Many people have special memories linked with rainy day activities. From a magical moment eating a cookie and looking out the window as a very young child, to a special moment of true calm as a beautiful piece of music mingles with the sound of the rain, rainy day activities have a unique quality no matter what your age.
In fact, rainy day activities don’t only apply to rainy days – there are cold days, hot days, days when there is too much ice to get around easily, and days when you are recovering from a head cold and don’t know what to do. Any one of these occasions begs for the perfect ‘rainy day activity’!
Don’t worry if you’ve run out of ideas. Keep reading for some inspiration! Maybe one of these 10 suggestions for safe, inclusive, adaptable, age-appropriate and creative activities will be just right, or maybe they’ll spark a great idea of your own!
1. Music Activity: Learn to Listen to and Appreciate Beautiful Music
‘Music, source of all gladness.’ I don’t know who wrote these words, which were put to music so memorably by the great classical composer G. F. Handel. But they do inspire!
Nowadays, there are so many top quality recordings in all styles to enjoy, right at our fingertips, for free on Spotify and Youtube (among others). The trick is, where to start? What to listen to? Your old favourites deserve the love and attention you give them, even on a rainy day. But what if you’re getting a bit bored, or you think it might be time to broaden your musical horizons just a bit?
Music Appreciation for young children
Browsing can get tiring. And music for young children can – how can we say this politely – grate the nerves of teachers, older siblings and parents. Luckily, all it takes is an open mind and the right approach to introduce young people to other types of sounds and moods, the sorts that you don’t mind listening to again and again when your little one develops a new favourite.
To simplify the exploration process, we’ve put together a collection of free, themed listening files, all under 15 minutes long. Instead of struggling to find a musical genre or artist to try out, just pick a topic! Horses, Water, Dinner, Snakes, Spirals, Jiggles – you name it. Just click and listen. (No pop or hip-hop on the menu.) And if you want to make a bit more of the experience, hop over and download our free file of music appreciation activities to get started. Some themes have simple topic-based lessons you can use, also.
Music Appreciation for older children
Tweens and young adults may be afraid of trying classical music on for size, but when you’re indoors on a rainy day, you have a perfect excuse for trying something new.
In fact, whether you are familiar the moving harmonies of J.S. Bach and the uplifting melodies of a Gilbert & Sullivan opera, or you are just exploring these composers’ music for the first time, completing a music lapbook might be just the thing to put your focus on some great works of classical music.
Many teens discover that opera plots and moods are surprisingly entertaining and relatable. There’s something for everyone when it comes to opera and classical vocal music, whether you prefer high drama, humour, or pristine elegance. The trick to appreciating new music is to listen to it more than once. Relish those melodies and rhythms! And remember, there’s nothing to stop you from singing along!
2. Art activity: Admire Great Works of Art, or Make Your Own
Everybody thinks of arts and crafts when it comes to rainy day activities, but what about just plain old art? Great historical paintings, monumental sculptures, street art pushing the boundaries of social norms – there is so much to explore in the world of painting and art that it can be hard to know where to start.
One way to bridge the gap between the masses of possible images to admire online, and the ability to appreciate one or two and really get to know them, is through a simple cut and paste activity. Each of our collections contains six pieces of great art from a specific era: Historical Egypt, Victorian London, Revolutionary France, Historical Rome, the time of Shakespeare.
Just print out the six-piece puzzle or the 10-piece puzzle, depending on your preferred level of difficulty, and begin to cut out the pieces. Make jagged edges smooth, enjoy the shapes of the pieces and the colours of the image, paste the pieces carefully in the outline, and admire a great work of art. Extra questions can guide you to explore each painting further with some online research. You never know, you may be inspired to get the paints out and create something wonderful yourself!
Drawing activities
Some of us prefer the clean lines of a drawing to the murky mood of a painting. If you would rather get out your geometry set than your paints, why not try this free resource that guides you to draw a simple snowflake? The instructions will help you master the basic shape, then it’s up to you to add further elaboration. The sky’s the limit, as it were. Use your beautiful drawing to make a seasonal card, or compare and contrast your own creation with images of real snowflakes made by mother nature!
Mosaics
From ancient times, people have created incredible mosaics to decorate the interiors of buildings, the walkways of gardens, and the bases of fountains. A rainy day is the perfect time to connect with the ancients and dabble in a bit of mosaic-making yourself! But perhaps you don’t relish the idea of making a big mess, as undoubtedly the original stone-carving and plaster-smearing mosaic process involved.
Enter the ‘cardboard scraps mosaic’. Follow the instructions to cut out pieces of thin cardboard or thick paper – use anything you have on hand, from kleenex boxes to flyers in the mail – and glue them to the patterns provided to make your own mosaic! Images included can be used to make decorations for Valentine’s Day, St. Patrick’s Day, and more.
