Raining? Let's open the box! The Halloween cards are on top. Pick one, or tap Pick one for me.
108 ideas
Try lots of faces on paper before the real pumpkin.
Light a pumpkin with an LED light, never a candle.
Make a pumpkin face and print it →52 pumpkin designs to carve or paint →
Draw three ideas, pick one, and make a list.
Turn an empty tube into a smiling bat.
A grown-up helps: ✂️ scissors.
Small parts: keep them away from little ones under 3.
Your hand, upside down, makes a little ghost.
Dries in about an hour.
Footprints make tall ghosts too.
Wrap your mummy in toilet paper, fast!
Never wrap the face, the nose or the mouth.
Roll a little pumpkin at a triangle of bottles.
Use a small pumpkin you can hold with two hands, and roll it on the floor only.
Knock, say 'Trick or treat!', and say thank you.
Good for a first Halloween: it makes the knocking, the strangers at the door and the costumes feel familiar.
Make your own bag for trick-or-treat night.
A grown-up helps: ✂️ scissors.
Say a silly spell and watch your potion bubble over.
Keep vinegar away from eyes. It's a potion for looking, not drinking.
A bubbling cauldron in the Workshop →Why it fizzes, in the Workshop →
Friendly ghosts and silly bats, at your reading level.
Bats, a black cat, a haunted house and more to color.
Make a cozy cave out of blankets and chairs.
A sheet over the kitchen table is a fort in two minutes. Leave it up all day: it's a reading nook, a cave and a castle.
Stack the couch cushions into castle walls.
Keep the walls low. No climbing on the tall parts.
Putting the cushions back is the last level of the game.
Turn a big box into a car you can sit in.
A grown-up helps: ✂️ scissors.
Line the cars up in front of a picture book for a drive-in movie.
Build a rocket ship and count down to blast off.
A grown-up helps: ✂️ scissors.
Stack cups and cards as high as you can.
Tape tubes down a wall and race a marble to the floor.
A grown-up helps: ✂️ scissors.
Small parts: keep them away from little ones under 3.
Ask a grown-up which wall: painter's tape usually peels off clean.
Tape roads on the floor and build a town for your cars.
Stand things in a long line and knock down the first one.
Fold planes and see whose flies the farthest.
Pick a card and build what it says.
Small parts: keep them away from little ones under 3.
Crawl, hop and balance your way around the house.
Stay off the stairs and away from sharp corners.
Hop from cushion to cushion. Don't touch the floor!
Put cushions on a carpet, not a slippery floor. No jumping off the furniture.
Keep the balloon up and hit it over the net.
Under 8? A grown-up blows up the balloon, and picks up every popped piece right away. Balloon pieces can choke.
Dance wild, and freeze when the music stops.
Halloween version: dance like a monster, freeze like a scarecrow.
Stretch like a frog, a cat and a flamingo.
Hold each one for five slow breaths, then let the kids invent the next animal.
Roll a ball down the hall and knock down bottles.
A little water in each bottle makes them harder to knock over. Keep score with tally marks for counting practice.
Slide across the floor like it's ice.
Only on a clear floor, away from stairs, rugs and corners.
Tape a hopscotch on the floor and hop to 10.
Count to 20 and go find everyone.
Never hide in a dryer, a fridge, a toy chest, a car or anything that latches shut.
Crab walk, bear crawl and bunny hop down the hall.
Throw rolled-up socks into a basket.
Fold, cut and hang a row of friendly bats.
A grown-up helps: ✂️ scissors.
Make ghosts from glue that stick to the window.
Dries overnight.
A thick layer peels off in one piece. Puffy paint works too.
One loop for every sleep until Halloween.
A grown-up helps: ✂️ scissors.
Write a tiny job on each strip: draw a bat, tell a joke, read a spooky-cute story.
Be a robot, a castle or a car, made from boxes.
A grown-up helps: ✂️ scissors.
Small parts: keep them away from little ones under 3.
Make sure you can see out and walk without tripping.
Make a lion, a cat, an owl or a monster face.
A grown-up helps: ✂️ scissors.
Mix a dough you can shape, dry and paint.
Dries in 2 days, or a grown-up bakes it.
A grown-up helps: 🔥 the oven.
It's not food: it's very salty. Keep it away from dogs, who can get very sick from it.
Bake at about 250°F for 2 to 3 hours, turning halfway. Poke a hole before it dries to hang it up.
Turn an old sock into a puppet and put on a show.
Small parts: keep them away from little ones under 3.
Rub a crayon over a leaf and watch it appear.
Color, spray and watch the colors run together.
Dries in about an hour.
Fold a paper game that tells silly fortunes.
Cut out pictures and make a poster of your own.
A grown-up helps: ✂️ scissors.
Make a short cartoon that moves, on screen.
Make a cloud so full of color that it rains.
