21 Rainy Day Activities for Preschoolers

Rainy days can feel like they drag on forever, especially when you’re stuck inside with a preschooler who’s eager to move, play, and explore. But don’t worry, because these rainy day activities will keep little hands and minds busy for hours!!

From building castles to making sensory bins, these ideas are fun, easy to set up, and designed to turn any gloomy day into an exciting indoor adventure. Plus, most of these activities use simple items you already have at home, so you won’t need to make a special trip to the store.

Why You’ll Love These Rainy Day Activities

These rainy day activities are perfect for keeping your preschooler entertained without any complicated setup. They encourage imaginative play, help burn off energy, and promote fine motor development.

Plus, they give you a chance to spend quality time together while helping your child explore new ways to be creative. Each activity is designed to be flexible, so you can adapt it based on your child’s interests or the supplies you have on hand.

The best part? All the activities are easy to follow with step-by-step tutorials. Simply click on the title of each activity to get a detailed guide on how to set it up and get started!

Rainy Day Crafts for Preschoolers

Mega Block Jumping

What You’ll Need: Mega Blocks or painter’s tape
How to Set Up: Lay out blocks in a line, tape them down with painter’s tape, and have your child jump from one block to the next.

Jumping Frog

What You’ll Need: Paper cup, scissors, google eyes, glue and construction paper, elastic band
How to Set Up: Cut out a frog shape from paper, create a jumping apparatus using an elastic band and two paper cups, and let your child jump it across the floor.

Find the full step by step tutorial here.

Cardboard Box Castle

What You’ll Need: Large cardboard boxes, paint or paint sticks, cotton fluff, tape, paper towel roll, scissors
How to Set Up: Stack boxes and tape them together to build a castle. Cut out a door and windows. Attached towers and add detail using foam sheets.Then let your child decorate it with paint or paint sticks. Place on another piece of cardboard and cover it with cotton fluff.

Find the full step by step tutorial here.

Cloud Dough

What You’ll Need: Flour, baby oil, sensory bin and sand toys
How to Set Up: Mix flour and baby oil together to create a soft, moldable dough for sensory play. Add bowl, scooper or sand toys.

Paper Plate Cloud Rainbow Craft

What You’ll Need: Paper plates, cotton balls, colored paper, glue
How to Set Up: Glue cotton balls on the paper plate to create a cloud, then add strips of colored paper for the rainbow.

Q-Tip Rainy Day Craft

What You’ll Need: Q-tips, blue and white paper, glue
How to Set Up: Cut out clouds, glue q-tips underneath to create raindrops.

Cloud Suncatcher

What You’ll Need: Contact paper, white and blue tissue paper, black paper
How to Set Up: Cut out outline of cloud and raindrops. Place on contact paper, add tissue paper then add another sheet on top. Display on window using double side tape for a suncatcher effect.

Bubble Wrap Road

What You’ll Need: Bubble wrap, markers, tape and cars
How to Set Up: Draw a road on bubble wrap and let your child drive toy cars over it.

LEGO Body Trace

What You’ll Need: LEGO bricks, large sheet of paper, markers
How to Set Up: Trace your child’s body on the paper, then use LEGO bricks to outline and fill it in.

Giant Dots & Boxes

What You’ll Need: Paper, markers
How to Set Up: Draw a grid of dots on paper and take turns connecting them to make boxes.

Book Drop

What You’ll Need: Books, cardboard box
How to Set Up: Cup a hole in the top of a cardboard box and let your child “drop” them into the box for a simple coordination game.

Build a Book Rainbow

What You’ll Need: Books in different colors
How to Set Up: Organize books by color and stack them in a rainbow pattern.

Construction Site Sensory Bin

What You’ll Need: Black rice, mini rocks, construction toy trucks, sensory bin
How to Set Up: Fill a bin with black rice and mini rocks snd and let your child drive trucks through it, creating their own construction site.

Find the full step by step tutorial here.

Green Eggs and Ham Sensory Bin

What You’ll Need: Kinetic sand, toy eggs, green Pom Poms, foam sheets (white and green) and utensils
How to Set Up: Create a sensory bin with kinetic sand and toy eggs for a themed playtime inspired by the book. Create the green eggs using the foam sheets.

Find the full step by step tutorial here.

Rainbow Rice Maze Run Sensory Bin

What You’ll Need: Colored rice, sensory bin, cardboard tubes, duct tape, measuring cups or scoopers, scissors
How to Set Up: Pour rainbow-colored rice into a bin and create maze using the cardboard tubes and duct tape for a fun sensory challenge.

Find the full step by step tutorial here.

Cloudy Day Sticky Wall

What You’ll Need: Contact paper, cotton balls, blue and yellow paper, masking tape
How to Set Up: Stick contact paper on the wall (sticky side out) and let your child add cotton balls and tissue paper to create a cloudy sky.

Find the full step by step tutorial here.

Pasta Raindrop Threading

What You’ll Need: Blue-dyed pasta, string, paper, tape and glue
How to Set Up: Let your child thread blue pasta onto string to create “raindrops.”

Find the full step by step tutorial here.

Cloud Raindrop Name

What You’ll Need: Paper, scissors, markers
How to Set Up: Cut out a cloud and raindrop shapes, write letters of your child’s name on the raindrops, and glue them to the cloud.

Cupcake Liner Umbrella Rain Craft

What You’ll Need: Cupcake liners, markers, glue
How to Set Up: Flatten cupcake liners to create umbrellas, then draw raindrops around them.

Rainbow Matching

What You’ll Need: Colored paper, markers
How to Set Up: Cut out different colored paper shapes and let your child match them to the corresponding colors.

Letter R Rain

What You’ll Need: Paper, sharpie, blue paint in two shades, toilet paper roll
How to Set Up: Draw a large “Rr” on the paper at the top inside a cloud and letters “Rr’s” all below along with other letters. Pour paint on bowl or plate. Shape toilet paper roll into a raindrop. Dip into paint and invite your child to find and paint over all the letter Rr’s.