When school is out for the summer, children are eager for days filled with creativity, exploration, and fun. Meanwhile, families want them engaged, challenged, and excited to learn. The right products can transform your summer program into a place children love and families can’t stop raving about.
The key is choosing tools that blend fun with movement and purposeful learning. This way, children can build essential skills all summer long without missing a moment of excitement. From activity mats to mobile projectors, we’ve rounded up five products that will keep children ages five and up moving, learning, and exploring—while making every moment in your summer program a playful adventure.
Ages: 4-6 years
Get children’s bodies and imaginations going with Action Mats! With these activity mats, you can engage children in age-appropriate exercises—such as hopping, marching, or rowing—using simple instructional graphics to guide little feet. Children can balance on a tightrope to evade crocodiles, perform lunges to practice the proper surfer stance, or sprint alongside cheetahs, turning physical activity into an imaginative adventure.
The set also includes out-of-the-box activity plans with various applications in the learning environment. With activities like Room Entry and Stepping Stones, you can help ease transitions while allowing children to release energy in a constructive manner. Or you can play Recognizing Numbers to combine playful movement with crucial number recognition skills.
Skills Taught: For active early learners, this set of activity mats uses simple exercises to help children improve their gross motor skills, including large-muscle strength, balance, coordination, and flexibility. Beyond physical development, it also targets other critical early childhood skills, such as creativity, number recognition, and sorting. The set includes 16 activity mats, four arrow mats, and four target mats, and can be used individually or in groups.
Ages: 4 years and up
Gamers and non-gamers alike can dive into the action with Picoo. This interactive gaming console sparks learning, movement, and meaningful connection with children, all without battling screen time limits. It comes with 15 engaging games, such as Zombie Run and Traffic Light, that can be played indoors during stormy summer days, outdoors on trips to the park, and individually or with a group. Best of all, there’s no setup required. Turn on the hand-held controllers, scan a game card, and watch the fun unfold.
Skills Taught: This screen-free gaming device helps children build critical physical, cognitive, and social skills, all while having fun. Along with the 15 game cards, it includes 12 hand-held controllers with wrist straps, a carrying case, and a charging station to charge all controllers at once. You can use this tool to encourage physical activity and social interaction in a fun and interactive way.
Ages: 2 to 12 years
Do you have limited space for large playground equipment? That’s not a problem with SnugPlay Kits! This open-ended play kit only requires a 35-by-35-foot space or smaller and includes movable play elements ideal for small gyms and play areas. On sweltering summer days, children can stay inside and build a scene for a play, construct a mini city, or design an Olympic-style obstacle course.
This interactive play system offers much more than physical activity. It compels children to play, create, learn, and work together as they unlock their creativity and assemble imaginative spaces using large-scale loose parts.
Skills Taught: As children construct play environments, they foster key gross motor skills, creative thinking skills, and problem-solving skills. These crucial skills lay the foundation for lifelong learning, relationships, and success.
There are three versions of SnugPlay Kits available for children ages five and older: SnugPlay Advanced Kit, SnugPlay Intermediate Kit, and SnugPlay Elementary Kit. Select the option that best suits your space and the number of children enrolled in your program. Each one comes with a variety of items, including pieces shaped like a wave, a cog, a cone, and a spider. You can use this modular play system anywhere play occurs, whether indoors or outdoors, to enhance movement, learning, and social interactions.
Ages: All ages
Beam Mobile transforms any surface into an immersive play experience for children of all ages. This supercharged projector displays razor-sharp animations and features a 3D motion sensor that reacts to children’s movements, turning their bodies into the game controller.
It also comes with a one-year subscription to EyeWiz that stocks your projector system with ready-to-use educational content to keep children learning, active, and engaged. The learning platform features games like Beach Balls—a fun twist on beach volleyball—and Go Fishing, where players match colors and shapes to help Vicky the Fox hook a fish.
Skills Taught: As children interact with the games, they jump, reach, and run around the play area, thereby strengthening key gross motor skills, including balance, coordination, and spatial awareness. The cause-and-effect gameplay also enhances cognitive development, teaching decision-making, logical thinking, and problem-solving through interactive play. This entertaining game system will not only bring the “wow factor” to your summer program, but it will also keep children active and engaged for hours on end.
Ages: 18 months and older
Bring the beach to your summer program with this mobile Sand and Water Table! This table promotes hands-on exploration and encourages collaborative activities that support growth and learning for children of all ages. Whether they’re building sandcastles, digging for dinosaur fossils, or adding child-safe food coloring to concoct their own potions, sand and water invite children to explore, experiment, and create through sensory fun.
The table is sturdy, durable, and easy to maneuver, whether you're playing indoors or outdoors. There’s also a secure lid to keep materials—and messes—contained when it’s not in use. To add to the fun, equip children with a few tools, such as Jumbo Sand Rollers or our Super Sand and Digger Set.
Skills Taught: As children dig, scoop, and shape sand or control water, they build essential fine motor skills, cognitive skills, and social skills. Playing with this table will strengthen small hand muscles, foster creativity, reinforce scientific concepts, and encourage collaboration. Paired with a few tools, this sand and water table is sure to bring endless fun and exploration to your summer program.
The activities and tools you provide play a crucial role in attracting children and families to your summer program and keeping them engaged, day after day. For over 50 years, Kaplan has delivered safe, durable, and grade-appropriate play materials that not only encourage movement but also sharpen key cognitive, social, and emotional skills. Explore our collection of summer learning products for even more engaging essentials for your summer program today!