Best Beach Activities to do with Preschoolers

Summer holidays are knocking on our doors. Get ready for kids’ daily dose of “Vitamin Sea”. So, let’s have fun under the sun with our best-sorted beach activities to do with your preschoolers.

15 Best Beach Activities to do with Preschoolers

Taking kids to the beach is all about… Sunrise, sunburn, sunset, repeat! Here we have some amazing beach activities that you can do with your little tots.

1. Scavenger Hunt

This is the most fun activity for preschoolers and is also loved by elders.

How to Play Scavenger Hunt:

• Give each member a list and a bucket.
• The list can be written with the things that have to be hunted or you can print a list with pictures from the internet for more fun.
• The things on the list can be anything shells, rocks, crabs, feathers, snails, something oval, something red, etc.
• Kids need to collect their treasures in that given bucket.

Learning: Kids learn to explore on their own. You can also engage them to collect garbage or leftovers from the beach by enlisting them in that list.

2. Be a Sand Picasso

• First, let your kids choose a large sand area.
• Ask them to smoothly flatten that area with the help of their hands and feet.
• Now, give them the freedom to become sand Picasso and encourage them to draw anything with their fingers, stick, rocks, shovels, or anything they found helpful.
• Finally, give them an idea to decorate that masterpiece with their scavenger hunt treasure i.e. rocks, shells, branches, etc.

Learning: This will enhance their sense of imagination, creativity, coordination, and balance.

3. Beach Tag Game

• Tag a beach theme like “Fisher & Fish”.
• Mention one kid as a Fisher who must tag the other kids.
• Once the fisher tagged the fish, it becomes part of the fisher’s family.
• Now, that new fisher will help tag the remaining fish.
• The last kid to be tagged is known to be the winner and mentioned as the fastest fish.

Learning: Pump muscles through running, balance, coordination, and teamwork.

4. Sink or Swim Activity

• Ask your little angels to dig a few deep holes in the sand.
• Then fill them with beach water.
• Now, encourage them to collect as many objects as they want.
• Finally, ask them to put each object in the hole and observe if it will sink or swim.

Learning: Kids learn about digging, lifting, and balancing water from filling it through the sea to putting it in the hole. In addition, they learn which objects will sink or float on water.

5. Beach Temple Run

• Encourage your kids to make their own beach circuit of obstacles like jumping over a bucket, big jumping from a towel, crab walking, swirling around a beach tent, and tossing rocks into the sea.
• Now, on your marks, get set, ready, and go!
• You can make it more challenging by asking them to race on one foot or going backward.

Learning: Creativity to use your old beach gear for making obstacles, running, jumping, tossing, crawling, and running on one foot.

6. Water Bucket Relay

Kids love relay races, and you can replace the old relay race with a beach theme relay race like a water bucket relay.

• You are supposed to give each kid a plastic cup, spoon, bowl, or giant shell to collect water.
• Now ask them to run toward the water and fill their containers.
• Then run to the initial point by balancing the water from spilling.

Learning: Balance while running.

7. See What They See

• You can simply go with them for a walk along the coast. 
• Encourage your kids to observe what they see as living animals, natural objects, manmade objects, etc.
• Now ask them to take a picture of those sea creatures or things. If you don’t have screen less time with your little ones then simply ask them to write the names of the spotted ones.

Learning: Keen observation, quality time with parents, know about more animals and things. This can also increase their vocabulary and writing skills. They can make a memory collection notebook from the clicked pictures.

8. Tic-Tac-Toes on Sand

Tic-tac-toes also known as Noughts and Crosses. It is the most simple and interesting activity that you can do on the beach with not any special apparatus. You have to just use your fingers on the sand.

Learning: It’s a great activity to do with your little gamer for calming down after energetic beach playtime. Also, it teaches them to brainstorm and learn about challenges.

9. Hopscotch on Sand

The “hopscotch game” is one of the best beach activities for your little preschoolers. With the same rules and little fun variations, make sand as your canvas and use a hand, seashells, or sticks as your marker.

Learning: Balancing, jumping, coordination, and having fun.

10. Family Picnic Combo with Treasure Hunt

You can play a combo game to mix a family picnic with a treasure hunt game.

• Hide the typical picnic things like the mat, the bottles, cups, hats, etc around the area for your children to find. Make sure to avoid perishable things from hiding.
• After hunting the treasure, gather them in one place and enjoy a family picnic.

Learning: Exploring, organizing, and learning to do things on their own. It is one of the best beach activities to do with your preschoolers to make them learn how to do the picnic arrangements on their own.

11. Sundial on the Sand

Your kids can make a sundial by using rocks or shells.

• Tell your kids to dig a stick in the sand.
• After each passing hour, ask them to bring some rocks or shells and pile them at the tip of the stick’s shadow.
• The shadow of the stick will move in a circle as the sun is setting down.
• In the end, you will find a sundial same as the hands of a clock on the sand.

Learning: The kids learn about nature’s clock.

12. Musical Buckets

Let’s give a beachy twist to a classic preschooler’s game “the musical chairs”.

• Simply turn down the plastic buckets as stools and set them up in a circle.
• Turn on the music or you can simply start clapping (if you don’t find any music).
• Ask your kids to walk around them.
• Once the music stops, they must sit down on the nearest bucket stool.
• The kid without a stool has to leave the game.
• Then eliminate a bucket after each round until one kid is left standing and he/she will become the winner. 

Learning: In this activity, our little ones learn how to peacefully resolve arguments, deal with failure, and learn patience.

13. Let’s Have Limbo

• Simply get a long stick, tent pole, or a sturdy rope.
• Arrange it as in a limbo game.
• Now tell your kids to pass under it without touching the bar.

Learning: It is one of the best beach activities to help encourage physical activity and stretching among preschoolers.

14. Sand Skee Ball

• Just like a typical skee ball, help your kids to sketch circles and numbers on the sand with the help of your hand or stick.
• Give each circle a point value like 10 for a giant circle, 20 for the medium one, and 30 for the smallest.
• Now, let them toss the shells, rocks, pebbles, or rubber toys into the circles to get the associated points. 
• Finally, add those points and get the winner.

Learning: Kids learn coordination by reaching the target. Also, this game enhances maths skills by letting them add the points.

15. Storytime

Last but not least, you can spend quality time with your little one by laying down beside him/her and reading a beach theme story under the shade. You can change the setting by sitting on the rocks, at snack time, and even you can do this activity during strolling along the shore.

Learning: Strong bonding with parents, unwinding, and relaxation therapy at the beach.

Check Also: Best Family-Friendly Beaches in the USA