10 Fun Summer Theme Ideas for Daycare With Free Printables

Deciding on a summer daycare theme, planning all the activities and lessons, and decorating your classroom is a difficult task. 

All this takes so much planning and effort. And sometimes, you’re just experiencing a creative block that worsens the situation. 

But we’re here to ease your struggle. 

We’re mentioning 10 summer theme ideas for daycare with decoration designs, activities and free printables. 

So keep on reading, and let’s ease your struggle with the right ideas, inspiration and resources.

Tip: Decide a theme as soon as possible, or you’ll be overwhelmed by all the ideas and inspiration. Believe us; there are more than enough resources and activities for each theme to make your lesson plan. So don’t worry about the ideas; the web is full of them. 

10 Summer Theme Daycare Ideas

1. Beach Theme

Decoration Ideas

Here’s how you can decorate your daycare with a beach theme.

• Decorate your bulletin board with cutouts of sun, beach, sunscreen, buckets, glasses, flip-flops, and summer clothing.
• You can paint a beach scene on a wall.
• Make a beach painting or drawing or write something summer related and frame it. 
• Print out drawings of beach scenes and put them on the wall. Add a frame to make it look more presentable.
• Use artificial seashells to create wall hangings and other DIYs. 

Activities and Learning Ideas

• Read beach stories to kids.
• Ask them to share their favorite beach trip.
• Give them beach-themed coloring books.
• Get some beach activity worksheets.
• Draw a beach scene.
• Make seashell candy with kids.
• Draw things related to the beach.
• Play I Spy.
• Get beach-themed dot-to-dot worksheets.

Free Printables 

• 70-page beach-themed worksheet for kids 
• Beach-themed coloring worksheet for daycare and preschool
• Beach matching game printable
• Dot-to-dot printables for beach
• Beach maze printable

2. Outdoor Theme

Decoration Ideas

• Decorate your bulletin board with outdoor sceneries, sun, trees, birds, and animals.
• Paint a mural of kids playing outside.
• Print drawings of outdoor plays and pin them on your bulletin board.
• Add artificial plants to your classroom. 
• Make DIY wall hangings of clouds, sun, birds, and flowers.

Activities and Learning Ideas

• Play hide and seek.
• Arrange a small race competition among kids.
• Rope skipping.
• Paint an outdoor object. 
• Musical chair.
• Freeze tag.
• Play ball games.
• Make bubbles. 
• Have a book balancing race. Place a book on each kid’s head and make them reach a certain point without dropping it. 
• Treasure hunt: Hide a small container with candies or some toys and let the kids find it.
• Lemon spoon race.

Free Printables 

• Airplane and boat origami printable
• Camping word scramble
• Summer I Spy printable
• Recycling activity printables
• Garden coloring pages 
• Campfire handprint art printable

Tip: To find more free printables for any theme, search for [Your Theme] activity sheet free printables. You can get tons of free resources. 

3. Garden/Flower Theme

Decoration Ideas

• Create DIY flower wall hangings.
• Craft paper flowers and leaves to decorate walls and your bulletin board.
• Show different flowers with their names on chart paper.
• Add artificial plants to your classroom. 
• Paint a mural. 
• Use stickers. 

Activities and Learning Ideas

• Play garden I spy.
• Educate kids about parts of trees.
• Tell them how plants grow.
• Make origami flowers.
• Teach kids different flower names.
• Teach the life cycle of a plant.
• Give them a garden coloring book.
• Read garden stories.
• Ask kids to share what they like the most about gardens and flowers.

Free Printables 

• Gardening activity sheet
• Flower coloring worksheet
• Flower origami printable
• Sunflower life cycle coloring and activity worksheet
• Tree activity worksheets
• Fern activity printable

4. Fruits and Vegetable Theme

Decoration Ideas

• Paste cutouts of fruits and vegetables like mango, watermelon and strawberries. 
• Make faces on vegetables and fruits and make them say their name.
• Showcase the benefits of eating veggies and fruits.
• Use stickers.

Activities and Learning Ideas

• Paint different fruits.
• Ask kids to write about their favorite fruit or vegetable.
• Plant a fruit or vegetable.
• Make fruit crafts.
• Make lemonade with kids.
• Paint faces on fruits.

Free Printables 

• Apple activity worksheet
• Fruit coloring pages
• Vegetable coloring pages
• Trace the fruit printable
• Fruits and vegetables activity worksheet
• Fruit I Spy game
• Vegetable I Spy game
• Fruits and vegetables free printable

Tip: Get some toys related to your theme and put them on display. It’ll enhance the decorations, and kids will love them.

5. Colorful Theme

Decoration Ideas

Here you can do anything you want. Just make sure it turns out to be colorful. 

• Paint a colorful mural.
• Cutouts of sun, flowers, bugs, animals, rainbow, beach and all summer-related stuff. 
• Make DIY wall hangings.
• Make colorful lesson charts for kids and paste them on a wall or bulletin board. 

Activities and Learning Ideas

• Read kids’ stories.
• Give kids coloring books.
• Paint some objects.
• Do face painting.
• Make crafts and origami.

