Summer Light Table Activities for Preschool, Pre-k, and Kindergarten

Check out these summer light table activities designed for preschool, pre-k, and kindergarten students. There are ideas for math, literacy, fine motor, science, and STEM on the light table. Light tables are a great way to excite little learners when they are struggling to pay attention to regular activities. You can put most activities at the light table with a few simple changes in your preschool classroom.

Grab the Summer Math & Literacy Centers, Summer Directed Drawing Unit, or the Summer STEM I Can Build Pack for tons of summer resources.

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Summer Light Table Activities for Fine Motor

Lemonade Light Table! Set up a lemonade stand at the light table for young children to learn about capacity, practice social skills, hand-eye coordination, and develop fine motor strength. I used lemons, scoops, yellow tubing from the dollar store, and plastic cups to make this light table set-up. It is like a sensory bin on your light table!

Pineapple Cutting Craftivity Light Table! Use tissue paper to make a cutting craftivity more light table friendly. Students cut the strips into squares and glue them to the template that is printed on regular copy paper. Putting a craft on the light table is a fun idea to make it more exciting for young children. 

Silly Straws Lacing! Head to the dollar store to grab some silly straws, regular straws, and wide straws (for smoothies). Then, cut up the large straws and regular straws into smaller pieces. Students will lace the straw pieces onto the silly straws. This is great for fine motor development, hand-eye coordination, counting, patterns, and so much more. The light box shines through the colorful straws for an inviting learning environment. Other loose parts could be added, too, and if you don’t have silly straws, pipe cleaners are great for lacing on. 

Summer Light Table Activities for Literacy

Flip Flop Rhymes Light Table! Practice rhymes on the light table with these fun rhyme flip flops. Students find the matching rhymes and pair them together. Putting printables on a light table is one of the different ways I try to engage little hands and get children’s interest. It is great for small groups to work on during center time or free play. 

Ice Cream Names! Draw a scoop of ice cream on some tissue paper and cut it out. Then, laminate the tissue paper to make it more durable. Next, make your own letter manipulatives with some bottle caps and a permanent marker. Students will use the letter manipulatives to spell their classmates’ names. This is great for fine motor skills (small letter manipulatives), letter identification, letter sounds, and name recognition.

Sports Letter Match! Use printables you already have on the light table! The light shines through and makes the learning experience new and exciting. I am using some sports-themed letter mats and some DIY letter manipulatives. I made them with bottle caps, dot stickers, and a marker. Students match the letter manipulatives to the letter mats to practice letter recognition.

Summer Light Table Activities for Math

Treasure Roll & Count Light Table! Create a pirate-themed activity on the light table with a treasure roll and count game for little learners. To prepare, I cut treasure boxes out of brown tissue paper. I placed some blue masking tape on the light table for waves and gathered some treasure and dice. Students will roll a die and count that many treasures to add to their treasure chest. To make this harder, give students 2 dice, and they can work on informal addition. Keep reading for more fun light table activities for young kids.

Fish Count Light Table! Create a counting activity by creating waves with blue masking tape. Then, I wrote numbers on glass gems and set them around the waves. Students counted the correct amount of fish for each number. Connecting a book to your light table activity is a great addition to help students make more connections.

Shell Color Graph Light Table! Create a simple light table color graph with colored masking tape and a color manipulative. I made my color graph a beach theme, and students are sorting translucent shells and starfish. After, talk about more than, less than, and equal too. This is a fun way to practice graphing skills with preschool students at the light table center. 

Shell Color Sort Light Table! Create your own color sorting containers with plastic cups and colored masking tape. Then, give students tweezers and a manipulative to sort by color. I wanted an ocean theme so my students are sorting these shells. Throw these in a water table for another sensory experience besides light play.

Ice Cream Color Sort Light Table! Your students are going to love this ice cream scooping activity! I had mine sorted by color, but you could easily differentiate and have students count, sort by size, or graph the ice cream scoops. For the ice cream, I used tissue paper balls and pom poms. For the labels, I used construction paper. Remember, not everything has to be printed and fancy for awesome hands-on activities for your students. 

Summer Shape Building Light Table! Give students an opportunity to identify and build shapes with a variety of materials. I have summer stir sticks and glass gems for my manipulatives. Students pick a card, name the shape, build the shape, and count the number of sides. Students could also use small pieces from your loose parts bin, play dough, popsicle stickers, straws, or other manipulatives to build the shapes. Keep reading for more fun light table activities for young kids.

Zoo Pattern Block Light Table! Grab these FREE zoo pattern block mats for students to use on the light table. Not everything you use has to be specially made for the light table, light shines through regular paper too. You can use regular pattern blocks or these translucent ones to make the animals.

Ocean Measure Light Table! Make some ocean waves to measure with paper streamers and give students fun things to measure with for more enthusiasm. Students will practice non-standard measurement by using linking cubes and glass gems to measure the strips of party streamers. I love thinking of a whole new way to use materials that I have in various themes.

Summer Light Table Activities for STEM & Science

Water Park STEM Light Table! Give students an opportunity to get creative by having them create a water park on the light table. I am using this marble run set for the building pieces. I set out some STEM I Can Build pictures of things that may be at a water park in case a student needed a little clue to get started.

Rainforest STEM Light Table! If you are talking about habitats, you can have students build on the light table. There are STEM challenges for multiple habitats in this STEM pack. I gave students a variety of building supplies like glass gems, fake leaves, wood slices, animals, and sticks to encourage their imagination. This setup is also great for pretend play for kids of all ages!

Students may have a harder time focusing in the classroom during the summer months because they would rather be outside. Me too! But these summer light table activities are sure to be a hit and help them stay engaged and learning while in the classroom.  So grab a piece of paper and jot down some new ideas for a preschool teacher. 

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