If you’re looking for some easy summer crafts for toddlers and preschoolers then you’re in the right place! We’re sharing over 30 fun toddler summer crafts including ocean activities, butterfly crafts, watermelon crafts, ice cream art and simple summer activities for toddlers and preschoolers.
We love sharing easy craft ideas that you can do with your kids and while summer is the perfect opportunity to get outside and play sometimes it’s also nice to have a few easy summer crafts as a back up if you need a bit of chill out time at home during those hot summer days(or *whispers* if the weather is less than awesome).
In this round up you’ll find lots of crafts and art projects with flowers, ice cream cones, watermelons plus loads more to ensure that you have a blast together all summer long.
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What You'll Find on This Page
Easy Toddler Crafts
Today I’m sharing loads of fun summer crafts perfect for making with your kids, ideal for rainy days, when you want to encourage some creativity at home or when you want something easy to get them excited about the summertime.
All the crafts in this post are ones that should be suitable for toddlers and preschoolers but you’ll also find a lot of ideas that are suitable for kids of all ages, great if you have more than one child at home.
As you’ll know the toddlers years are ones of massive change in what children are able to do. I’ve included craft ideas for one, two and three year olds in this round up so take a look through them and find the ones which are most suitable for your child’s age and abilities as well of course as their interests – arguably the most important bit of all!
As usual when crafting with toddlers and younger children adult supervision is needed at all times due to craft supplies with small pieces such as pom poms and googly eyes or sharp items such as scissors.
As well as lots of summer crafts for toddlers you’ll find some lovely ideas for summer themed books to share with your child and more ideas for easy toddler crafts that you might like to try.
To see the instructions or tutorial for each of these simple summer crafts just click on the title of it.
Free Summer Templates for Toddlers and Preschoolers
If you’re looking for some simple summer printables for your child then why not check out these basic summer templates which are perfect for easy toddler crafts, summer coloring pages and simple preschool activities.
- Sun template
- Kite template
- Sunflower template
- Sunglasses template
- Ice cream template
- Butterfly template
Ocean and Beach Crafts for Toddlers
Ocean and beach crafts are classic summer activities for toddlers and preschoolers with many of us making the most of the warmer weather to enjoy time at the beach. These crafts use basic materials like paper plates and tissue paper to help you get creative at home.
Paper Plate Jellyfish
Paper plate crafts are really popular for toddlers and preschoolers as they’re cheap, easy to buy and sturdy enough to cope with being cut or painted by little hands.
This paper plate jellyfish is really simple to make and depending on the age of your child you could also practice cutting skills to make the paper strips for your jellyfish’s tentacles.
Shell Suncatcher
I’ve been making suncatchers with my kids since they were toddlers and we’ve always loved the way putting the end result up in a window can brighten the room up so much!
This cute shell suncatcher craft can be made using our free template and looks super cheerful.
Paper Plate Beach Ball
Whether or not you’re planning a trip to the beach this summer I think we can all agree that beach balls are pretty iconic with their classic striped design that makes them perfect for summer arts.
You can make a cute paper plate beach ball like this one from The Simple Parent at home using really basic materials and I think it looks like great fun too.
Bleeding Tissue Paper Seahorse Craft
This process art activity is such a fun way for toddlers to make some ocean themed crafts! We’ve used our free seahorse template but you could swap that for any of our other beach or ocean themed printables.
The best bit is spraying your printable and tissue paper with a spray bottle to create all of these fun colors!
Tissue Paper Seahorse
Love seahorses? Yep, me too and my daughter loved making this simple seahorse craft.
Using tissue paper is a really fun way to fill in a shape or outline to color it in rather than just using markers and scrunching the tissue paper is really good fun to to do!
Seashell Decorations
Do your kids come home from the beach with lots of seashells? Mine definitely do and these decorations are a fun craft to make with them.
Rocking Crabs Craft
We made these fun making these rocking paper plate crabs using paper plates and torn paper.
Under The Sea Paper Plate Craft
My daughter made this ocean themed craft after a morning at nursery and it was perfect as a hand-on activity using materials that we already had at home.
While I cut out the fish shapes from some colored card you could make this activity quicker to prepare by using some ocean themed stickers instead.
