100 Fun and Easy Activities for Your Summer Bucket List

Written By: The Good and the Beautiful Published On:

It’s time to make those summer bucket lists! Get out the water hoses, build the campfires, and buy the marshmallows, but also keep reading for a list of unique and fun summer bucket list ideas fromThe Good and the Beautiful team.

We had so much fun working together (including staff members from across the United States) to develop this list of 100 fun and easy things to do in the summer. Don’t forget to print our free download to write and track your family’s summer bucket list adventures! 

  • Click Here for FREE Download

101 Summer Bucket List Ideas

  1. Make homemade ice cream. 
  2. Do crafts with an elderly neighbor.
  3. Have a picnic in the backyard. 
  4. Learn about constellations.
  5. Have a family drawing lesson.
  6. Host a neighborhood science fair.
  7. Collect flowers and press them.
  8. Make a stick fort (large or small).  
  9. Graph the number of times you see various birds.
  10. Make cards for a local nursing home, then visit with the residents.
  11. Learn summer words in a new language.
  12. Organize a family game day—at the beach or lakeside.
  13. Plant a seed in a cup and track its growth.
  14. Grow a sunflower, and then roast its seeds. 
  15. Make ice pops with fruit juice.
  16. Do a show-and-tell of your favorite things.
  17. Make puppets from paper lunch bags and put on a show. 
  18. Have three-legged races in the yard.
  19. Plan a neighborhood water-balloon fight.
  20. Go for a walk in nature and sit still somewhere for 15 minutes to listen and watch. 
  21. Plant a new tree (for you or someone else).
  22. Build a micro-city with stones, sticks, and other materials.
  23. Play a music concert for friends and family, using only homemade instruments.

Keep Reading for more great ideas . . .

24. Make dinner with recipes from another country.

25. Have lunch at the park.

26. Track the moon cycle and lengths of days.

27. Learn a new skill, even something simple and fun.

28. Pick an animal, state, flower, etc., to learn about. 

29. Write your findings from #28 on extra-large sticky notes.

30. Learn about the history of the Fourth of July.

31. Visit a local animal shelter. 

32. Eat breakfast for dinner. 

33. Pick fresh fruit and make homemade shakes.

34. Finish The Good and the Beautiful Summer Reading Program.

35. Build a birdhouse with materials found around the house.

36. Make art using rocks. 

37. Turn an old toy kitchen or a workbench into a mud-pie station. 

38. Learn to fish, then go fishing.

39. Take a camping trip, or camp out in your backyard (or set up a tent in the living room).

40. Volunteer to read good and beautiful books at your local nursing home. 

41. Create a rock garden and set it up in the yard.

42. Paint rocks and hide them around the neighborhood.

43. Make homemade bubbles.

44. Take a family hike together.

45. Make foil dinners over a campfire.

46. Learn to play a new board game as a family.

47. Learn about baby farm animals. (Research local farms to find an opportunity to have an in-person experience!)

48. Organize a family painting night. 

49. Make sidewalk chalk paint.

  • Photograph of young girl with chalk

You’re halfway there!

50. Have a tie-dye shirt party with your family, friends, or neighbors. 

51. Make wooden stick bracelets. 

52. Create puppets from old/worn socks. 

53. Make crystal stars while studying the night sky. 

54. Use The Good and the Beautiful Creative Arts & Crafts Notebook to do a family craft night once or twice (or more!) a week.

55. Visit one or more of your state parks to learn about your state’s history.

56. Kick around a soccer ball, play catch, or hit a volleyball around for 30 minutes.

57. Plant a garden and create meals with the food you grow.

58. Make and fly a kite.

59. Build an obstacle course. 

60. Go on a scavenger hunt around your neighborhood.

61. Hang up an old white sheet and make a painting as a family.

62. Find a strawberry farm and go strawberry picking as a family.

63. Be a tourist in your own city.

64. Do a random act of kindness.

65. Set up a disc-golf course and play.

66. Sign up to deliver Meals on Wheels™.

67. Make a person or group of people using sticks, rocks, leaves, and other items found during a nature walk. 

68. Experiment with colors: make purple, green, and orange from red, blue, and yellow paints.

69. Learn a new stretching routine. 

70. Make a bird feeder and then keep a record of the food consumption. 

71. Sit in the shade and read a book.

72. Watch a movie outside. 

73. Run in the sprinklers or visit a splash pad.

74. Enjoy a fireworks show.

Only a few more left . . .

75. Make paper or nature boats to race down a stream.

76. Refurbish a household item to make it new. 

77. Listen to an audio book together.

78. Blow up an inflatable pool and fill it with blankets for your movie-night seating.

79. Learn about a plant, then go on a walk and try to spot it.

80. Help neighbors weed their garden.

81. Make a treat for a grandparent or another loved one.

82. Make lemonade from scratch.

83. Have a tea party or themed meal.

84. Visit a cemetery and make a rubbing of a family headstone.

85. Paint a sunset.

86. Build a fort together, then play games inside.

87. Play baseball with water balloons.

88. Make DIY wind chimes.

89. Invite a neighbor to join your family for game night. 

90. Go a whole day without using technology—make it fun.

91. Write uplifting notes and leave them in places (on cars in parking lots, in library books, etc.) or give them to people.

92. Write and mail letters together.

93. Play yard Twister™. 

94. Play a giant game of Pick-Up Sticks. 

95. Build a recycled water wall. 

96. Plan an ice-block treasure hunt. 

97. Draw shapes you find in the clouds.

98. Play Capture the Flag. 

99. Organize a glow-stick ring-toss game.

100. Make a homemade volcano in your backyard.

101. Create a memory box to open next summer.

Enjoy these fun summer bucket list ideas, and don’t forget to make your own list with our free download below. We hope this season is a special time for your entire family!

  • Click Here for FREE Download

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Join the Discussion

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3 comments

Samantha

Absolutely love these ideas! We will use them throughout the year for fun activities!

Megan Cook

We love starting a new school year but I love the idea of making a summer bucket list to help us keep up the learning year around. Thanks for this tool to help us get started!

Rachelle Robinson

The last few years we have used your printable download for a summer bucket list that my kids create themselves. It has the lines for them to write in their own ideas in different designs. I can’t find the printable on your website. Is it still available?
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The Good and the Beautiful replied:
Hello Rachelle! While we don’t have a blank printable at this time we hope you enjoy creating your own summer bucket list!

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