Get the best and most inviting summer preschool themes for lesson plans that both children and teachers love! For other great themes for the whole year, check out our ultimate list of preschool themes.
Summer afternoon—summer afternoon; to me those have always been the two most beautiful words in the English language.
Henry James
I absolutely agree – there is nothing as ideal as a summer afternoon!
That doesn’t mean that summer isn’t without its challenges. You’re busy enough without having the added extra of needing to come up with weekly themes and to plan lessons and activities for your kids! That’s where summer preschool themes come to the rescue.
Summer Preschool Themes
Summer is the perfect time to create cherished memories, foster new friendships, and create moments of joy and wonder that will last a lifetime.
We’ve put together a list of summer-themed activities and ideas to help you get started with lesson planning. These lessons all focus on summer-based themes, including:
- Beach and Seashells Theme
- Bubbles Theme
- Camping Theme
- Fruits and Vegetables Theme
- Ice Cream Theme
- Mindfulness and Yoga Theme
- Ocean Theme
- Picnics Theme
- Sharks Theme
I’ve made a free printable preschool theme list to help with all your planning!
All About Me Theme
Summertime is a great time to explore personal interests and learn more about each other! Children can learn about their own features and attributes, as well as their community. This is an easy place to incorporate name recognition and activities, such as tactile name writing practice or this simple name craft.
Grab the free All About Me poster below to guide your preschoolers as they share how truly unique they are!
Check out the All About Me lesson plans for either toddlers or preschoolers in our preschool store or toddler store!
Around The World Theme
Learning about new places is a great theme for summertime. Preschoolers love to share their travels and the places they have visited. This theme lends itself to learning about new, faraway places and discovering all the features of a map! The book Me on the Map is perfect for helping preschoolers see where they live on a map, and check out this me on the map craft!
Travel to our store and grab the Around the World lesson plan for extra ideas!
Beach and Seashells Theme
If you’re lucky enough to live in a coastal area, this is a perfect opportunity for a field trip! Otherwise, you can make a sensory play recipe that feels just like beach sand. Talk about the unique creatures and the different textures. Also a great time for an ocean creature sensory bottle! While you’re studying about the beach, why not explore seashells as well? This is also a great opportunity for kids to learn about how seashells are formed and what animals live in seashells, along with the different types and colors of seashells. This alone is a fun theme but the tie-in options are endless!
Get a whole beach lesson plan from Preschool Teacher 101 to make your theme a splash! Or looking for more shell ideas? Preschool Teacher 101 has you covered with an entire seashell lesson plan!
Bubbles Theme
Is there anything more magical than bubbles? Summer is a great time to explore and to play with bubbles as much as possible. Blow with them, paint with them, put them in the sensory table, and more. Every preschooler loves bubbles! Make a kitchen sink bubble explosion for a themed sensory science experiment.
Get an entire bubbles lesson plan from Preschool Teacher 101.
Bugs, Bees, and Butterflies Theme
Summer is a busy time for our insect friends. Our pollinators are especially busy this time of year. You can break this summer preschool theme out into several weeks, or do a quick overview of different types of bugs.
Bees are one of the hardest workers on the planet who have a very important job. This torn paper flower craft is an easy tie-in as you talk about these busy helpers. You can also learn about pollination and patterns. Maybe you can even spot some busy bees near your home!
Don’t stop at just bees…learn about other bugs and insects and learn about their similarities and differences. You can dazzle your students with interesting animal facts about ladybugs, butterflies, and spiders.
For some beginning math practice with a butterfly theme, check out the butterfly ten frame counting mats in our store! Use them to teach children to count up to 20 and to learn number sense. Ten frame mats are a perfect way to teach subitizing, one-to-one correspondence, and cardinality.
Along with butterflies, we have counting mats themed for every holiday and season!
Buzz over to our store for our bugs and butterflies unit lesson plan for even more ideas!
Camping Theme
Summertime is the perfect time to go camping, explore outdoors, and experience nature. However, camping can be just as fun indoors! Building an indoor tent might be just the thing for a rainy afternoon. Set up a sleeping area or make indoor s’mores! This is a great reason to pull out the flashlights and to talk about spending the night in nature. Our friends at Fun-A-Day have a ton of great learning activity ideas for a camping theme!
Check out Preschool Teacher 101 for camping lesson plans.
Farm Theme
Preschoolers love the farm! Preschoolers love learning about farm animals, how plants grow, and getting up close to big farm equipment. Use farm animals to learn with these fun ten frames! Enjoy hot summer days feeding animals and reading about them in our farm book list. And don’t miss our fun list of farm songs, perfect for circle time!
Moo-ve over to our store for an entire farm themed lesson plan.
Flowers and Trees Theme
Get children excited about flowers, plants, and what plants need to grow with a preschool flower theme. Learn about local flowers and trees, plant seeds, and watch them grow! Use cupcake liners to make an easy flower craft. This theme has endless ideas and is a big hit with preschoolers!
