100+ Indoor Activities for Kids - Active Littles (2024)

On the hunt for easy and fun indoor activities for kids?

I’ve got you covered with this massive list of over 100 fun indoor games to try out on a rainy day or just for fun.

Most of these fun games will work in your living room for kids of all ages.

The best part: I love that many of these activities are so easy and simple to put together.

Many of these items are probably around your home and are an easy and simple household item that can be used to create something epic.

I am so happy you are here.

Welcome.

Here is a Free Bug Preschool Theme Printable for you:

Be sure to bookmark this page to come back to for indoor ideas for kids each month/year.

I’ve also included a fun free printable that will save you some extra time while you check off the ones you completed.

See Also: 100+ Outdoor Activities for Kids

Indoor Activities for Kids

There are so many fun things you can bring about for both younger children and big kids.

Children of all ages can try out most of these fun ideas by creating an open play space.

I’ll be sharing some of our favorite fun ways to create the perfect time indoors with family and friends.

Looking for Year Round Preschool Printables? Check these out.. 🙂

An indoor play space doesn’t have to be complicated.

Lots of the methods and variables I will be showing in this post revolve around easy ideas to bring forth.

And, I’ll also be sharing some of our favorite supplies that can easily be incorporated into any indoor activity.

Whether you have a toddler, preschooler or 5-6 year old at home, I’ve got you covered.

Have a baby?

Here is a super fun baby painting idea that is loads of fun.

For even more baby painting ideas, check out this right here.

A fun indoor activity can look like including homemade items, DIY ideas for kids and more!

Supplies we like using for indoor crafts:

Cookie Cutters

Cookie cutters are a great option for creating a potato stamper, painting with, and using to play with play dough.

Paper Towels

Using sheets of paper towel are wonderful in creating calligraphy activities for kids, paper towel magic experiment and in water dropper activities.

Paper plates

I love a good paper plate activity. We use paper plates in our crafts that involve creating simple animals, flowers and other fun ideas.

Pieces of Paper

We love using pieces of paper whether its tissue paper, construction paper or gift wrapping paper for using in tearing paper activities, glue and stick activities and for creating simple crafts.

Recycled Cups

Using recycled items is one of the ways we love recycling and playing with cups, plates, spoons, cardboard boxes and more. There are so many fun and creative ideas that can be brought about from an easy recycled craft.

Pom Poms

Incorporating pom poms in our crafts and activities are a wonderful way to learn about counting, sorting and more all while gaining the benefits of fine motor play!

Piece of Paper

A simple piece of paper is a wonderful method to bring forth an easy and simple craft or activity. We love using pieces of paper to create an activity where we learn about colors, sorting and more.

Egg Cartons

When using a recycled egg carton we enjoy creating an epic popsicle stick activity for matching with the correct colored pom poms. We also love sorting jelly beans or pom poms to match and learn about color recognition.

Small Items (buttons, stickers, pom poms…)

Using small items such as buttons, stickers and pom poms can work really well for learning about counting, patterns and more. What are some ways you love using stickers and buttons in activities?

Little bins (for sensory play)

Most times we bring out a bin to include a simple sensory bin activity for kids. These bins in turn are used in water play, sensory play and more. What do you like bringing out a bin for?

Most of these items up atop can be found at a local grocery store.

Easy Steps to make a Great Indoor Activity

There are many different ways we love to set up simple activities for little kids and older kids.

A few easy ideas we love for toddlers are:

• A simple sensory bin

This easy sensory bin is one that incorporates only 3 items: a bin, a base and a few manipulatives. We love it!

• Play pretend pizza parlor

• Dot sticker activity

Dot stickers are amazing! And, we love this easy dot sticker activity for toddlers.

• Pom pom matching

You can get really creative with this. We love brining out the pom poms around Christmas in this easy Christmas decorating activity for kids.

• Decorate a tree

• Play hot potato

• Do a puzzle

• Sort cards by number

• Letter sound recognition

• Sing the ABC’s

Check out this free alphabet printable that will help in practicing the abc’s.

• Build a fort

• Have a scavenger hunt

• Play peek a boo

• Coloring

• Play hide and seek

Indoor Activities for Preschool

• Dye eggs

• Whip up playdough

Have you ever made homemade play dough? This is one easy way to bring forth an easy playdough recipe. It is amazing!