Shaving cream is for looking, not tasting.
Watch colored water climb paper towels into empty cups.
Watch it over a few hours.
A drop of soap makes the colors swirl away.
Guess first, then drop it in and see.
A grown-up stays close to little ones near any water.
Goo that's hard when you squeeze and runny when you let go.
Put it in the trash when you're done, not down the sink.
Baking soda plus vinegar: eruption!
Keep vinegar away from eyes.
Blobs sink and float in a glass of oil and water.
Rub a balloon on your hair and make paper jump.
Under 8? A grown-up blows up the balloon, and picks up every popped piece right away. Balloon pieces can choke.
Count your heartbeat, then jump and count again.
Shine a light through water and catch the colors.
Light bends as it goes through water and splits into colors, the same way a rainbow forms in raindrops.
Spin the globe and see where it rains the most.
Pick a drop on the window and cheer it to the bottom.
Catch the rain and measure how much fell.
Check it every day.
A grown-up helps: ✂️ scissors, 🌧️ outside.
Only when there's no thunder or lightning. Stay out of moving water, and away from storm drains.
Small parts: keep them away from little ones under 3.
Walk slowly in the drizzle and count the sounds.
A grown-up helps: 🌧️ outside.
Only when there's no thunder or lightning. Stay out of moving water, and away from storm drains.
Boots on. Find a puddle. Splash!
A grown-up helps: 🌧️ outside.
Only when there's no thunder or lightning. Stay out of moving water, and away from storm drains.
Only small, still puddles: never water that's moving or deep.
Fold a boat, wax it with crayon and float it.
A grown-up helps: 🌧️ outside.
Only when there's no thunder or lightning. Stay out of moving water, and away from storm drains.
Never in the street gutter, a ditch or a creek, or near a storm drain. A grown-up stays right there.
Let the raindrops finish your picture.
A grown-up helps: 🌧️ outside.
Only when there's no thunder or lightning. Stay out of moving water, and away from storm drains.
Tip it slowly and hear the rain inside.
Small parts: keep them away from little ones under 3.
Look out, draw the weather and give the report.
Count the worms and help them back to the grass.
A grown-up helps: 🌧️ outside.
Only when there's no thunder or lightning. Stay out of moving water, and away from storm drains.
Breathe on the glass and draw with one finger.
Draw a map of the room and follow it to the X.
Find something round, something soft, something red…
Rainy Day Bingo, further down this page, is a ready-made hunt to print.
I spy with my little eye, something that is…
Play it at the rainy window: a car, a puddle, an umbrella, a bird.
Guess the secret animal with yes-or-no questions.
Memory, Go Fish, War and Crazy Eights.
Draw the board, make the rules, then play it.
Small parts: keep them away from little ones under 3.
Write a message in numbers and crack each other's.
Look hard, then spot the thing that's gone.
Small parts: keep them away from little ones under 3.
Set up a shop, make price tags and count the money.
Small parts: keep them away from little ones under 3.
Make a menu, take orders and serve the food.
A word find, a maze or a riddle, on screen or printed.
Celery logs, a creamy road and raisin ants.
A grown-up helps: 🔪 a sharp knife.
Peanut allergy at home? Use sunflower seed butter.
Under 4? Celery and raisins are hard to chew: cut them very small, and sit down to eat.
Roll a banana in cereal and slice it into coins.
Peanut allergy at home? Use yogurt or sunflower seed butter.
Layer yogurt, fruit and granola into stripes.
Sort fruit by color and stack a rainbow.
A grown-up helps: 🔪 a sharp knife.
Under 4? Cut grapes and berries into small pieces.
Mash, stir and scoop easy cookies.
Make little pizzas with funny faces for lunch.
A grown-up helps: 🔥 the oven.
A picnic on the living room floor, rain or not.
Under 4? Cut grapes into quarters, and skip popcorn and nuts.
Pass the flashlight and add the next part.
Too spooky? Turn the lights up. Start with: 'Once upon a rainy night, a little ghost knocked on our window…'
Lights off, flashlight on, story time.
Fold, staple and fill a book of your own.
Read a story out loud to a furry buddy.
Four boxes, one character, one funny ending.
Sort your books and lend them to your family.
Drip, plop, pitter-patter: write a poem with rain words.
A storybook show where you read along.
Corners first, then edges, then the middle.
Small parts: keep them away from little ones under 3.
Big chunky pieces for little hands; a tray lets you move it off the table for dinner.
Print a page, pick your colors and take it slow.
Free coloring pages to print →Color on screen in the Art Studio →
Snuggle up and listen to a story.
Many public libraries lend audiobooks free through an app with a library card.
Shake it, then breathe slowly while the glitter falls.
A grown-up helps.
Make animals on the wall with your hands.
Send someone a letter about your rainy day.
A grown-up helps.
