Jellyfish Process Art-Create unique jellyfish in this easy process art activity. No paintbrushes required!
Ocean ABC Sensory Bin-Put together a quick prep ocean theme ABC sensory bin that will allow kids to engage in sensory play while also practicing letter recognition and matching upper and lowercase letters.
Additional Resources
Preschool Ocean Theme Planning Guide
Ocean Theme Preschool Lesson Plans
Get a full week of ocean lesson plans and activity ideas.
Ocean theme lesson plans also available for home preschool.
Week 4: Summer
LOW-PREP IDEAS…
- MAKE A SUMMER BUCKET LIST: At the beginning of each season it has become one of our traditions to make a bucket list. I let the girls drive this and come up with the most memorable ideas they want to do again from years’ past, and then we sprinkle in a few new things. We focus on experiences here, and it makes for a great summer! You can take a peak at some summer bucket list inspiration via the profile link today.
- MAKE POPSICLES: Tie it a bit of science and creativity and come up with your own popsicle recipes to try throughout the summer.
- PLAY IN THE SPRINKLERS: This is a classic for a reason! Kids of all ages have fun playing in the hose or sprinklers. You can even teach them how to make a rainbow with the hose for a little bit of science! (Inspiration for DIY Sprinklers here.)
Summer Activities from the Free Printable June Activity Calendar
Lemon Sensory Play– Have you ever made homemade lemonade with kids? If so, you’ve probably noticed that they would go on playing long after the juice is squeezed from all those lemons. After making a few batches of lemonade a few summers back, I decided to let the kids have their own lemon sensory bin for water play so they could continue their play long after we had finished making our newest pitcher of lemonade.
I am not exaggerating when I tell you they spent HOURS playing and making their own “lemonade” and lemon-inspired concoctions
Water Balloon Play– Water balloons are another summer must have in our house. I stock up on them at the beginning of summer, and we use them for all sorts of activities. First and perhaps our most favorite is a massive water fight to kick off the start of summer. We fill bins of water for water shooters and place bins of water balloons around the yard, and we all join in the fun! It’s one of our most memorable summer experiences each year. Visit the Water Balloon Pla link for TONS of water balloon play and learning ideas to try this summer.
Water Shooter Tie-Dye-Talk about a memorable summer experience! Go BIG and use water shooters to tie-dye.
Roll and Say Summer ABC Game-Practice letter naming or sounds with this free printable summer alphabet game.
Water Balloon Parachute-Turn a plastic grocery bag into a water balloon parachute in this fun science activity.
Additional Resources
Read, Play, Create Summer Activities for Kids
Gail Gibbons Books and Activities Perfect for Summer
Summer Theme Preschool Lesson Plans
Get the summer theme preschool lesson plans.
Week 5: Numbers
LOW-PREP IDEAS…
- FIND NUMBERS & DISCUSS THEIR PURPOSE: Spend some time looking for and identifying numbers around your home or classroom. Discuss the different purpose of the numbers you find. For example addresses help us find houses, numbers on a clock help us tell time, numbers on money help us identify value.
- BUILD NUMBERS: Use small toys, manipulatives or loose parts to build numbers.
- IDENTIFY ONE MORE: Grab a deck of cards (use only those with numbers). Flip one card. Have kids name the number that is one more. (Once kids can do this with ease have them identify one less)
Number Activities from the Free Printable June Activity Calendar
Listen & Spray Counting Game– In addition to listening, counting and the excitement of getting to spray water, this activity also promotes fine motor skills as children are actively gripping and pushing the sprayer.
Domino Number Sense Math-Number sense is such an important skill, and it takes a lot of practice for kids to really own it. This dry erase more and less game is great for independent practice or math centers.
Rainbow Fish Counting Play Dough-There are so many possibilities with play dough! Of course we love to do open-ended sculpting and create scenes for pretend play, but you can also weave many academic skills into play dough activities.
Build and Break Math Play-Have a little one who loves to build? This activity is a fun way to build on that enthusiasm and integrate some math at the same time. Cue a whole lot of Solo cups and a ball! This build and break math activity is an excellent boredom buster that promotes number recognition, counting, one-to-one correspondence, and even a little bit of science.
Ping Pong Count & Push-Have a little one who loves to build? This activity is a fun way to build on that enthusiasm and integrate some math at the same time. Cue a whole lot of Solo cups and a ball! This build and break math activity is an excellent boredom buster that promotes number recognition, counting, one-to-one correspondence, and even a little bit of science.
Additional Resources
Preschool Math Skills and Printable Activities List
More Hands-on Math Games
Play roll and color math games to learn numbers and more.
Get the Roll and Color Math Bundle.
Get the Free Printable June Activity Calendar
Note: Updated version is slightly different from the one pictured here. It includes five weeks for June and does not have dates listed so that it can be used again and again from year to year.
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