Whether you’re new to the homeschooling world or just looking for great ideas, we have the best homeschool backyard activities for kindergarten.
It is easier than you may think to entertain and educate a kindergartner in the backyard. With the right collection of activities, your child will not only learn but they will have fun.
The backyard is a great classroom because you have room, fresh air, and variety. You can incorporate learning with fun with activities that will not soon be forgotten.
By taking the lessons outside kids can foster their natural curiosity and kindergarten basics can be taught using the natural surroundings. We have the best homeschool backyard activities for kindergarten right here.
The right mixture of art, math, science and selling all combined with the outdoor world makes learning nothing but fun for a kid.
Table of Contents
Homeschool Hands-On Activities Done In Your Backyard
Hand-on activities involved experimental learning. These activities are great for letting kids learn by doing. They involve your kindergartner learning through use of their different senses. Some of the most popular hands-on backyard activities for kindergarten learning are below.
Chalk Hop
All you need for this activity is some sidewalk chalk. On the patio or deck write numbers. letters, colors, or shapes in chalk. Spread them out as far as you can. You can take each category for each day of the week.
Once you have everything in chalk, shout out the color, number, or letter (whichever category you are using for the day) and the child needs to run to that place and hop until you call the next one.
Sensory Table
You can either use giant tubs for this activity or invest in a sensory table from Amazon. They are affordable and can be used time and time again so are worth it.
Fill the table or tubs with different items from the backyard. Sand, rocks, grass, twigs, leaves, flowers, and anything else you can find. As the child experiments with the items, both their fine motor and cognitive skills are enhanced.
You can switch this activity up by having all the items in water next time so they can learn what sinks and what floats.
Kinetic Sand
Kinetic sand is fun for exploring and learning. Kids can draw and make shapes or even paint the sand. You can also hide objects in the sand for them to look for.
Build castles, dig for dinosaur bones, and spell simple words. All in the sand. Kinetic sand kits also come in different colors, to add a little extra variety to the fun and learning.
Gardening
Your kindergartner can learn about plants and vegetables by taking care of their own garden. You can let them garden a space of the yard that you already have set aside for plants or vegetables and let them have their own tool.
Or, you can buy an easy to grow garden kit for kids from Amazon, and let them have time each day to tend to their garden.
Homeschool Art Activities Done In Your Backyard
Bring the art supplies outside and let the kids get creative. Kindergarten is a time for creativity as well as learning, so it is important to provide art activities during homeschooling too. The outside is the perfect place to find inspiration and a great backdrop for several artistic creations.
Paint What You See
With some paper and watercolor paints, let your child paint what they see. They can paint trees, flowers, birds, bugs, or clouds in the sky. The best part is that the scenery can change every day and every season. There will never be a shortage of inspiration for them to color, paint, or draw.
Nature Sculptures
Have your child collect items from around the backyard for this activity. They can grab rocks, twigs, leaves, flowers, and even grab a cup full of sand.
Have them take the items to a mat or a piece of card paper to create a sculpture. They can arrange the items however they want to create their own art.
This is great during different seasons. Take pictures of the sculptures, so they can examine how different the items are that they can use each season.
Popped Bubble Art
You will need some bubble mix and some food coloring for this fun art project. Pour some bubble mix in small bowls and add food coloring to each one.
Sing a bubble wand, your child can get bubble mix, then blow over a large piece of paper. As the bubbles pop, they leave colorful and interesting patterns. An addition to this activity, is to let the children mix colors to see what new colors they can create.
Sponge Bomb Painting
You will want a large pack of sponges for this activity. Cut the sponges into pieces. You can also buy a pack of sponge balls from Amazon.
Fill several small bowls with washable paint and hang a large sheet, or butcher paper on the wall or gate in the backyard. Your child can create their own masterpiece by dipping the sponges into the paint and throwing them at the sheet or paper.
Homeschool Summer Activities Done In Your Backyard
Just because the summer arrives, does not mean you have to stop teaching your kindergartner. With the right activities, they can learn while having fun.
The good news about the summer is that the weather is warm so being outside is the best place to be. These fun summer homeschooling activities will be a hit for sure.
Nature Journal
Writing a journal is not fun for a child in kindergarten, but this doesn’t mean it is not a great activity. All they need is a pad of paper and colored pencils or crayons.
Have them find and draw a different item in their journal each day. They can look for anything in the backyard to draw and learn about. You can even look up the item together on the internet to find out information.
This activity can be done each season with a new journal to teach them how nature changes.
Alphabet Soup
His activity involves locating unique backyard ingredients for their own alphabet soup. In a tub of water in the backyard, place alphabet sponges.
The child pulls a letter and then must go find something in the backyard that starts with that letter. If the item can be picked up, it can be added to the water tub as an ingredient for their soup.
What Is Your Name
This is an activity you need to plan ahead of time. Using the letters of the alphabet make an action list. Each letter needs to be assigned to a specific activity.
For example, hop on one leg, do 3 jumping jacks, go find something green, or run to the fence and back. Let your child use this list to spell their name. If their name starts with “A” they need to perform the action for that letter, and so on.
You can play this with the names of others in the family or by spelling their favorite animals or other simple words.
