50 Fun and Creative Spring Activities for Kids
When we were kids, playing outside was as natural as breathing. We’d fill our after school hours with play, siblings, friends, and imagination. But things are a little different now. Our kids have more options than we did. And, more often than we’d like, they choose to spend the most beautiful months of the year indoors playing video games, tapping a tablet screen, or watching YouTube—or they would if we let them.
With the first day of spring just around the corner, it’s up to us to help our children carry on our playtime traditions. This spring, you can share you favorite childhood crafts and activities with your kids and get the whole neighborhood off their tablets and outside enjoying the gorgeous spring weather. Here are 50 unplugged and super fun outdoor activities and craft ideas to get you started.
Essential springtime ideas for kids
- Find the best climbing tree in the neighborhood
- Have a neighborhood scavenger hunt
- Be a superhero and save the neighborhood
- Build a top secret fort out of cardboard boxes
- Play 4-square in the driveway
- Visit a botanical garden and see the new flowers
- Chase fireflies in the evening
- Have a family picnic
- Make a backyard obstacle course
- Decorate the cul-de-sac with sidewalk chalk
- Learn how to walk on a slackline
- Build a blanket fort inside on a rainy day
- Play backyard hide and seek
- Make (but don’t eat) mud pies and potions with things you find outside
- Help out in the garden with digging, weeding, and watering
- Make art projects and have a not-so-silent auction
- Play kick the can with friends
- Have a campout in the backyard
- Play explorers and document the strange neighborhood wildlife (aka the neighbor’s cat)
- Learn to hang upside down on the monkey bars
- Pick wildflowers for mom and dad
- Learn which trees are which from their spring flowers (myrtles, dogwoods, pears, etc.)
- Splash around in mud puddles when it rains
- Learn how to whistle with an acorn cap or piece of grass
- Roller skate with friends or siblings
- Make flower crafts like a necklace/crown
- Catch (and release!) tadpoles and critters
- Find shapes in the clouds and tell stories about them
- Go on a fishing trip with parents and siblings
- Play red rover in the yard
- Rummage in the garage for hidden treasure
- Play street hockey
- Race bikes
- Build a bird feeder and watch the baby birds start to fly
- Go geocaching
- Organize your own olympics with the neighborhood kids
- Bury treasure and make a treasure map
- Look for pretty rocks and stones (bonus for identifying them!)
- Leave tiny snacks out for the fairies in the yard and garden (they love acorns!)
- Make friendship bracelets
- Go to the farmer’s market and try a fruit/veggie you’ve never had before
- Organize a game of cul-de-sac kickball
- Play spies and go on a secret undercover mission
- Decorate bikes for a spring-themed neighborhood parade
- Hunt for 4-leaf clovers
- Have a hula hoop contest
- Set up a lemonade stand
- Play freeze tag
- Be pretend warriors and defend the house from imaginary invaders
- Create your own game or art activity and play it with friends or sibling
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Want to save this list for later? Click below for the free printable version. Frame it, cut it up and stick it in the bored box, or tack it to the fridge.
Whether running free in the neighborhood or making spring crafts with their siblings in the backyard, we love seeing our kids interact with the world around them and enjoy active play – especially when we know they’re safe. While some of these ideas are meant for the whole family, others are for kids to enjoy solo or with friends. Be sure to check out our tips for keeping kids safe and entertained during outdoor play with grab-and-go adventure packs.
Tell us in the comments: what games did you play when you were a kid? Do your kids play them, too?
