47 Summer Crafts for Preschoolers to Make this Summer!
Super easy summer crafts for preschoolers contain over 47 arts and crafts to keep your preschool aged child busy this summer. We love hands on summer crafts for preschoolers and these are sure to please your toddlers, too! Oh yes, we are heading into that lovely SUMMER season!! Let your little ones creativity rund wilde these long warm sunny days.
It is great to take the day a bit slower and enjoy the sunshine. Though summer is leisurely (and we love it) there also seems MORE TIME to fill with the kids… fear not. I have LOTS of Fun Summer Crafts heading your way (as always), but also thought it would be useful to pull together this list of Summer Crafts for Preschoolers!
I often find there is a grey area between summer crafts for toddlers and preschoolers – the differentiation is often based on the development and interests of your child…but I do think many of these lovely Summer Crafts for Preschoolers are suitable for the slightly young toddler too! I hope you agree with me! We have another section on Summer Crafts for Kids (are more general age group) coming soon. So WATCH THIS SPACE! Obvious Summer Crafts include How to Press Flowers and DIY Bubble Recipe.. but there is SO MUCH MORE to Summer!
As before, I have tried to group this extensive collection of summer crafts into browse sections. SOMETIMES a craft fits into two areas, so I have repeated them. Hopefully that will be useful, rather than irritating! Your Preschoolers may also love these 5 Free Beach Coloring Pages too. Do check them out!
Let’s take a peak at the craft projects I have for you today! Needless to say kids of all ages can enjoy these, but I am hoping their are especially fun for toddlers and preschoolers!
Summer Crafts for Preschoolers
I have tried to group the tutorials a little bit by theme, for quick and easy browsing. I have also kept to simple materials, avoiding the need for unnecessary purchases (e.g. t-shirts for tie dying or hacking up pool noodles.. save that for the older kids and keep this summer inexpensive!).
Nature Summer Crafts for Preschoolers (excl. Shells & Sand, see below for those!)
We love crafting with nature. Nature finds are so easy to get hold of in the Summer months. We all spend more time outdoors – at the park, the beach or the garden. See what you can find and the create some of these wonderful and easy Summer Crafts for preschoolers!
The best ideas involve NATURE!!! There is so much fun stuff you can do.
- Stick Men
- Grass heads (seriously one of my favourite summer crafts for kids EVER)
- Nature Fairy Houses (Summer Fairy House version here)
- Nature Play Ideas (a collection of 12 “just add nature” play ideas… nothing else needed, perfect holiday activity)
- Stone tic tac toe
- How to Press Flowers
- Leaf Crowns (technically we did these in Autumn, but they are lovely all year round)
- Nature Bug Hotel
- DIY Mini Indoor Garden to grow and look after
- Flower Crowns
- Flower Play
- Stone Ladybugs
Feeling inspired? We have an extensive list of Easy Nature Crafts for Kids to explore!
Beach Summer Crafts for Preschoolers – Shells, Sea Glass & Sand
This is a section SPECIFICALLY for breach related crafts – whether you are crafting with sand, pebbles or shells or creating a summer craft that represent beach fun.. check out these summer craft ideas!
- Sea Shell Pendants – this a super cute little project that small hands can manage! You can make these with sea shells, rocks, snail shells – anything you find really!
- Gorgeous Sea Glass Turtles
- Sea Shell Mobile
- Shell Crab Fridge Magnet and Shell Turtle Fridge Magnet – I made these “old school” using just a good PVA glue, but a glue gun would make these even easier to create.
- Sea Glass Christmas Ornaments (turn your summer collections into Christmas keepsakes!)
- Sea Shell Heart Ornaments
- Sand Art Greeting Cards
- Sand Art Collage
- Shell Rattle
- Salt Dough Crab and Turtle Fridge Magnets (ok not technically “nature” crafting, but they fit well in this section!
Want to see the Sea Shell Mobile in action? Take a look at the video playing on this page 🙂
Want more Shell Crafts? Take a look at our Collection of Fun Shell Craft Ideas.
Summer Crafts for Preschoolers you can play with & decorate your home
We love crafts for preschoolers that you can have lots of fun with! The summer crafts in this section are great for decorating your home or for playing with.
- DIY Bubble Recipe (with TON more Bubble Activities for you here)
- Beaded Bubble Wands
- Paper shooter toys
- Toilet Paper Roll Mermaid Craft – crafting with a cardboard tube is super fun.. and they make the perfect mermaids!
