25 best rain games | For indoors & outdoors in the rain

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Always something to do for the holidays or rainy day?

Play Choice now has the ultimate activity book collection, with over 60 pages of fun coloring pages and educational puzzles.

If you're looking for fun activities to do in the rain, or right after the rain, look no further.

I have fun here games, crafts and other activities around the theme of rain collected for you.

These activities are great for class or at home.

Who knows, maybe it will develop a passion in your little one to become a meteorologist :)

From toddler to toddler activity book collection

Educational games and coloring pages for 3 to 6 years

Your toddler and preschooler will love this e-book, along with the accompanying printables. He or she can play with it at every stage of development, together with mom and dad.

Buy at Bol.com

Best outdoor games when it rains

For most families, a rainy day often means sitting locked up at home together, quiet activities such as watching movies, playing video games, doing puzzles, or reading a book.

And although there are many nice things to think of to do indoors when it rains (I will come back to that later in the article), I also want to reflect on going outside in the rain in a healthy way.

With a little creativity, you can turn a little rain into a lot of fun.

Study after study has shown that children are not getting enough physical activity.

A toddler (a child between the ages of 2 and 5) needs to exercise throughout the day to help develop growth, motor functions and cognitive skills.

On a sunny day it's easy to get outside for active fun, but what about when the weather isn't that great?

While you can certainly find plenty of games to play indoors, if it just rains, you can put on your wellies and raincoat and head outside.

You can make the most of the wet weather with these rainy day games that will keep your child, and yourself, active and engaged.

Here is my collection of fun rain activities for kids to do outside:

Guess how much rain is falling

Plastic bottles outside in the rain with marker line

Have each child (and you can participate of course!) Draw a line on a container or bottle that shows the height of the water when the rain stops.

The person with their line closest to the actual waterline is the winner.

Rain art

Rain art outside in the rain


Children put on rain gear and take cardboard signs outside.

Sprinkle a few drops of watercolor or food coloring on the plates and watch designs appear.

For a 'batik effect', first draw on the board with white chalk and then add the food coloring.

What will float?

What will float
  1. Collect twigs, leaves, seeds from the playOutdoor, your garden or in the forest
  2. First throw them in the air to see which one will “float” on the wind
  3. Collect them again or add some extra things and throw them in a mud pool
  4. Which ones will float?

Rain song to the tune of “Bingo”

There was a time when we got wet
And it was rain again.
RAIN, RAIN, RAIN
And it was rain again!

Catch raindrops on your tongue, hands and feet

Catch rain on your tongue

A classic, but preschoolers still like it. Run outside and catch the rain with your tongue.

Do it and your toddler will do it too, actually tickles a bit :)

Search for earthworms

Earthworms in one hand

A rainy day is perfect for looking for worms as they move to the Earth's surface.

How many can you find? Will your toddler touch one? And you?

Where does rain go?

Rain that disappears in a well

Follow the rain when it hits the ground. Where does it flow? In the street? To a drain?

Pee fun: Stomp and jump in puddles

Child stamping in a puddle


What child doesn't like to stomp and jump in puddles?

Don't just jump in the puddles, you can do a lot more to keep it interesting:

  • jump over the puddles
  • run through it
  • galloping
  • who can make the biggest splash?

And don't forget, as Peppa Pig says, "if you want to jump into mud puddles, always put on your boots"

Splash in the puddle

If there are really deep puddles, throw stones in them. Who can make the biggest wrinkle? Which stone makes the loudest sound?

The craziest rain dance

Prize for the craziest rain dance

Listen to the rhythm the rain makes and organize a dance competition. Give a prize to the person who creates the craziest rain dance.

Sliding through the wet grass

Sliding through the wet grass


Who didn't like this in the past?

If you don't mind having your yard taken advantage of a bit and it's hot outside, let your toddler slide into the wet grass.

Wash outside of your hair

If it rains very hard, wash her out in the garden (this will definitely make your toddler laugh, nice and crazy!).

Wet obstacle course

Set up a wet weather obstacle course (be careful, it will be slippery and hardly anyone will successfully complete it).

Precautions for playing outside on a rainy day:

While you won't melt in the rain, you'll want to take precautions against hypothermia because you will cool down significantly if your clothes get wet, especially if there is wind.

Be aware of signs of shivering and limit your time outside in wet clothes. Once inside, put on dry clothes and warm up or quickly jump under a good warm shower to have some fun na.

