The Preschool Summer Reading Challenge

Summer is a phenomenal time to share some awesome kid-lit with your little one. The days are long and hot and a lot of families have more downtime than normal. Perfect for air-conditioned trips to the library and story time outside in the shade!

With that in mind, I thought it would be fun to put together a little summer reading challenge for you and your preschooler. Can you and your little one read a book a day this summer? Keep reading to check out the Summer Reading Challenge book list, complete with one book suggestion and activity idea per day from mid-June through the end of July.

(Late to the challenge? No worries! Make today your Day 1. These books hold up, no matter when you’re starting!)

Happy reading!

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The Summer Reading Challenge Guide

Learning Ideas

Cooking/ Practical Life | Have a taco night – and let your preschooler help out in the kitchen!

Art | Tape a big piece of paper to the table and give your child a few crayons. Encourage them to create something the crayons would love to draw!

Pretend Play | Use stuffed animals or puppets to act out the story!

If you don’t have the right stuffed animals (mouse, fox, snake, and owl), you can print out pictures of each animal and use them to tell the story instead.

Social-Emotional | Look at the pictures and ask your child how they think Trixie is feeling at key points in the story.

If your little one has a favorite toy, ask them how they would feel if their special toy got lost.

Social-Emotional | After reading, discuss a few ways Llama Llama could try to calm himself down when he’s feeling afraid at bedtime.

Encourage your child to brainstorm ideas with you!

Math | Give your child 4 buttons. As each of Pete’s buttons pops off in the story, have your child hide one of their buttons.

How many are left? 

Language | Talk about how each person or animal sees the cat differently.

Work together to list some of the differences you see in each picture.

STEM | Get a box of toothpicks and slice up some fruit (bananas, strawberries, and blueberries work well).

Encourage your child to build something – a house, bridge, or something else – using the materials.

Once they’re done, your little architect can snack on their creation!

Movement | Turn on some fun music and have a dance party! Try to copy some of the dance moves from the story. 

Art | Try a mess-free color mixing experiment. Get red, yellow, and blue paint and a few Ziploc bags.

Pour 2 shades of paint into each bag and encourage your child to squish the bags, mixing the paint together. 

What new colors can your child make?

Movement/ Self-Regulation | Play Freeze Dance to help your child practice waiting. When the music is playing, it’s time to dance. But when you hit pause, everyone freezes!

Pretend Play/ Movement | Get up and act out the story with your child, going through each action described in the book.

Don’t be afraid to look a little weird, just keep it fun!

Listening/ Following Directions | The book is the activity with this one! Have fun reading the instructions in the story out loud to your preschooler and getting them involved.

STEM | Grab some red party cups and construction paper and see how high your child can stack the cups (the cat’s “hat”).

Click here for more detailed instructions.

Sensory | Fill a paper bag with random objects. (Try to choose objects that feel different from one another and have unique textures!)

Then, without looking inside the bag, ask your child to feel each object and guess what it is.

Is it easy or hard for your child to guess accurately without looking?

Listening/ Following Directions | Before reading, use felt or construction paper to cut out the monster’s facial features (hair, ears, eyes, nose, mouth, teeth, and head).

As you read, encourage your child to follow along with the story as they put together – and take apart – the monster’s face using the felt pieces.

You can also buy pre-cut felt pieces if you don’t feel like making them yourself.

Social-Emotional | Ask your child to guess how the pigeon might be feeling in each picture. Is he hopeful, frustrated, dissapointed…?

Try to copy each of the pigeon’s facial expressions together!

Literacy/ Sensory | Create a simple sensory bin with water and letter manipulatives (like these alphabet magnets) for your child to explore and work on their letter recognition skills!

Art/ Fine Motor | After reading the story, set up a table with playdough and craft supplies (like googly eyes, buttons, and craft sticks) or whatever you have lying around the house. 

Encourage your child to make their very own Wild Thing using the playdough and other materials.

Social-Emotional | Discuss how Daniel and his sister Margaret helped each other feel better when they were scared.

Work together to brainstorm a few ideas your child can try when they feel scared. How could they help someone else – maybe a friend or sibling – feel better when they get scared?

Pretend Play | Bring out the farm animals and toy trucks and let your child play freely! You can also use the toys to act out the story together as you read.

STEM | Try a simple science project. Explore chemical reactions by making a lemon volcano (instructions here).

As they explore, encourage your child to make predictions about what will happen. Why do they think the mixture fizzed up? 

Practice thinking like a scientist!

Literacy | As you read, encourage your child to predict what will happen next.

Who do they think has the bear’s hat?

Will the bear find his hat by the end of the story?