- Mermaid Clothes Pegs
- Easy Flower Cards
- Pinwheel DIY
- Summer Jar Lanterns
- Paper fans (make the plainer ones with preschoolers.. and the melon ones with older kids)
- TP Roll Binoculars for Summer Adventures more fun with toilet paper rolls!
- DIY Photo Journal (get kids into photography)
- Juice carton bird feeder
- TP Roll Mini Beasts – yep cardboard tube crafts really are the best!
- Bubble Wrap Printing Rain Cloud
- Adorable Pirate Finger Puppets (so cute and fun!!!)
Summer Art for Preschoolers
Summer is a great time to get arty – especially when you go “big” or go “messy”. But of course, summer art does not have to be either of these things. There are lots of other summer art projects to explore! We particularly love the “four seasons” explorations we did over the years – a great way to celebrate summer and discuss the seasons.
- Splat Painting (and flag making)
- Giant Painting
- Summer Four Seasons exploration
- Giant Flower Collage
- Bubble Art Butterflies
- Footprint Fish Collage
- DIY Sun Prints (no special paper needed, this is SO SO cool!)
Boat Summer Crafts for Preschoolers
We love boats. Especially boats that you can PLAY with. 3 out of the 4 boats below are great for a bit of water fun too!
- Cork boats – this a super fun little activity that is so easy to make. Replace the pirate sails with leaf sales, and you can have hours or wet play fun!
- Paper boats (ok you may have to make these FOR them.. but they are so simple and fun)
- Egg Carton Boats – love the use of popsicle sticks and old art work for the sails
- Upcycled Crocs Boats (funny!)
You can see the adorable Cork Boats here –
Butterfly Summer Crafts for Preschoolers
Summer to me is all about sunshine, sea, beach, but also butterflies and bees buzzing around you, as you enjoy the warm weather. This section is dedicated to the wonderful Butterfly.
- Coffee Filter Butterflies these can also be made with paper towels if you don’t have coffee filters to hand
- Cork Butterflies
- Bubble Art Butterflies
- Paper Butterfly Mobile (includes a butterfly hatching activity, just wonderful)
- Preschoolers may also be ready for these darling Paper Butterflies?
- Paper butterfly shooter toys
- We also have some fabulous Butterfly Colouring Sheets for you!
- And I reckon these TP Roll Love Bugs, make great butterflies too!
If you are interested in more Butterfly Crafts, we have a whole section dedicated to them here.
Paper Plate Summer Crafts for Preschool:
Finally.. a round up of summer crafts for preschool, would not be the same without some fabulous Summer Paper Plate Crafts. Here are some of the most fun! You simply HAVE to see our Under the Sea Paper Plate Crafts special edition post too. Many more ideas to go with the ones below!
- Rocking Paper Plate Submarine (this really is fun and OH SO CUTE!)
- Gorgeous Rocking Paper Plate Mermaids
- Cutest Paper Plate Mermaid Twirler
- Check out our gorgeous giant Paper Plate Flower craft! So pretty and mom will love to display them!
- Paper Plate Rainbow Fish Craft
- Here is the original Paper Plate Sun Craft and here is a second version
- Or get the kiddos making this Paper Plate Sunflower Craft for mama.
- Paper Plate Turtle Craft
- Easy Paper Plate Watermelon Craft – a great little fruit craft! Can you come up with other ideas for the kids to paint? Maybe some pineapples to go with your melons?
- Easy Paper Plate Bee Craft
- Paper Plate Seashell Craft
And a sneak peak of the Ocean Paper Plate Crafts here:
More wonderful Summer Crafts for Preschoolers from Blogs I love.
And finally, we have some EXTRA Summer Crafts for Preschoolers from sites that we love!
- How about some science with these Best Science Experiments for Kids?
- Handprint Campfire Popsicle Stick Craft
- Colorful Pasta Fish Craft
- Ice Cream Cone Craft
- Beachball Craft
- Starfish Ocean Craft
- Cupcake Liner Hot Air Balloon Craft
- Yarn Flower Crafts for Kids
- Cupcake Liner Turtle Craft
I hope you enjoyed these Summer Crafts for Preschoolers!! Don’t forget to check back soon for more fabulous ideas!