Also be alert for reduced visibility in traffic and take precautions, including reflective clothing or flashing lights when walking or cycling outside in the rain.

I've been before wrote this article about stimulating outdoor play where we held interviews with experts about how to get children out.

We hadn't even brought playing in the rain here, but it is certainly a good piece to read and perhaps to help you a little further with the education.

Best indoor games when it rains

Taste water

Child drinks a glass of water outside
  1. Provide tap water, mineral water and distilled water (you can use rainwater, but immediately after collecting it outside in your cup and possibly a coffee filter over it, especially if you live next to industry or even in the city)
  2. Pour the different types of water into cups and let the children taste it
  3. Discuss the differences
  4. See if kids can guess which one it is

How far away is the thunderstorm?

How far away is thunder

A classic!

The purpose of this experiment is to look at the lightning and listen to the thunder to give you clues as to how far away you are from the storm.

What you need:

  • A storm
  • A stopwatch (or just keep counting and hope it's about seconds)

This is how you know how far a storm is:

  1. After a lightning bolt, count the number of seconds until you hear thunder. (Use the stopwatch or count “twenty one, twenty two, twenty three,” etc.)
  2.  For every 3 seconds you count, the storm is about 1 km away. Divide the number of seconds you count by 3 to get the number of kilometers, or for every second the thunderstorm is 320 meters further.

What travels faster, light or sound?

If you said that light travels faster than sound, you are right! Lightning and thunder happen at the same time, but the light reaches you immediately, while the sound lasts longer.

Do you ever see lightning without hearing thunder? Some call that 'heat lightning', but it is actually lightning more than 25 miles away and too far away to hear the thunder!

LOOK OUT if you see the lightning and hear the thunder at the same time! You're in the thick of it!

Also nice to give on a rainy day one of these Donald Duck weekly or Pockets. I always enjoyed reading it myself in the past, and have now written an extensive article about it.

Freubeling with a rain theme

Make fun rain art with your kids
  1. Make sure you have gray, black and white paint on an easel or on set tables, but some color is also nice and markers are also possible.
  2. Play a CD with rain sounds or record rain or thunderstorms with your phone and play it, or if it is really loud outside, they can probably hear that too.
  3. Have the children listen to and paint the rain.
  4. Ask the children how the sound makes them feel and how they want to paint it.
  5. This can also be done as a group mural in the classroom!

Here is also a youtube video with rain sound that you can use right away:

Make your own rainmakers

Children in the classroom with a rainmaker


# 1 Tough rainmaker

  1. Grab a heavy cardboard post tube that goes where posters and the like.
  2. Hammer some nails into the pipe from the outside (make sure nails are no longer than the pipe is wide so they don't come out the other side, that would be a bit unsafe).
  3. Open the plastic lid on one side and put in a few handfuls of different filling material (rice, dry beans, etc.)
  4. Put the lid back on and seal each end of the tube tightly with tape.
  5. Decorate your stick with ribbon, adhesive crepe paper, wrapping paper, or a jungle print or decorations that kids like.
  6. Voila, your rainmaker is ready! Because of the nails on the inside, the filler material will make noise throughout the tube.
  7. Also nice to put various filling materials in different tubes so that children can hear the difference.

# 2 Simple rainmaker

  1. Get a paper towel that has been used up, painter's tape or other tape you have, paint, glue, uncooked rice, and some toothpicks.
  2. Poke holes in the side of the paper towels with a small knife.
  3. Have your kids put toothpicks through the holes with some glue on each end of the toothpick.
  4. Then tape one end of the roll closed with your tape.
  5. Add the rice and seal the other end as well.
  6. Finally, cut off the toothpicks sticking out of the tube.
  7. Then have the kids paint their paper towel rainmakers however they want.

How does rain arise: scientific experiment

What do you need for this experiment:

  1. a glass mayonnaise or canning jar
  2. a plate
  3. hot water
  4. ice
  • Pour about two inches of very hot water into the mason jar.
  • Cover the jar with the plate and wait a few minutes before moving on to the next step.
  • Place the ice cubes on the plate.

What is happening?

The cold plate ensures that the moisture in the warm air, which is in the pot, condenses and forms water droplets. This is the same as in the atmosphere.

Warm, moist air rises to meet colder air high in the atmosphere. The water vapor condenses and forms precipitation that falls to the ground

Rain associations (for older children)

  1. Choose a long word related to the rain (e.g. umbrella, or rainfall) and have each player write it in the center of a sheet of paper.
  2. Give everyone two minutes to build as many other words as possible to the base word (add to the letters as in scrabble).
  3. All new words must be related to the first word in some way.
  4. The player with the most words wins.