Free Printables 

• Donut printables
• Icecream printables
• Number craft printables 
• Cupcake coloring pages
• Rainbow activity printables

6. Insect Theme

Decoration Ideas

• Make DIY wall hangings.
• Cutouts of insects and bugs.
• Make insect characters and associate a saying with them.
• Make an informational chart with names and pictures of various insects and bugs. 

Activities and Learning Ideas

• Teach kids the names of different insects and bugs.
• Read insect stories.
• Teach the life cycle of an insect or bug.
• Have insect coloring books.
• Play bug scavenger hunt.
• Make crafts and origamis
• Play insect I Spy.

Free Printables 

• Insect origami printable
• Handprint insect art printable
• Paper bug craft printable
• Bug and insects coloring book 
• Butterfly lifecycle activity worksheet
• Dragonfly activity printable

7. Animal Theme

Decoration Ideas

• Print out animal drawings and paste them on walls or bulletin boards. 
• Create a jungle scene with cutouts of grass, trees, animals and birds. 
• Create a chart showing pictures and names of various animals.
• Make wall hangings of birds. 
• Use stickers. 

Read 9 more fun summer bulletin board ideas here. 

Activities and Learning Ideas

• Play I spy game.
• Ask kids to write or tell about their favorite animal. 
• Tell kids fun facts about different animals. 
• Give them animal coloring books. 
• Draw and color animals. 
• Make crafts and origami. 

Free Printables

• Animal-themed alphabet activity for kids
• Frog life cycle activity printable
• Cat activity worksheet
• Puppy coloring pages
• Kitty coloring pages
• Animal-themed connect the dot printables

8. Ocean Theme

Decoration Ideas

• Paint an ocean wall mural.
• Stickers and cutouts of fish, seashells, herbs and seahorses. 
• Make DIY wall hangings of fish. 
• Make an informational chart showing what’s in the ocean. 
• Make an informational chart with names and pictures of various fish.

Activities and Learning Ideas

• Play I spy.
• Tell kids about underwater life.
• Read ocean stories.
• Draw an underwater scene.
• Paint fish.
• Make fish with crafts and origami.

Free Printables

• Fish activity sheet
• Ocean-themed origami printable
• Turtle life cycle coloring and activity worksheet
• Dolphin life cycle coloring and activity worksheet
• Shark activity worksheet

9. Space Theme

Decoration Ideas

• Paint a rocket mural.
• Decorate your bulletin board or wall with the solar system.
• Cutouts of the moon, astronauts, satellites, planets, stars and sun. 
• Create DIY star wall hangings.

Want to decorate your wall? Here are 6 creative wall decoration ideas for daycare.

Activities and Learning Ideas

• Teach kids the names of planets.
• Make a paper craft rocket 
• Tell kids about the solar system.
• Fun facts about each planet. 
• Play connect the dot.
• Play a space maze activity.
• Draw/Paint space scenes or planets and Earth. 
• Read space stories 
• Narrate Neil Armstrong’s story

Free Printables

• Solar system activity sheet 
• Space matching activity sheet
• Space maze printable
• Alphabet tracing rocket worksheet
• Planet coloring pages
• Solar system activity printable
• Connect the dots

10. Dinosaur/Ancient Theme 

Decoration Ideas

• Turn your bulletin board or wall into ancient scenery by using cutouts of dinosaurs, mountains, extinct animals and trees. 
• Make an informational chart with pictures and names of extinct animals. 
• Create wall hangings of dragons.
• Attach sayings or classroom rules with dinosaurs.

Activities and Learning Ideas

• Use dinosaur activity worksheets. 
• Read dinosaur and dragon stories. 
• Tell kids about extinct animals. 
• Draw and color dinosaurs. 
• Show kids the fossils of dinosaurs. 

Free Printables

• Dinosaur activity sheet printable
• Dinosaur find and count printable
• Dinosaur connect the dots
• Free dinosaur maze activity sheets
• Dragon coloring pages printable
• Dinosaur activities worksheet

3 Tips to Make Summer Daycare More Fun

Here are our 2 biggest tips to effortlessly make your summer daycare more fun.

1. Plan More Outdoor Activities

Summer is all about sunshine and the outdoors. So plan most of the activities outside. Reading kids a story? Let’s do it outside in the sun. Having a speaking or drawing session? Take it outside. 

Plan more outdoor activities and take more indoor activities outside. Increase sun exposure, it’s the best way to be more summery. 

2. Give Kids Props

Make paper-crafted props for kids, like headsets, bracelets, a costume or a magic stick. Make them according to your theme. You can also paint on their faces or hands. Kids love it. 

3. Make Your Meals Fun 

Add a few adjustments to your meals and make them more interesting and colorful. 

• Add more vegetables for the color.
• Have candies and ice cream.
• Incorporate smoothies.

Conclusion

We hope you liked these summer theme ideas for daycare. Just remember to have fun and take some indoor activities outdoors. It’ll give a summery vibe, and it’s best to be in fresh air. 

We hope your creative block has ended and you have decided on your theme. 

Thank you so much for reading!