Bug Hunt
All you need to get for this activity is a magnifying glass. If you don’t have one, there are affordable ones on Amazon, perfect for bug hunting.
Let your child roam around the yard, booking for bugs of all shapes and sizes. If they want to keep a journal of their bug friends, take photos of the bugs they find to keep.
Homeschool Winter Activities Done In Your Backyard
Winter is just another season and not a reason to stay inside. At least not for some of the day. Kids love the snow, and even if there is no snow, there is still a whole new world to explore in the backyard during winter.
With these fun homeschool backyard activities for kindergarten, even the winter can entertain and teach at the same time.
Snow Painting
If you do have snow on the ground, it is like a blank canvas. Put some water and food coloring into a spray bottle, and let your child paint the snow. Do not worry if you do not get snow in the winter where you live.
You can still paint the snow. Buy a few bags of shaved ice and dump it into large tubs. The children can paint these different colors with the same food coloring water.
Water and Snow
This is a fun winter activity to teach your kindergartner about water and how it changes. Have them fill ice cube trays with water to leave outside in the snow.
They can even add food coloring to create colorful cubes. Have them check the cubes the next day. Fill up large glasses or bowls with warm water for them.
Have them drop the ice cubes they made into the water and watch them melt. They can also take cups of warm water and pour it over snow to watch what happens.
Bird Friends – Feeder and Drawing
Collect some pinecones for this activity if you have any nearby. If not, you can buy pine cones from Amazon for arts and crafts.
You will also want some peanut butter, oats, and bid seeds. In a large bowl, let your child mix together the peanut butter and oats so they can feel the sticky goo. Then help them to spread this onto the pinecones.
Sprinkle bird seed over all of them at the end. You can also roll the pinecones in bird seed too. Using a ribbon, you can hang the bird feeder. Your child can check on the feeder as often as they want and can draw pictures of the feathered friends or squirrels that come to visit.
Sensory Scavenger Hunt
Since there may be snow on the ground or it may be a little too cold to be picking stuff up, this is a great alternative for a scavenger hunt. This scavenger hunt is based on their senses instead.
Have them identify different sounds, colors, and smells. For example, they can find something bright or tall, or dark, and listen for a weather sound or an animal sound and smell something stinky or floral.
This scavenger hunt can be done in all seasons really but seems to be a lot of fun in the winter.
Homeschool Fun Friday Ideas Done In Your Backyard
If your kindergartner has been learning all week, then Friday can be all about fun. The best part about the backyard is that it is a perfect place for fun. Let your child or children pick the Friday fun activity they want to do. The activities below are favorites for all kindergarten kids.
Perform A Show
Kids love to perform so let them. They can make up a play or use puppets. Or even put on a concert.
Whichever way they want to express themselves will be all fun. And you get the very best in entertainment. Set up the backyard with seating for the audience and create a stage by laying out a sheet.
Obstacle Course
Set up an obstacle course for fun and excitement. Time each run to see if they can do better each time. You can also switch the course up a few times to create new challenges.
Use hula hoops to hop through, pool nodes to crawl under (pin them into the ground to form an arc), water guns to shoot at targets, bean bags to toss, and cones to run around.
You can also set up stations throughout the course, where they need to perform a certain activity, such as 5 jumping jacks or sign the alphabet song.
Bubble Play
An afternoon with bubbles is magical. There are several options for backyard bubble play for kindergartners. Fill a kiddie pool with soapy water and get some large, fun-shaped bubble wands to play with.
Get some large bouncing water bubbles to play with or challenge them to create as many bubbles as they can. There are several games you can play with bubbles too. Have them try to catch a bubble and see how long they can hold it before it pops.
Parachute Play
There is no end to fun games you can play with a parachute. Buying a parachute is a great investment for homeschooling children of any age. Not only are they vibrant colors, but they are versatile for both fun and learning.
Parachute games come in all sorts but some of the best for kindergarten include swinging the parachute upward and letting it go or throwing a bunch of small balls on to the top of it and bouncing them around.
Of course, you will have to help them by holding the other side of the parachute.
Helpful Tips For The Best Homeschool Backyard Activities For Kindergarten
Homeschooling kindergarten is supposed to be fun and engaging for both the parent and the child. When the activities are fun, the child is more likely to learn.
It also keeps them engaged and focused which is important as kindergartners can lose interest quickly.
The activities we have recommended are the perfect mix of fun and learning, and there are a few other tips to remember too.
- Scatter the activities through the day. Kindergarten kids can usually only sit still for about 15 minutes. So, give them variety.
- Be flexible. If something is not working for you child, find a new activity or approach that works better. There is no strict guide for teaching the curriculum for this age.
- Mix creativity with learning. Along with lesson-based activities, let them have time to express themselves, through activity or art, dance, or play.
Final Thoughts
It is called homeschooling because there is an element of learning. Just because you are not in a classroom does not mean you do not have the tools to teach your kindergartner.
Utilizing the backyard is a great benefit as it offers a new place to learn and explore. This makes home the perfect place for fun and education. And with these homeschool backyard activities for kindergarten, your kid will learn all they need and more.