25+ Energy Burning Rainy Day Activities for Kids

In this post: Fun rainy day activities using only the things you’ll find laying around your house.

Whether your child has high energy & needs constant movement, or you’re looking to keep things screen-free, this list of rainy day activities is sure to keep your kids busy and having fun.

With the rainy season rapidly approaching us, you may be looking for ways to keep your kids occupied indoors without having to buy new toys or clean up a huge mess.

Believe it or not, there are things laying around your house that will keep your kids occupied for hours. I’ve included a simple list of some things that you can use (and reuse) to keep your kids entertained for hours while stuck inside on rainy days.

Household Items That Can Be Used For Rainy Day Activities

Cardboard boxes
Muffin tins
Simple art supplies (paper, scissors, markers, pencils, crayons, pompoms)
Cotton balls
Straws
Painters tape or masking tape
Measuring spoons
Kitchen bowls
Strainer
Toy cars, small dolls, etc.

As promised, the list of activities below contains different activities that are screen-free, minimal mess, and the best part of all, low prep.

Not only will these activities bring ALL the fun, but they are also engaging and educational. The mixture for a perfect day.

Action Play

1. Hide and seek

Who doesn’t love a good game of hide & seek? If your child gets bored of the standard way, or they’ve already found all the hiding spots in the house, you can add a twist to the game.

Allowing the “hider” to move around while the “seeker” searches, playing a game of hide and seek jail, or hide and seek sardines.

2. Masking tape hopscotch

This is as simple as it sounds. Use either masking or painters tape and create a fun hopscotch path in a nice open area inside your house.

To keep it entertaining you can have your child toss a toy on a number and hop on 1 foot to retrieve it.

3. Balloon tennis

The goal of balloon tennis is to not let the balloon hit the floor. To a child, what’s more fun than balloons and getting to hit things with a stick?

Grab some dress up wands/swords or even a slipper and keep hitting the balloons towards the ceiling.

4. Leap frog

As you can imagine, it’s not as easy for us adults to constantly leap as it is for our kids, but they think the sight of it is hilarious.

5. Red light Green light

Pick a starting line and have everyone line up on it. When the designated player yells “green light,” everyone will move towards the chosen finish line.

When the designated player yells “red light,” everyone must freeze. If anyone is still moving after red light is called, they have to go back to the starting line.

6. Youtube

Okay, I know I said we can keep things screen-free however, if that isn’t a requirement for you, there are so many great channels that will get your kids active and keep them occupied for hours! The current favorite in my house is Coach Corey Martin.

7. Floor is lava

Throw some pillows on the floor, a few cushions and chairs, and shout “the floor is lava!” Everyone must get to a safe position until the lava freezes over. Rinse and repeat.

8. Freeze dance

Put on your kids favorite songs and let em dance! Once you yell “freeze” everyone must freeze into a funny statue.

9. Dance party

I mean, this is pretty self explanatory.

Arts and Crafts

10. Timed crafting stations

If your child is tired of sitting down and doing crafts, you can create timed crafting stations that they can rotate through every 5-10 minutes.

Nothing fancy, no tables required, you can create these stations at different areas right on the floor.

Create stations with all your child’s favorite crafting activities: One for cutting paper, one for painting popsicle sticks, etc.

11. Cardboard box house

One of our favorite rainy day activities is making cardboard houses/figures. It doesn’t take much, it can easily be adjusted for all ages, and from prep time to clean up time, everyone can be involved!

Have your kids join in on trying to find all the materials you’ll be using (cardboard boxes, markers/crayons/paint). Once you’ve gathered your materials, pick a location for the activity.

Grab your cardboard box, draw on some windows and doors with a maker and let your kids go to town coloring/ painting their new house.

You could even go as far as cutting out the windows and doors to make it more real.

This is a pretty versatile activity because for older kids you can ditch the house and ask them what figure they want to color (a shark, a dog, favorite cartoon character, etc.) and cut it out for them to decorate.

For smaller kids, you could just plop them into an open medium sized box and let them go to town “decorating” it.

12. Paper cutting

My 5 year old would honestly just cut paper into tiny pieces all day if I let her. To give them more direction and make it more “activity” like, draw random lines or shapes on a paper and let your child cut away (while supervised of course).