3. Exercise Activity: Try a New Indoor Sport for Small Spaces
OK, enough with the sitting already! True, you may have done some dancing with the Music Appreciation part of your day, and dancing is truly one of the best forms of exercise around, but . . .
A rainy day can be a great opportunity to get moving in many other ways! Here are just two types of easy indoor exercises that homeschoolers, teachers and anyone else can add to their day, right in the comfort of a small room.
Tai Chi
Tai Chi has been around for centuries, and for good reason. It’s good for your body, your mind, your mood – you name it! And it’s wonderfully gentle. Anyone can do the basic movements and begin to benefit from their ‘awesomeness’ (sorry – a bit of Kung Fu Panda snuck in there). Even people with limited mobility can perform parts of the movements and enjoy the inclusive benefits of Tai Chi.
To be sure, there are Tai Chi masters who would put Olympic athletes to shame. In fact, young people might enjoy taking a peek at some world class Tai Chi demonstrations to get inspired, before learning some simpler moves themselves.
Once you have a sense of the mood, go ahead and follow a simple online lesson. Basic routines and movements can be performed within the space available in a regular-sized room, by people of all ages. An especially good example of this is the simplified Tai Chi routine by Helen Liang.
Juggling
Right, so this activity will definitely require hiding anything fragile in the vicinity, but it’s worth it! Juggling is another indoor exercise that is easy to benefit from, meaning it’s good for you no matter how bad at it you are (if that makes any sense). Even just beginning to learn to toss a ball in a correct juggling style will wake up your body and make your mind more alert! And the more you do it, the better it is for you.
Juggling is an especially effective exercise for anyone who sits at a computer – young or old. Why? Because when you juggle, you have to:
- look up, the opposite of looking at a phone or screen
- stand up and gently engage your hips and belly and leg muscles (don’t worry, it happens automatically – you don’t have to ‘try’)
- respond to the rhythms of gravity and not the rhythms of your own mind as you type frantically (maybe I’m projecting a bit here . . . )
- use your eyes to look in all directions and exercise those tiny, important muscles around your eyeballs, a great antidote to the fixed stare at the screen.
Crafts like knitting will develop small muscle coordination and dexterity, but juggling will help you hone your overall hand-eye coordination and all those other things they talk about in physical education class, without having to go into a smelly gym or risk life and limb on a ski hill. You know, for those of us who aren’t naturally ‘sporty’!
Here are two free online resources for learning to juggle:
How to juggle three balls (taught by a woman)
Beginner’s juggling (taught by a man)
4. Literature Activity: Delve into a Classic Work of Literature, with Extras
Do you love to read? Then a rainy day is a gift. You don’t need anyone to tell you to take this chance to curl up with a favourite novel. Instead, here are just a few suggestions of great classics that have been prepped with some juicy, inspiring activities to help you go deeper:
Rainy day stories for very young readers:
Rainy day novels for upper elementary readers:
Rainy day novels for middle school readers:
Rainy day novels for high school students:
5. Surprise Activity: Learn about Something Exotic that is Not Part of Your Regular Curriculum
What if it’s a rainy day but it’s still a school day? If the usual routine is looking a bit faded, why not take this opportunity to do some high-quality schoolwork based on quirky, out-of-the way topics? A rainy day can provide a good excuse to stray from the regular curriculum, and explore a bit further afield.
Fairy tales and mythical creatures
For example, this novel study of Beauty, a classic retelling of the story of Beauty and the Beast by Robin McKinley, includes four extra, unique units about exotic topics related to the book: Griffins, Roses, Great Horses, and Enchanted Forests. We all love learning ‘by accident’, as we delve into a topic that we just find plain old neat.
Or, take a look at this resource about Chinese Dragons. Read a bit, write a bit, and imagine a whole lot!
Last but not least, teachers can rely on any number of shorter reading and writing lessons in our grade-specific collections of inspired, age-appropriate, old-fashioned texts and assignments. Each collection comes in two levels, and can be easily adapted for use by substitute teachers, homeschooling mums and even independent work by students themselves on a rainy day.
6. Writing Activity: Read a Mystery – and Write Your Own!
It’s a gloomy day, the sky is heavy and your aunt’s painting of that thing she saw while sailing last summer has gone missing! Or something to that effect. It’s a classic rainy day activity that just has to be mentioned: read, and possibly write, a good mystery!
Sherlock Holmes
There a no better mysteries (some would argue) than the great classics by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle featuring the infamous Sherlock Holmes. Did you know that most Sherlock Holmes stories are quite short? And there are several that are perfectly appropriate for tween readers. You can turn your adventure into a lesson with Sherlock Holmes Reading Comprehension questions, or sit back and relax to the sounds of an audio recording of one of these timeless stories. Who knows, you may be inspired to write a mystery yourself!
