Rainy days with toddlers are one of parenting’s great tests. By 10am you’ve already exhausted your bag of tricks, the TV has been on for two hours, and you’re wondering how many more hours until bedtime.
Here are 10 activities that are genuinely educational, genuinely fun, and require almost zero preparation.
1. Nursery Rhyme Puppet Show
What you need: Socks, markers, googly eyes (optional)
Spend 10 minutes making simple sock puppets together, then perform your toddler’s favorite nursery rhyme. This builds narrative language, creativity, and turn-taking skills. The making is often more fun than the performance.
Learning connections: Language development, storytelling, fine motor skills
2. Sing-Along + Draw
What you need: Paper, crayons, a YouTube video or your own singing
Play a nursery rhyme video (or sing it yourself) and ask your toddler to draw what they hear. Twinkle Twinkle becomes a night sky with stars. Old MacDonald becomes a farm with animals. This combines auditory processing, visual art, and vocabulary in one activity.
Learning connections: Listening comprehension, drawing skills, vocabulary
3. Rhyme Word Hunt
What you need: Picture books, magazines, printed flashcards
Read a nursery rhyme together, then go on a “rhyme hunt” through books or magazines. Find pictures of things that rhyme with words in the song. “Star” — can you find a car? A jar? This phonological awareness game is directly linked to reading readiness.
Learning connections: Phonological awareness, rhyme recognition, prediction
4. Counting Activities with Household Objects
What you need: Pasta, blocks, buttons, anything countable
Use the counting rhymes as the framework. Five Little Ducks? Line up 5 rubber ducks (or blocks) and remove one as each duck goes away. Baa Baa Black Sheep? Count out 3 bags (cups, boxes) and talk about who gets what. Abstract counting becomes concrete.
Learning connections: Number sense, one-to-one correspondence, subtraction concepts
5. The “What Comes Next?” Story Game
What you need: Just your voices
Start a familiar nursery rhyme and stop before the rhyme word. “Jack and Jill went up the ______.” Let your toddler fill in the word. Once they’re confident, try stopping mid-story and asking “What do you think happens next?” This builds narrative anticipation and creative language.
Learning connections: Prediction, phonological awareness, narrative comprehension
6. Coloring Pages + Storytelling
What you need: Printed coloring pages (see our free pack)
Print a nursery rhyme coloring page and color it together. While coloring, narrate the rhyme story. Ask questions: “Why did Humpty fall? Do you think he was okay? What would you do to help him?” This extends a simple activity into rich conversation.
Learning connections: Fine motor skills, comprehension, empathy, conversation
7. Kitchen Percussion Band
What you need: Pots, wooden spoons, containers, dried rice
Make instruments and sing nursery rhymes. A pot becomes a drum, a container of rice becomes a shaker. The rhythm of nursery rhymes is naturally structured for this. Research shows that rhythmic music training accelerates phonological awareness development.
Learning connections: Rhythm recognition, syllable awareness, gross motor skills, creativity
8. The Rhyme Matching Game
What you need: Index cards or paper, a marker
Write 6 pairs of rhyming words from nursery rhymes on cards (star/are, high/sky, sheep/peep, hill/Jill). Mix them up and play a simple matching game. For older toddlers (4–5), flip them face down for a memory challenge.
Learning connections: Rhyme recognition, memory, reading readiness
9. Play Dough Characters
What you need: Play dough (store-bought or homemade)
Make the characters from a nursery rhyme together. A spider for Itsy Bitsy. A bus for Wheels on the Bus. A little star. Then “act out” the rhyme with your creations. This is language development disguised as play.
Learning connections: Imaginative play, narrative language, fine motor skills, vocabulary
10. The Quiet Listening Walk (Works Even Indoors)
What you need: Just yourselves
Go on a sound walk around the house (or out in the rain with boots). Listen for sounds that match nursery rhymes: water dripping like “rain rain go away,” the wind like “blow blow blow,” birds if you’re lucky. Connecting the abstract language of nursery rhymes to real sensory experiences deepens comprehension.
Learning connections: Sensory awareness, vocabulary, observational skills
Get the Free Activity Pack
All 10 of these activities pair perfectly with our free 13-rhyme printable pack. Download one coloring page or activity sheet per rhyme — no credit card, no catch — and you’ll always have something ready for the next rainy day.
Get the free pack → · Instant download · 13 pages · Works on any printer