20+ Outdoor Activities for Toddlers

My perfect day consists of spending ample time outside. My buddies and I spend as many hours in the outdoors as we can! Most of our time is spent exploring, riding bikes, or water play. However, I’m of the firm belief that every thing you do inside can and should be done outside! I mean, who doesn’t want to learn math facts in the great outdoors?! But sometimes it’s fun to open up your own backyard summer camp for a few hours.

SUPPLY LIST

Pool Noodles

Hula Hoops (Five Below had a set of 6 agility hoops that came in a carrying bag, see if you can get your hands on one!)

Sand Buckets

Bubble Wand and Bubbles

Playground Balls

Water Squeeze Balls (They are found in the pool toy area)

Small balls and bowls

Large plastic container or kiddie pool

Fishing or Butterfly Net

Water Beads

Soft Blocks

Toilet Plunger

Monster Feet Stilts (I found these at 5 Below as well!)

Large Butcher Paper and Tape

Stamps or Paints

Scavenger Hunts

First up, we kept things really simple and classic. A good old fashioned obstacle course! This can of course be scaled for your children’s ages. We started with noodles on the ground to hop over and a few hoops to jump into.

After we mastered this course, we added a new hurdle. Literally!

I just put rocks in the bottom of the sand buckets and laid the noodle over the top! You could go all out with this hurdle if you feel the need!

E’s action shots throughout this entire day are some of my favorites!

For another twist, E wanted to crawl under the noodle.

Again, feel free to make this as complicated or easy as you want!

If you want some good belly laughs, give your toddler a pool noddle and a ball to move around the yard!

Try setting up a few hoops upright to create a goal!

After golfing practice, we turned to target practice with balls and hoops. We tried to get the balls inside by throwing. You could also try kicking or batting with noodles.

Did you catch the toilet plunger on the supply list?! It wasn’t a mistake, I promise! A new clean plunger makes the perfect standing large scale ring stacker or target for throwing balls. It is also a fun painting tool.

I turned a noodle into a hoop by just taping the ends together. This makes a great frizzbee! E wanted to see if she could fit through it!

These monster feet stilts were such an awesome find at 5 Below. All the elementary school gym vibes! This is such a great way for your older toddler to explore herself in space plus using max effort helps grow those muscles.

Onto the water fun! My nanny family does have a water table that we use often. I love using this long deep storage container for games because it’s big!

This set up was used for a few different thing. The bowls (found in the summer section at the dollar tree, they’re for ice cream!) made perfect throwing targets for the balls. Great for counting and one to one correspondence practice. However, the kids got right to pouring!

Here’s J tossing balls into the bowls.

Then we added a fishing net for a new gross motor challenge. The motor planning required for this task is tremendous.

For some fine motor work, I put these squeeze balls into a bucket with water and showed the kids how to squeeze the balls into the empty bucket. This also makes a fund relay style race game. Have children run between the two buckets to see who can fill theirs the most before time is up!

There’s nothing more calming than playing with a tub of water beads!

This set of foam blocks that just screams outdoor to me!

I love making big art pieces outside. Less mess, more gross muscle growth! Taping large paper onto a fence or wall equals a massive canvas which is also great for shoulder strength.