Orange umbrella snacks

Make healthy umbrella snacks
  1. Cut an orange into half a centimeter thin round slices.
  2. Cut each round slice in half to form a half round umbrella shape.
  3. Place each orange umbrella on a small plate.
  4. Have each child choose an “umbrella handle” from thinly sliced ​​cheese, salty stems, thin celery sticks, or thin apple slices.

Raindrop race

Rain on the window with two names added

Each person chooses a raindrop while they are at the top of the window.

Follow your raindrop until it reaches the bottom of the window and see whose raindrop wins the race. Then start at the top and do it again!

Play the weatherman

Little boy who plays weather forecaster


Provide materials for a fantasy game where the kids can be weather men (and women)!

Some suggestions are:

  • Large cardboard box to use as a large television
  • Laminated weather symbols for the “weather person” to explain the weather (use double-sided tape or adhesive tape with adhesive side out so that the symbols stick to the weather map)
  • Large wall map of the Netherlands is of course completely cool!
  • Microphone (or use a paper towel tube to make one)
  • When they are a bit older you can use paper and take pencils (from what age can they actually hold them well?) to write scripts

What grows in the rain scrapbook

  1. What grows in the rain scrapbookDon't put 4 to 6 sheets of paper together to make a booklet for each child. Write the words "Rain Helps Things Grow" on the cover of each book
  2. Have children flip through magazines and tear out pictures of things that need rain to help them grow, such as trees and flowers
  3. Then have them paste the photos into their books

Rainy mobile

  1. Make CLOUDS from gray paper and cut them out.
  2. Make RAIN DROPS from blue paper and attach them to the clouds with string / yarn - so that the raindrops fall from the cloud.
  3. Poke a hole in the cloud and tie a rope to it, then attach it to the ceiling, a rainy mobile
  4. Especially nice to make with an older child for the baby!

Clouds of popcorn

Popcorn cloud with corn grain raindrops

A rainy day is of course perfect for lounging on the couch and watching a family movie, but before you put the bowl of popcorn on the coffee table and start up Netflix, make it a game!

Pop the popcorn but leave some of the corn kernels.

Lay them out on the table on a blue colored sheet of paper and let the kids collage their popcorn and corn raindrop clouds.

Questions about rain games

Is it okay to play in the rain?

Most people believe that playing in the rain is an easy way to catch a cold. However, with a healthy diet and exercise, your child's immune system is strong enough to protect him or her from the elements.

Do you get sick when you are out in the rain?

If you get cold or wet, you don't get sick. But there are factors that can cause you to catch a cold quickly. For example, the chances are higher if you are extremely tired, emotionally upset, or have allergies associated with nose and throat complaints.

How do you explain to your child why rain is so important to us?

Rain fills streams, rivers, lakes and oceans and provides the moisture that trees and plants use to get their food. The water in the oceans is home to millions of marine animals, and the water in the streams, rivers, and lakes is home to freshwater fish and other aquatic animals.

What's a great benefit of playing outside in the rain?

The smell of rain has a calming effect: have you ever inhaled the wonderfully fresh scent of air during rain?

Why does rain make us happy?

Anxiety and depression specialist Kimberly Hershenson explains, “Rain produces a sound that resembles a noise. The brain receives a signal from this noise that reduces the need for sensory input, thus calming us.

What to do on a rainy day?

You see, there are plenty of activities to make it a fun day. Whether you sit comfortably inside, or just go outside and make something of it.

Moreover, it is healthy for your child to play in the rain! Exercise is always good, even when it rains!

Are there also rain toys?

Yes, rain toys also exist. These can be rainmakers, tubes with peas in them so that they make a rain sound. But also things like a cloud that drips for a bath, for example. Toy rainbows are also very closely related to the rain, of course.

With rain toys you can bring the experience of rain even closer and perhaps make it an educational success.

Always something to do for the holidays or rainy day?

Play Choice now has the ultimate activity book collection, with over 60 pages of fun coloring pages and educational puzzles.

Joost Nusselder, the founder of Speelkeuze.nl is a content marketer, father and loves trying out new toys. As a child he came into contact with everything related to games when his mother started the Tinnen Soldaat in Ede. Now he and his team create helpful blog articles to help loyal readers with fun play ideas.