Rainy Day Activities With Free Printables

Rain on the windows, kids bouncing off the walls, and a tablet that seems to be calling everyone's name. A stack of free printables can turn that kind of afternoon around. With a little setup, a few coloring pages become contests, stories, tiny books and an art show, all without much screen time.

Here are simple ideas that work for a range of ages, plus ways to keep everyone moving between activities.

Build a rainy day box first

The best rainy day plan is one you make on a sunny day. Print a mix of pages ahead of time and keep them in a box or folder with supplies, so you can pull it out the moment the weather turns.

A good box includes:

• A range of pages: Simple, bold pages for little ones and detailed pages for older kids and grown-ups.
• Favorite themes: Animals, dragons, unicorns, castles, or whatever your family loves right now.
• Basic supplies: Crayons, colored pencils, washable markers, a glue stick, child-safe scissors, tape and a stapler.
• Extras for games: A small bag or cup for drawing crayons at random, sticky notes and a kitchen timer.

Hold a coloring contest where everyone wins

Contests are more fun when there are lots of categories. Give everyone the same page, set a timer, and let the coloring begin. When time is up, hand out awards like:

• Brightest colors
• Most surprising color choice
• Best background
• Silliest detail
• Most patient coloring

Let a panel of stuffed animals be the judges, or ask a grandparent to vote by video call. Make simple award ribbons from paper circles and tape. With enough categories, every artist goes home with a prize.

Color-along pages, which show a finished color version beside a page to color, make an interesting twist. Some kids will copy the example closely, and others will go wild. Comparing the results is half the fun.

Turn pages into stories

A coloring page is a picture waiting for a story. After your child colors, ask a few questions:

• Who is this, and what is their name?
• Where do they live?
• What problem do they have today?
• What happens next?

Young children can tell the story while you write it down. Head Start's teaching practices encourage adults to let children write or dictate stories or explanations to go with their work (opens in a new tab), and it is a lovely way to save a child's own words. Older kids can write captions or speech bubbles themselves.

For a bigger challenge, lay out three colored pages in a row and call them the beginning, middle and end of one story. A dragon, a castle and a unicorn can lead somewhere surprising.

Fold a mini book

Mini books are small, satisfying and easy to make from a single sheet of paper. Here is a classic fold:

1. Lay a sheet of letter-size paper flat, wide side facing you. Fold it in half top to bottom, crease, and unfold.
2. Fold it in half left to right, then in half the same way again. Unfold. The creases now make eight boxes, two rows of four.
3. Fold it left to right one more time. Starting at the folded edge, cut along the middle crease just to the next fold line. When you open the sheet, the slit runs between the four center boxes.
4. Unfold, then fold it top to bottom with the slit on the fold. Hold the two ends and push them toward the middle. The slit opens up and the pages fold out.
5. Flatten the pages around one another into a little book and crease the spine.

Kids can draw in the boxes, or cut tiny pictures from colored pages and glue them in. If folding feels tricky, cut a few pages into quarters, stack them and staple along one edge. Either way, a mini book makes a sweet gift for a sibling, a friend or a grandparent.

Host a gallery walk

Once a pile of finished art builds up, turn a hallway into a museum. Tape pages at kid eye level and add a small label card for each one with:

• The title of the piece
• The artist's name
• What it was made with, such as "crayon and marker"

Give each visitor a few sticky notes to leave a kind comment on their favorite pieces. Kids can take turns being the museum guide and explaining their work.

A gallery walk is also a natural time to think about who might enjoy a piece of art. Harvard's Making Caring Common project suggests helping kids show thanks in ways that feel right to them, including drawings (opens in a new tab), and mailing a card or drawing is one of its ideas. A colored page with a short note makes a cheerful thank-you for a teacher, neighbor or relative.

Play color-swap games

These quick games shake up the usual routine and are great for siblings or friends:

• Pass it on: Everyone starts their own page. Every two minutes, the timer rings and pages pass to the left. Keep going until each page comes home.
• Secret palette: Each player draws three crayons from a bag without looking. Those are the only colors they can use.
• Opposite day: Color everything in a color it never is. Blue bananas, green suns, orange elephants.
• Copy my colors: One person colors half a page, and the partner tries to match it on the other half.
• Pattern pals: Partners agree on a pattern, like stripes or polka dots, and fill an entire page with it.

Our Creature Kingdom book uses color-along pages that work well for "copy my colors," but any page will do.

Mix in some movement

Long stretches at the table can get wiggly, and that is a good sign it is time to move. The CDC says children ages three to five should be physically active throughout the day (opens in a new tab), and that children and teens ages 6 to 17 need 60 minutes or more of moderate-to-vigorous activity each day.

Easy indoor breaks between printable activities:

• Animal moves: Pick a creature from a coloring page and move like it. Stomp like a dragon, gallop like a unicorn, waddle like a penguin.
• Crayon hunt: Hide crayons around a room and race to find every color.
• Gallery dance: Put on music during your gallery walk and freeze when it stops.
• Castle builders: Use couch cushions to build the castle from a coloring page.

Keep screens in their place

Printables are not about banning screens. They simply give kids an easy, appealing alternative. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that parents and caregivers develop a family media plan (opens in a new tab) that takes into account the health, education and entertainment needs of each child and the whole family. A rainy day box can be part of that plan: a ready answer for the moment someone asks, "What can I do now?"

Try it

• Fill your rainy day box from the free coloring page library.
• Start a story with free dragon coloring pages or castle coloring pages.
• Grab the free bonus coloring pack to keep a few surprise pages on hand.
• Looking for more learning ideas? Read Alphabet Coloring Activities for Preschool.