13. Popsicle stick crafts

There are ENDLESS crafts that can be made with popsicle sticks. From flowers to monsters to stick farm animals or treasure boxes. Set your child down with some glue and a variety of popsicle sticks and let their creativity come through.

For added fun you can include markers, googly eyes, craft paper, and pipe cleaners,

14. Playdough

I usually always have playdough laying around since it’s really inexpensive and versatile.

When my 5 year old is tired of making shapes out of playdough, she’ll usually decide to use it as a “Barbie face mask” or create “Barbie food.”

Educational Play

15. Dry food scooping

Dry food scooping is a go-to last minute activity when I need to keep the kids occupied for a few minutes. It’s easy to throw together with any kind of dry food you have sitting around the kitchen.

My kids favorites are uncooked oats, dry rice, and uncooked pasta.

Grab 2 bowls, containers, or a muffin tin along with some measuring spoons/scoopers.

Pour a small amount of your preferred dry food into one bowl (or whatever you choose) and let them transfer, scoop, and pour the food between bowls. I even let them add some small figurines to dig out and “save.”

16. Pompom/cotton balls straw blowing

Easy and educational, blowing pompoms with straws keeps your kids of all ages interested and active for quite some time.

Grab some painters tape, straws, and pompoms (or cotton balls). Lay out some painters tape in a line to create a “track” for your child to follow.

Put the pompom at the start of the track and have them blow air through the straw to move the pompom along the tape.

To make this rainy day activity even more fun, set out 2 separate lines and make it a race!

17. Pompom color sorting

Grab yourself a muffin tin or ice cube tray, a variety of pompoms, and something to grab the pompoms like spoons, kids tweezers, clothespins, or a mini shovel.

Dump the pompoms into the tray in a random order and have your child move the pompoms around until all matching colors are sorted.

18. DIY Sensory Bins

If you don’t already have pre-made sensory bins, there are so many ways to make them just by using the things around the house.

Some of my favorites to use are uncooked oatmeal, dry pasta, pompoms, cotton balls, and uncooked rice.

You can use any container or small bins you have laying around and hide their toys throughout. Give them a smaller kitchen scooper and they’ll be occupied for at least 30 minutes!

For a quick and easy DIY sand sensory bin, just blend up some uncooked oats. Hide some toys under the “sand” and give your kids some small sifters. They’ll sift through the sand and find all their hidden toys. That’s it! Super simple and lots of fun.

Adventurous Play

19. Don’t wake the sleeping dragon

This one is so cute and my favorite part about it: I actually get to lay down for 10-15 minutes while we play it.

Mom, you be the dragon and lay belly down on the floor. Have your kids start at different points of the house and turn off all the noise (tvs, music, toys).

The goal is for the kids to sneak up on the dragon (you) and capture it without waking it! You might get lucky and get to be the dragon the whole time or you’ll have to switch off.

20. Build a fort

Literally anything around the house will do. Blankets, pillows, chairs anything. Let your child take the lead in building the fort while you assist.

Tell stories, grab a flashlight and do shadow puppets, or just have some snacks and play games. Whatever the king/queen (the kids) of the fort decides to do.

21. Scavenger hunt

Draw out a list of random things around the house such as toys, furniture, “something pink”, “something that makes noise”, etc.

Have fun with it, let your kids dress up or use a pair of binoculars to really get their imagination flowing, and go searching.

22. Masking tape/ painters tape roads

Create a road using masking tape or painters tape for your child to drive their cars, trains, or walk their Barbie’s down.

23. I Spy Binoculars

I spy but make it fun. Make a pair of DIY toilet paper binoculars and start spying!

Around The House Activities

Don’t be afraid to just kick back and play some games that you already have. What else screams rainy day activities like building endless castles to destroy and rebuild, playing board games, and having movie marathons?

Your kids don’t always need to be entertained with something new. They’d much rather have a fun spontaneous day where they get to play and “be in charge” of the schedule.

Some things I like to always keep in the house are board games, puzzles, magnetic tiles, wooden blocks, and costumes.

Chores As Rainy Day Activities

I know, I know!! But, chores CAN be fun. Especially for our little ones!

24. Wiping doors/ windows

Give your kids a spray bottle filled with water and a clean cloth & watch how excited they’ll be to do some chores.

25. Washing safe dishes in the sink

Anyone else’s kids think that washing dishes is the best thing in the world?

26. Wiping baseboards

Hand them a damp towel and let them get to work on the baseboards.