Paper Plate Fish
Crayons and Cravings share a tutorial for a simple paper plate fish craft, something that I think is a classic for ocean or under the sea crafts as well as summer activities.
Shark Craft
Use q-tips and our shark template to create this easy craft that’s great for supporting fine motor skills too.
Paper Plate Turtle
My daughter made this cute paper plate turtle when she was a toddler.
Resist Art Fish
Resist art is a great way to try out some easy process art with your toddler and for this easy fish craft we used our printable fish template to make it even easier to prepare.
Butterfly and Bug Summer Crafts
Butterfly and bug crafts are perfect for summer and getting your child by the natural world.
Butterfly Suncatcher
This butterfly suncatcher craft was one of my kids favorite crafts that we made at home and it was displayed in their windows for months afterwards!
It does require some prep work from an adult but it’s absolutely easy enough for toddlers and preschoolers to make and they can practice making cuts into the cellophane to make the colored pieces for the wings.
It’s also great for color recognition, learning about color mixing and supporting fine motor skills as they place the colored cellophane onto their butterflies.
Paper Plate Bee
Not only is this easy bee craft perfect for summer, creating the stripes using torn paper is a great way to support your toddler’s fine motor skills and it can help strengthen the muscles in their hands too.
Easy Butterfly Craft
This simple butterfly craft is one that I made with my daughter when she was two years old.
It’s a great way to use up leftover packaging and looks really pretty too.
Paint Splat Butterfly
Another classic summer craft idea but this one uses paper plates to make the butterflies a bit more durable.
This is a great craft for kids to learn a bit about color mixing as well as color recognition.
Nature Butterfly Craft
Make a sweet butterfly nature craft using our free template, this activity is a great excuse to get outdoors in the sunshine too!
Paper Roll Butterfly
Non-Toy Gift’s tutorial for a rainbow butterfly made with toilet paper rolls is just gorgeous and using handprints means that this makes a great keepsake for the future too.
Ladybug Craft
We love looking for bugs in the backyard during the summer and this ladybug craft is one that I made with my daughter when she was a toddler.
Insect Dot Marker Art
For an activity that’s really quick to set up, our insect and bug dot marker printables include a butterfly, ladybug, caterpillar, bee and snail and you can decorate them using dot markers, pom poms or fingerprints.
Printed Butterfly Craft
This easy butterfly craft is great for toddlers as the large printing materials are perfect for little hands to hold.
Dragonfly Suncatchers
These dragonfly suncatchers look great hung up in the window. This is an activity that I did together with my daughter and the contact paper means that the sun can shine through them and really light up the colors.
Ice Cream and Fruit Crafts for Toddlers
These easy activities are perfect for summer, why not team them up with trying out some summer fruits as a snack afterwards.
Paper Plate Watermelon
Fruit crafts are great for summer and watermelon ones perhaps most of all!
This paper plate watermelon craft is great for fine motor skills although obviously (as with all toddler crafts) you will need to supervise your child due to small pieces.
Torn Paper Ice Cream
I’m a big fan of any kind of simple paper crafts as they’re so cheap to make with kids and giving this an ice cream theme means that it’s a great summer craft for toddlers – after all you might as well go with a theme that interests them!
You can make this easy paper ice cream craft using our free template which helps make it quicker to set up too.
Sponge Printed Ice Cream Craft
Cut out the cone shape for younger kids and this ice cream cone craft is great fun for kids to paint. You could change up the colors depending on their favorite ice cream flavors!
Pom Pom Painted Watermelon
Grab some paint and pom poms and make this easy watermelon craft using one of our free templates.
Paper Plate Pineapple
You’ll need to cut the felt parts out for your child to make this his paper plate pineapple craft by Crayons and Cravings but I think the final craft looks fantastic.
Egg Carton Ice Cream Cones
When my daughter was in preschool she came home one day having made this adorable ice cream craft and I instantly recognised it as one created by Anna at In The Playroom.
She absolutely loved this craft and it was great for some pretend play too, so this craft really does come toddler approved from our home!
Tissue Paper Popsicle Craft
Make these pretty ice lolly crafts from A Dab of Glue Will Do that are great for fine motor skills too.