Jump over to our store for an entire flowers and trees themed lesson plan.
Fruits and Vegetables Theme
Want a preschool theme that’s more than just apples? Talk about all the fruits and vegetables! What makes them different, how to grow them, how they taste, and why they are good for us!. This is a great time of year to put in a summer garden and explore yummy summer vegetables.
The talented teachers over at Preschool Teacher 101 have put together this amazing vegetable lesson plan!
Ice Cream Theme
Ice cream is a kid favorite so using it as a preschool summer theme is a fantastically sweet idea! Have you tried this 3-ingredient ice cream scented bubble recipe? We especially love this ice cream writing tray!
For some sweet math practice with an ice cream theme, check out the ice cream counting mats in our store! Use them to teach children to count up to 20 and to learn number sense. Ten frame mats are a perfect way to teach subitizing, one-to-one correspondence, and cardinality.
Along with ice cream, we have counting mats themed for every holiday and season!
Eat up some more delicious ideas in this ice cream themed lesson plan from our friends at Preschool Teacher 101.
Mindfulness Theme
Learning to be mindful is an important skill for preschoolers. Since summer is in full swing, take this chance to get out of the heat and head indoors to do some calming, cooling, mindful exercises. This is a perfect theme for introducing yoga, whether through yoga books, kid yoga videos, or printable yoga cards and posters. Incorporate brain breaks to help relax or rejuvenate. Mindfulness can even be used outdoors!
If you’ve already got the FREE animal yoga pack and still want more, you can grab these yoga cards in our store!
Ocean Theme
This is one of the most popular summer preschool themes. An ocean theme is so much fun! Learn about unique ocean creatures like sea stars, discover unique shells, explore an ocean-themed sensory bin, and more. Or check out our full list of ocean books for kids! You can also tie this into your moon theme by discussing tides, currents, and other ocean phenomena. Study this theme individually or combine the ocean theme with the sharks, beach, and seashells theme.
If you need more ocean ideas, we have a sea of ideas in this ocean lesson plan in our store.
Picnic Theme
Everyone loves a picnic! There is something magical about eating somewhere new! Read this perfect book, Let’s Have a Picnic, and get creative as you set up a picnic with your preschoolers! Or bring your teddy bears along and enjoy The Teddy Bears’ Picnic! Bring in some fun music with The Ants Go Marching!
Rainbows & Weather Theme
Rainbows are so magical and with these wet summer storms, there’s a good chance you might catch a glimpse of one in the sky! Learning about rainbows is such a fun theme to explore. The supplemental activities are endless – science activities, fine motor practice, sensory play, discovery bottles, process art activities, sight words, crafts, and much more! Don’t miss listening to rainbows and colors songs while you learn. This theme transitions nicely to learning about the weather… and summer weather can be unpredictable and so exciting!
For a full weather lesson plan, check out our store.
Sharks Theme
There’s a whole week dedicated to sharks every year in July or August, which makes sharks one of the more popular summer preschool themes! What other animal has as many teeth as a shark? Practice counting high digit numbers by counting their teeth. Plus, it’s a great week to work on Baby Shark songs!
Space Theme
There are so many ways outer space can be a ‘blast’. Stars, moons, and planets are just some of the miraculous things you can teach kids about space. Make a night sky sensory bin for some themed sensory play! You can incorporate math by using these space-themed number writing practice cards, make a rocket ship out of a cardboard box, or doing constellation activities. On a clear night, look at the stars or see if there are any astrological events happening in your area, such as a meteor shower, eclipse, or blue moon. Or, show kids pictures and talk about life on the International Space Station!
If you’re in need of an entire space lesson plan, we’ve got you covered in our store.
Summer Theme
Focusing on summer as a whole season is another great theme option! Summer is full of fun – beaches, vacations, lemonade, and of course the POOL! Check out this pool noodle name recognition activity, or a whole list of pool noodle hacks and learning ideas. This is a great theme for the end of the traditional school year or during the summer months.
Jump over to our store and check out our whole summer theme lesson plan.
These are just a few ideas and resources for preschool-geared summer themes. You can expand or combine any of these ideas as you need. Or if you’re interested in even more great ideas, visit our Ultimate List of Preschool Themes for tons of themes that can be used year-round! Most importantly, have fun! The summer will be gone before you know it, so make sure you enjoy this special time of year.
For even more themes and ideas, see our library below!
Themes by the Month
- June Preschool Themes
- July Preschool Themes
- August Preschool Themes
- September Preschool Themes
- October Preschool Themes
- November Preschool Themes
- December Preschool Themes
- January Preschool Themes
- February Preschool Themes
- March Preschool Themes
- April Preschool Themes
Themes by Season
- Rainbow Sensory Bottle - March 3, 2024
- Teaching Neurodivergent Children in Early Childhood Education - January 8, 2024
- Creating Musical Memories: Teaching Music in Preschool - October 6, 2023
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