• Make rainbow crayons

• Play hot potato

• Leaf painting

Fallen leaves are a wonderful tool to use in an easy leaf painting activity. We use kids paint to stamp and create a work of art!

• Counting practice

• Alphabet recognition

• Shape recognition

If your LO is learning about shapes, this free shape printable is a must!

• Color recognition

Learning about colors? This is one of our all time favorite busy book printables that is sure to be a treat. Learn about colors, the alphabet and more!

I’ll be categorizing this list as follows:

• Simple Craft Ideas

• Toddler Indoor Activities

• Preschool Indoor Activities

• Indoor Activities for 5 Year Olds

• Science Indoor Activities

• Math Indoor Activities

• Best Indoor Activities

• Easy Indoor Activities

• Fun Activities

• Games

• Sensory

• Seasonal

• Educational

These are by far some of our favorite indoor activity categories that will bring about easy ideas for kids by category.

Without further ado, let’s get into them…

Simple Craft Ideas

An easy way to bring out a simple fun activity for young children and older children is to set out an easy craft. This list is a great way to enjoy a good time for cold weather or sunny days.

• Star Template

• Tearing Paper Activities

• Ball Painting

This ball painting activity is a fun one. It takes a couple homemade items to put this together and it is easy peasy! You’ll need a cardboard box, kids paint and a few balls.

• Hedgehog Craft

• Paper Plates Craft

• Salt Painting

• Marbled Art

• Construction Paper Craft

• Finger Painting

It’s no wonder kids love finger painting. It is a dream, sensorial fun and a wonderful keepsake thereafter. You’ll love this easy finger painting activity with the kids.

• Make a DIY Bird Feeder

• Watercolor Painting

• Ice Painting

This is a great indoor activity. Especially on those hot summer days! I love how easy this ice painting is to put together. You won’t want to miss how easy this is!

• Sidewalk Chalk

• Toilet Paper Tubes Craft

• Finger Paints Craft

• Make Homemade Play dough

• Shaving Cream Craft

We use shaving cream in our crafts and it is awesome! Here is one of our favorite shaving cream art activities for kids.

• Make Bead Art

• Piece of String Art

Toddler Indoor Activities

Some of the best ideas for younger kids is in this list! I’ve curated a simple set of activities that are so much fun for your busy toddler. Let’s get into them:

• Tearing Paper Activities

I am a big fan of construction paper. Bring this out (alongside our free printable) and you’ve a super easy activity that will keep your little occupied learning and playing.

• Painting with Balls

• Mess Free Painting

• Invitation to Create a Hedgehog

• Stamping Activity

• Foam Craft Puzzle

• Construction Paper Craft

• Handprint Rainbow

What kid doesn’t love adding kids paint to their hands for painting with. Best part is using all 6 colors of the rainbow to create an epic handprint rainbow with. This activity is one for the books!

• Sticker Matching

• Tissue Paper Window Craft

• Feed the Penguin

• Car Wash Craft

Creating a simple car wash craft is as easy as 1-2-3. The main item we used is a cardboard box. The rest was all a creation made from a kids imagination! We are loving it!

• Heart Card

• Shape Craft

• Dot Marker Craft

• Sticky Wall Craft

• Paper Plate Craft

As mentioned earlier, paper plates are a wonderful tool we love using in our crafts. Here is a fun paper plate pumpkin craft that is easy peasy!

• Dot Sticker Christmas Tree

• Best Toddler Books

Preschool Indoor Activities

Preschool activities are filled with lots of free play, easy ideas and educational activities that are great.

• Cardboard Box Activity

• Traveling Waters Experiment

• Pasta Threading

Uncooked pasta not only can be used in sensory bins but they can also be used in pasta threading activities such as this one. It is no surprise that this only took less than an hour to setup. And, it lasts for a really long time!

• ABC Sensory Bag

• Glitter Slime

• Soap Foam

• Alphabet Placemats

• Fine Motor Activity

• Alphabet Puzzle

This free printable is one for the books! Use it each year with your students or children to learn about matching the uppercase to lowercase letters and practice matching the images that contain the beginning sounds of that specific letter.