Summer Nature Crafts
Use basic craft supplies and recycled materials to create these nature inspired summer crafts.
Mosaic Cactus
You can make this easy mosaic cactus craft using our free printable and it’s a good one for mixed age groups as toddlers and preschoolers can sprinkle on cut pieces of green paper while older kids can use scissors to cut the shapes out themselves and glue them on in more of a mosaic style.
Cupcake Liner Flowers
This flower craft is great for practising beginning scissor skills with a the basic cuts made into the cupcake liners.
Handprint Flowers
My Bored Toddler shares a tutorial on how to make these sweet handprint flowers designed especially for toddlers to be able to make.
I think these are gorgeous and definitely something I’d want to pin up on my fridge!
Mosaic Flowers
Make some pretty mosaic flowers using cardstock and scrap paper with this easy activity that’s great for fine motor skills, just be sure to supervise your child around the small pieces.
Summer Process Art Activities
Toddler friendly art ideas inspired by summer that are simple enough to make at home or in preschools.
Coffee Filter Flowers
We used food dye and coffee filters to make this gorgeous flower craft.
While adult support is needed, especially with forming the final flower shape, toddlers will be able to color the coffee filters in using the food dye and it’s a great excuse to talk about color mixing too.
Squirt Gun Painting
This fun idea from Fireflies and Mudpies is something that I know my kids would absolutely adore!
You’ll definitely want to do this activity outdoors but the finished canvas would be a great one to hang in your kids room afterwards as a reminder of the fun time you had together.
Sandcastle Craft
We love trying out different techniques to create art and this easy sandcastle craft uses paint and a squeegee to color in the background as well as using one of our printable templates so that you have your sandcastle design ready to go.
Bubble Art Butterflies
If you haven’t tried painting with bubbles before then you’re going to love this one, I think that this is one of the most fun summer activities for kids although you’ll have to be certain that your child can blow into a straw rather than suck!
You can create some bubble art butterflies like these ones from Red Ted Art by following their tutorial.
Foil Painted Campfire Craft
Use kitchen or aluminium foil to create this super simple craft and as a bonus you can shape the foil so that it’s the perfect size for your toddlers hands.
Summer Dot Marker Printables
These summer dot art printables are an easy low mess process art activity for toddlers and preschoolers with six cheerful summer themed designs to color in.
Summer Crafts for Toddlers Age 2
Ideas suitable for 2 year olds with minimal prep and simple gluing and painting.
Paper Plate Sun
Get inspired by the sunshine and make this handprint sun craft.
Paper plate crafts are always a great option to make with toddlers and preschoolers as they are so low cost and durable and this one was a joint projected between my kiddos that my daughter joined in making when she was one.
Paper Plate Parrots
Parrots are something that make me think of sunny days and desert islands! This easy paper plate craft was made by myself, my son who was aged five and my daughter who was age two.
My kids loved my kids loved adding the feathers to these and if you don’t have any ribbon like we’ve used you could swap this for strips of colored paper or fabric.
Campfire Craft
This campfire craft is always really popular as it’s so easy to make but the colors look fantastic!
You can make this camping craft using basic gluing and painting with large sponges that are perfect for little hands.
Tissue Paper Fish
This easy fish craft is one that I made with my toddler when she was two years old and it was really good as low-prep activity for her to do after preschool.
This rainbow fish craft uses a fun technique to paint and you can change the colours to whatever your toddler likes best, making it a great way to help support color recognition too.
Summer Books for Toddlers
I love themed books at different times of the year and my kids always have done too (although that doesn’t mean I don’t still get asked to read Christmas stories during August!).
These summer themed books for toddlers all look fantastic – perfect for a post crafting cuddle and chill out with a snack.
- Maisy Goes Camping by Lucy Cousins – we love the Maisy books and this looks perfect for kids who are getting ready for their first camping experience
- Peppa Pig Goes Swimming by Scholastic – swimming is always a big activity for us in the summer and this story is all about George being scared of getting in the pool
- Llama Llama Sand and Sun by Anna Dewdney – a touch and feel book
More Easy Crafts for Toddlers
We love these fun bug crafts for toddlers.
Finally why not check out this round up of weather crafts for toddlers with ideas suitable for all year round.