Literacy | Encourage your child to write their own book without pictures.

Hint: If they need help writing, let your child dictate the story to you and you can write it down for them.

Art | Get a blue piece of paper, white paint, and a straw. Put a blob of white paint on the paper and encourage your child to blow the paint around using the straw.

What does your child’s “cloud” look like?

Art | Tape a large piece of butcher paper to the table. Give your child a purple crayon and let them draw freely.

Art/ Literacy | Have your child choose a letter. Then, provide them with scissors, grocery store ads, glue, and a piece of paper.

Encourage them to make a collage using pictures of foods that start with their chosen letter (e.g. asparagus, avocado, and apples for letter A).

Math | Have a color scavenger hunt! In the story, Pete’s shoes turn several different colors. Ask your child to collect items of each color from around the house.

When they’re done, encourage them to count how many items they found of each color. 

Which color has the most items? The least?

Social-Emotional | After reading, ask your child what they think it means to be brave.

What are some things they’re afraid of – and what do they do to deal with their fears?

Help your child brainstorm different ways to cope with feeling afraid.

Cooking/ Practical Life | Have a homemade pizza night! Let your preschooler help prepare their own mini pizza.

Literacy/ Pretend Play | What else might the farm animals ask the farmer for? Help your child write a letter from one of the farm animals to the farmer, asking for something they want.

Movement/ Pretend Play | First, grab a kitchen pot and some play food. Then, take turns trying to toss the “ingredients” into the pot to make soup.

Sensory | Set up two small bins: One with mud (a little bit goes a long way!) and one with soapy water and cleaning supplies (sponges, scrub brushes, washcloths, etc.)

Put a few toy dogs in the mud and encourage your child to give the dirty dogs a bath!

STEM | Talk about the different ways trees can be used, from growing apples to building homes. Work together to find things in your home that were made with part of a tree.

To extend the learning, consider planting a tree somewhere as a family!

STEM | If you live in an area with ducks, go find some and spend some time observing them! Talk about your observations together – what do you notice?

Quick PSA:  Please don’t feed the ducks, though! Feeding ducks is bad for their health and the environment. Okay, thanks, now back to the books!

Social-Emotional | Talk about different ways to be a good friend.

To get your child thinking, ask them questions like, “What can you do to be a good friend?” and “How do you like your friends to treat you? What don’t you like?”

STEM | Make a flying bat with your preschooler using felt, a straw, and some tape. Check out the instructions here!

Social-Emotional | Each time David is told no! in the story, ask your child what David could do instead.

Instead of knocking the fishbowl over, for example, maybe David could help feed the fish – or leave the fish alone and go outside to play.

Math | Bring out the animal figurines for this one – or print out photos of each animal listed in the story to use instead.

As you read, let your child pretend to “feed” the animal toys to the old lady.

Then, after reading, encourage your child to sequence the animal toys correctly, from the first animal eaten (the fly) to the last (the horse). 

STEM | Set up a tinker station for your child with random objects from around the house. Don’t be afraid to dig into the recycling bin!

Give your child plenty of time, freedom, and help (if they need it) to create their new invention.

Movement | Take turns hiding a stuffed animal around the house while the other person tries to find it.

Where’s Bobo?

Art | Give your child a piece of paper and a small tray of paint in Olivia’s favorite colors – red, white, and black. Sit back and see what your little one paints!

If you don’t mind making a bit of a mess, head outside and try making a Jackson Pollock-inspired splatter painting in the driveway instead.

Language/ Listening | The book is the activity! Have fun getting into the story and encouraging your preschooler to interact – and react – as you read.

Social-Emotional/ Practical Life | In the story, the main character is convinced to try green eggs and ham – and finds out that he does like them.

Ask your preschooler to think of something new they’d like to try – maybe a new food, activity, or place to go – and make plans to try it out together!

Art/ Sensory/ Literacy | Make a DIY I Spy bottle! First, fill an empty bottle (these are pricy, but they make the best sensory bottles, hands down) with dry rice and alphabet beads.

You can also use colored water and glitter instead of rice for a liquid-based sensory bottle.

Then, encourage your child to shake up the bottle and hunt for letters!

Math | Grab several objects of different sizes and ask your child to sort them into one of two categories: Small or Big.

After they’ve sorted each item, see if your child can order the items from smallest to biggest.

Movement | As you read, ask your child to copy each movement from the story. Can you bend your neck like a giraffe?

After reading, try to brainstorm other ways to move like an animal!

Have fun!

I hope you enjoy sharing some awesome classics and new faves with your preschooler!

Speaking of faves… Did your favorite book not make the list? Drop your summer reading recs below!

Happy reading!

♥ Meg

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