3 creative and easy summer activities for early years: Part 3

By: Hope Early Years • Read time: 3 min • Published: August 2026

Quick Answer

Discover three simple, low-cost outdoor summer activities for early years children designed in collaboration with Early Years Outdoors. These activities—Summer Herby Tea, Summer Petal Cupcakes, and Summer Colours—boost language, creative thinking, and sensory development using accessible, everyday natural resources.

Why simple activities create rich learning

Summer provides countless opportunities for children to slow down, notice the world around them and enjoy simple moments of discovery. Whether it's smelling fresh herbs, creating imaginative mud recipes or spotting the colours hidden in nature, outdoor play encourages curiosity while supporting children's language, confidence and wellbeing.

Together with Early Years Outdoors, we've created another collection of simple summer activities designed to help children connect with nature through meaningful play.

Children don't always need expensive resources or complicated setups to learn. Often the richest learning comes from everyday experiences that encourage children to observe, investigate, talk and imagine.

These types of activities naturally develop:

Communication and language
Understanding the world
Creative thinking
Sensory awareness
Social interaction
Confidence and independence

Activity 1: Summer herby tea

Transform your outdoor area into a delightful nature café. Using teapots, cups and fresh herbs, children can create their own herbal tea mixtures by pouring water, adding herbs, stirring and serving their special tea to friends.

Invite children to smell each herb before adding it. Ask questions such as:

Which herb smells the strongest?
Which is your favourite scent?
Can you describe what it smells like?
What would you name your special tea?

This calming sensory activity encourages rich conversations while developing children's descriptive vocabulary.

Activity 2: Summer petal cupcakes

Mud kitchens continue to be one of children's favourite outdoor play experiences. Using cupcake cases, mud, petals, leaves, grass and other natural treasures collected on a nature walk, children can create beautiful pretend cupcakes.

As they scoop, pour, decorate and serve, they're developing fine motor skills and imaginative thinking while having fun. And of course, there's no right or wrong way, every cupcake becomes a unique creation, so be as creative as you like.

Activity 3: Summer colours

Nature is full of beautiful colours if we take time to look. This activity encourages children to head outdoors with a colour chart and search for different shades found throughout the natural world around them.

From vibrant yellows and fiery oranges to calming greens and blues, children begin noticing details they may otherwise overlook.

Encourage them to:

Match colours
Compare shades
Describe textures
Talk about what they can see
Listen for sounds
Feel different natural materials

This mindful activity supports observation skills while encouraging children to engage all their senses.

Creating meaningful outdoor moments

The beauty of these activities lies in their simplicity. They encourage children to slow down, notice seasonal changes and become curious about their natural environment.

They're easy to adapt for different ages and can be repeated throughout the summer as nature changes week by week. Most importantly, their fun, and create joyful shared experiences that children will remember long after the season has ended.