• Best Preschool Books

• Washing Pumpkins

• Ice Painting

• Shape Matching Activity

• Rainbow Rice

• Make snow ice cream

• Movie night

• Paint and Draw a Picture

• Color by Code

• Potato Stamps

Indoor Activities for 5 Year Olds

Kindergarten is such a fun time of year. In this list you’ll find lots of educational ideas and fun kids ideas for 5-6 year olds.

• Raking Leaves

• Shape Tree

• Farm Sensory Bin

A sensory bin can be made for any theme, season or time of year. We made a farm themed sensory bin this time around but sensory bins can be themed year round. What would you theme your sensory bin?

• Corn Beaded Pipe Cleaner Craft

• Short Vowel File Folder Game

• Grow an indoor garden

I remember becoming super excited to grow our own herbs and vegetables (parsley, cilantro, peppers..) in our home. This is a wonderful activity for learning about the life cycle of a plant.

• Make a DIY marble run

• Write a letter

• Create a Gift Card

When you were little did you make the cutest cards for your family? This is one of the cutest activities to show appreciation for the people you love and come together as a family creating the cutest little treasures that last a lifetime.

• Indoor Obstacle Course

• Gross Motor Activity

• Make a Bird Feeder

Science Indoor Activities

STEM ideas for kids are always so much fun to bring forth. If its looking like bad weather outside, bring the fun indoors with these science experiments for kids:

• Water and Oil Sensory Bag

• Sink or Float

• Magic Paper Towel Experiment

• Waterbed Sensory Bottle

• Rain Cloud in a Jar

This is a wonderful STEM activity that is brilliant! Talk about the weather and specifically the clouds with this homemade STEM activity for kids!

• How to make Oobleck

• Make Homemade Play Dough

Math Indoor Activities

We have a huge list of math ideas that are not only educational but that are also fun for letting the time pass. Some of these ideas can be used on the go which will allow for learning in great places while on vacation. Here are our favorites:

• Learning Websites for Kids

• Busy Book Bundle

• Ice Cube Tray Counting

• Gingerbread Man Counting

• Spider Eye Counting

This is a wonderful activity for learning to count the eyes of a spider on Halloween!

• Sorting Game

• Apple Tree Counting

• 70+ Math Activities for Kids

Best Indoor Activities for Kids

Bonus points for these best ideas for kids that require a few DIY ideas that are sure to be lots of fun.

• Marble Run

• Read a good book

• DIY live shows at home

• Make a DIY theater

• Bake Cookies or Cupcakes

• Use pillows for a pillow fight

• Set up an indoor playground

• Cardboard Boxes for pretend play

• Gross Motor Skills Activity

Easy Indoor Activities for Kids

Cheers to those easy ideas that involve only a couple of homemade items that can most probably be found in your kitchen cupboard.

• Toilet Paper Rolls Activity

• Make Ice Cream

• Build a Fort

• Imaginative Play

Fun Activities

These fun ideas for kids are a hit! Let’s get into them…

• Scavenger Hunt

• Dance Party

• Watch a Classic Movie

• Visit interactive Exhibits

Games

This set of ideas is wonderful to bring out on snow days or even when its hot and super sunny outside.

• Arcade Games

• Tic Tac Toe

• Board Game Family Night

• Obstacle Course

• Put together a Puppet Show

• Play Card Games

• Play Uno

• Play Board Games around a Coffee Table

Sensory Indoor Activities For Kids

This list of easy sensory activities is our favorite! Be sure to bookmark this page to come back to each year for new ideas.

• Easy Sensory Bin

• Homemade Slime

• Rainbow Rice

• Make a Sensory Bottle

• Make a Sensory Bag

• Make a Sensory Bin

• How to make Oobleck

• Water Play

Seasonal Indoor Activities For Kids

• Winter Activities

• Spring Activities

• Summer Activities

• Fall Activities

Educational Activities

• Toddler Free Printables

• Preschool Free Printables

• Home Science Experiments

• Outer Space Preschool Activities

• Call out the United States on a Map

• Fine Motor Skills Activity

• Time of Year Activities

• Family Tree Preschool Activities

• Kindergarten Learning Folder