Open a clinic and look after your stuffed animals.
Smell the cocoa, blow the rain cloud away.
Learn where the keys are with a typing game.
Make a crown of red, orange and yellow leaves.
A grown-up helps: 🌧️ outside.
Only when there's no thunder or lightning. Stay out of moving water, and away from storm drains.
Count acorns into an egg carton, 1 to 12.
Small parts: keep them away from little ones under 3.
Wash your hands after touching things from outside.
Taste different apples and make a chart.
A grown-up helps: 🔪 a sharp knife.
Roll a pine cone in seeds and watch for birds.
A grown-up helps: 🌧️ outside.
Only when there's no thunder or lightning. Stay out of moving water, and away from storm drains.
Small parts: keep them away from little ones under 3.
Peanut allergy at home? Use sunflower seed butter.
Line up leaves from green to brown.
A grown-up helps: 🌧️ outside.
Only when there's no thunder or lightning. Stay out of moving water, and away from storm drains.
Dip an apple in paint and find the star inside.
A grown-up helps: 🔪 a sharp knife.
Press leaves in sticky plastic and hang it in the window.
A grown-up helps: ✂️ scissors.
A scarecrow puppet that talks.
Cross off a square when it happens today. Get a whole row, and shout Bingo!
Six things to do, from morning to bedtime. Don't like one? Swap it.
The Rainy Day Box is 108 things to do on a rainy day, for kids from about 3 to 12 and the grown-ups with them. Each card says what you need (things most homes already have), about how long it takes, the ages it suits, how messy it gets, and whether a grown-up has a job in it. The kinds: halloween (11), build (10), move (11), make (12), science (11), the rain (10), think (11), cook (7), read (8), quiet (9), fall (8). Pick one for me deals a card at random from the ones your filters show, which helps when nobody can decide.
Wet days come often in the fall, so the box leans that way: leaf rubbings and crowns, acorn counting, an apple taste test with a bar chart, a pine-cone bird feeder. Until 2 November the Halloween cards come first: a pumpkin face designed on paper (a grown-up does all the cutting, and an LED light goes inside, never a candle), a costume planned from the dress-up box, a bat garland, ghost window clings and a paper chain that counts the sleeps. There are spooky-cute Halloween stories for the quiet part of the day.
Our rainy day plan picks six cards from morning to bedtime: something to get the wiggles out, something to build or make, a lunch to cook together, an experiment or a game, one more thing to make, and a quiet wind-down with a story. Swap any you don't like and print it for the fridge. Rainy Day Bingo prints a card of rainy things to spot and do (nine big squares for the little ones, or five by five). Ticks, the plan and the bingo card stay on your device: nothing is sent, and there's no sign-up.
Real food in the Kitchen (the no-bake recipes suit little ones), step-by-step builds and experiments in the Workshop and the STEM projects for kids, word finds, mazes and riddles in the Activity Book, coloring pages to print, free stories in the library, and one-tap ideas on Bored?.
Build a blanket fort, set up an indoor obstacle course, play freeze dance or hallway bowling, make salt dough or sock puppets, try a kitchen-table experiment like a rain cloud in a jar, cook an easy snack together, or settle in with a flashlight and a book. The Rainy Day Box has 108 ideas in 11 kinds, with filters for age, time, mess and noise.
Choose the 3 to 5 filter: animal yoga, the floor is lava, a tape road city, I spy at the window, magic milk, raindrop races, handprint ghosts and a rain stick all suit little ones. Cards with small parts (marbles, rice, acorns, coins) say so, for homes with children under 3.
Choose 9 to 12: make your own board game, write secret code messages, hold a paper airplane contest, tape a marble run down a wall, measure the rain with a bottle rain gauge, draw a comic strip, or make a salt lava lamp.
Leaf rubbings, a leaf crown, a leaf suncatcher for a rainy window, acorn counting in an egg carton, an apple taste test with a bar chart, apple stamping, a paper bag scarecrow and a pine-cone bird feeder. Near Halloween the Halloween cards come first: design a pumpkin face on paper, plan a costume, make a bat garland or a paper chain that counts the sleeps.
Nearly all of them. Turn on "No screens" and the 6 that use one (a cartoon maker, Peabody TV, typing games, a 3D globe, the Activity Book and the Halloween stories) are hidden. "I can do it myself" leaves the 79 cards a child can do without a grown-up's job in them.
With boots, a raincoat and a grown-up close by, a walk or a puddle in light rain is part of the fun. Come inside at the first thunder or lightning, keep out of moving or deep water, and stay away from storm drains, ditches and creeks. Every outdoor card says so.
Yes. There's no sign-up and no ads, and the cards you tick, your plan and your bingo card stay on your device. Nothing is sent.
For grown-ups: Peabody has no ads, not one, and nothing to sell your child. See what other free kids' sites load