Activities & Lessons

Kindergarten Summer Reading Activities: The Great Outdoors

2 Min Read
GK The Great Outdoors hero

Caregiver Corner

Download our letter to you with tips and suggestions for extending this week’s activities with your family. Have a great week!

Welcome to the Great Outdoors! We’ll provide five days of reading and learning activities designed to engage your child in an exploration of nature all around us.

Reading Monday

It’s Monday, so let’s read about hiking in the woods!


In the Woods

A family goes for a walk in the woods. What colors will they see?



Discuss the book: What is the family doing? What color is the bird they see? Which animal would you like to see in the woods?

Media Tuesday

It’s Tuesday, so let’s watch a video!


A Year in the Garden

Watch the video A Year in the Garden to see how a family creates and nurtures their own garden over a whole year.

Discuss the video: What is different about this video? What is the family growing in their garden? What animals did you see in the video?

Writing Wednesday

It’s Wednesday, so let’s write!


Write about Colors

Think about living or nonliving things that you can find in the woods. Use the pictures from In the Woods to help you think of ideas. Name and describe objects using color words. Write sentences using one of these sentence frames:

I can find a _____ in the woods.

A _____ is in the woods.



More to Read!

For more reading about outdoor fun, download The Fishing Trip.

Research Thursday

It’s Thursday, so let’s explore concepts!


Create a Concept Web

  • Draw a circle and label it “The Woods.”
  • Add more circles and connect them to the first circle. Write or draw different animals and plants that live in the woods to each circle.
  • Choose one plant or animal from your web to read more about.
  • Draw details about that plant or animal on the back of your concept web.

Project Friday

It’s Friday, so let’s create!


Make Trading Cards

Use index cards to make animal and plant trading cards!

  • On one side of index cards, draw and color plants and animals that the characters see in In the Woods or The Fishing Trip.
  • Write the name and the color on the other side of the cards.
  • Add more cards for other plants and animals that live in the woods.
  • Sort the cards by color. Then sort a different way.



Talk about what you learned about the Great Outdoors this week with your friends and family!

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