Thieves and Jewels
For older students who are ready to delve into more challenging topics, the slightly longer stories by Max Pemberton, each focused on a mysterious and enticing (but dangerous or even deadly) precious stone, will be a good choice. There is peril at every turn – beware the tricks and temptations surrounding these objects! You can even read about real precious stones and their dramatic and sometimes unbelievable histories in this collection of stories by Mrs. Goddard Orpen.
Note: Jewels Mysteries also includes lengthy worksheets for concocting a good plot and writing your own mystery.
7. Movie Activity: Watch a Classic Movie
It’s always preferable to do something rather than turn to a screen, or so they say. I say, it depends on the screen.
There are some fantastic movies that contain valuable life lessons and masterful artistry, and watching them (combined with some analysis and thoughtful discussion) will surely be a beneficial and educational rainy day activity for older students. A good foreign film can even broaden your sensitivity to world cultures and inspire open-mindedness and even the desire to travel.
Just balance out your screen time with some of the exercises above and you’re good to go!
Here are some of the titles in our At The Movies Essay Writing collection. Remember, you can use the question sheets to make a complete lesson for high school students even if you don’t so far as to write an essay. Each movie has been chosen for its quality and age-appropriate content, but parents and teachers should trust their own judgement when choosing to show a video:
8. Humour Activity: Make a Joke (or Two)!
There’s nothing like a good joke! And that was nothing like a good joke. (from Mary Poppins, the movie)
Ha! Rainy days can get gloomy, and it’s easy to forget that we can all make a joke to lighten the mood. It doesn’t have to be a good joke, it just has to be a joke. If you want to get the humour juices flowing, try our free ‘Journal of Funny Moments’ resource and watch the grinning begin!
9. Theatre Activity: Put on a Play
Wait – don’t run away ! This suggestion does not have to be as complicated as it first would seem. Putting on a play does not have to involve taking apart the living room, or putting together a complicated performance with costumes and the whole shebang in a classroom. No, it only requires that students get excited about a bit of text and read it out loud with passion. The only ingredients you really need are sincere enthusiasm and imagination.
When we think of theatre, we think of Shakespeare, quite rightly. If your students are studying Shakespeare, a rainy day is the perfect time to act out some of those incredible lines. You can take a look at one of our four Shakespeare resources to get started, if you like. Or just pop online and pick a sonnet.
Never mind trying to understand everything – start by making a funny accent and a dramatic facial expression, and let the wonderful sounds of the words (even if they don’t mean anything to the audience or performer) create a mood. The point of this rainy day activity is just to do it. Go for it. Read some Shakespeare. Act out any old scene. Have fun! The Bard would surely approve of any effort made with a pure heart.
Shakespeare for older students
Older students who may be looking for a rainy day activity to change their minds could benefit from watching a film adaptation of one of Shakespeare’s plays, or a play based on one of his works. For fans of old-style black and white movies, there’s Laurence Olivier’s Hamlet. For those who like philosophy and intellectual agony, there’s Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead. For a more romantic mood, try Kenneth Branagh’s famous interpretation of Much Ado About Nothing. Again, viewer discretion is advised and I cannot vouch for the appropriateness of the material for your specific student or classroom.
10. Speak Another Language
A simple way to change an entire day is to speak another language. Depending on your level, this might mot be possible for the entire day – but then again, the do say that necessity is the mother of learning a new vocabulary word. (Or do they?)
At the very least, a rainy day can be a chance to try a new language learning resource with no pressure.
French learning resources for a rainy day
Just beginning to learn French? Try one of our beloved Noisette the Cat titles, and read about the daily life of a little cat who lives in Paris with the grand-mère, an elderly woman who loves to paint.
Never done a dictée? Try out one of our dictées for intermediate students, on any number of travel and science topics.
Not sure how to begin to learn the passé simple? Try an Arsène Lupin mystery by the great Maurice Leblanc.
Ready to do some more writing? Begin a 78 day French writing marathon with prompts and vocabulary lists included.
German learning resources for a rainy day
Learning German requires discipline and memorization, but once you are advanced enough to read actual German literature, it’s well worth the effort.
Beginners can get their feet wet with cheerful stories about Schubert the Dog. Intermediate and advanced students can enjoy a rainy day spent reading German fairy tales and mastering various relevant grammar topics.
Canadian Winter Homeschool Materials makes teacher resources for homeschool and classroom use!
We hope this list of rainy day activities has helped you find inspiration for your next day indoors!
Remember to stop by our store at Teachers Pay Teachers or Tes to browse more high quality education resources for homeschoolers and teachers. We publish everything from French lessons to novel studies, music appreciation activities and grammar workbooks.
Our priority is to make old-fashioned education fresh again, with tried and true methods that we have brought back to life with age-appropriate contents and themes. Feel free to contact us with any questions or comments, or subscribe to our monthly newsletter for exclusive offers and freebies!
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