10 ideas for outdoor rainy day play

Just because it's raining doesn't mean you have to be stuck indoors all day.

The outdoors on a rainy day is an endless laboratory full of learning potential, as well as being heaps of fun!

Things smell, feel, sound and look different in the rain.  Wet sand acts differently to dry sand.  Dirt becomes mud.  Surfaces are slippery, squelchy and sloshy.  Puddles appear.  Creatures come out.  

Here are 10 ideas to keep up your sleeve for those rainy days, whether you are at home or at preschool:  

1.  Rain Painting

Sprinkle paper (heavier construction paper works best here) with powdered paint or drops of food colouring, and take it out in the rain. 

2.  Go on a worm hunt.

3.  Pitch a pop up tent.

It is fun to feel cozy and sheltered, and to listen to the rain as it falls on the roof of the tent.

4.  Create coloured rivers or ponds by dripping drops of paint dye or food colouring in puddles or small trickles that appear.

5.  Paint with mud.



6.  Go for a bush walk. 

7.  Take the trucks outside and play in the mud.

8.  Draw on the cement with chalk.

If the area is sloped, you get the added fun of watching a rainbow of colors flow off downhill.

9.  Make mud pies. 

This one never gets old!  Rocks, leaves, seed pods, twigs and other natural items can garnish the mud pies.

10.  Go mud surfing!

If the preschools in Norway and Scotland can do it in their climate, then we can hardly let a little bit of rain stop us in Australia now can we?

What ways do you encourage play outdoors on rainy days?