26 Fun Quiet Read Aloud Activities for Kids: Reading Time

A stack of chapter books for read-aloud with kiddos near a rustic blue background with bold black text that reads 26 quiet read-aloud activities for kids.

Quiet Read Aloud Activities for Kids. It can be difficult to transition from picture books to longer read-alouds for younger kids. Here is a list of 26 quiet activities to help make reading time peaceful and enjoyable. My priority is to facilitate a love of reading great books in my children. I want our reading time to be a positive experience filled with precious memories. Read Aloud time is a cherished part of our daily rhythm. This list of activities includes some of my favorite hands-on activities for my girls while encouraging them to engage in the stories and develop important skills. I have included many activities for the active kids, older children, and the younger ones, too.

Firstly, I’ll jump straight to the list of activities. Then, I’ll offer a few tips and personal experiences towards the end. 🙂

No affiliate links are included in this article.

26 Quiet Read Aloud Activities for Kids

Art & Crafts

1. Coloring, Painting, and Drawing

Here are some great ideas:

coloring books with crayons, markers, or colored pencils
watercolor paints and paper
notebook for drawing, colored pencils, erasers, and pencils
dry erase board with dry-erase markers
Etch A Sketch, other mechanical or water drawing boards, and mess-free markers are good options to limit clean-up.

Tip #1 keep paints, drawing utensils, and art smocks in a bin for quick access.

Tip #2 Provide art notebooks that are used only during READ-ALOUD books.

tip #3 Change up the space.

Use an easel, tape paper to the bottom of the table so they are drawing while lying down, tape paper to the window, use a projector or shadows to trace outlines, or tape paper on an outdoor wall to encourage them to stand and get fresh air. Sitting on a stability ball is a great option, too. Don’t feel limited to your living room. 🙂

2. Jewelry Making (Bracelets)

Offer a jewelry-making kit with beads and string, or various colors of embroidery floss for braiding friendship bracelets.

3. Modeling Clay & Play Dough (or sand or mud)

There are lots of fun activities for Play-Doh on Pinterest. If reading about the beach, add beach-themed cookie cutters and sea shells. I have encouraged my girls to mold the modeling clay around a large sea shell and then decorate it with beads and feathers (or use whatever you have).

TIP #4 Offer a very dull butterknife to cut play dough.

4. Invitations to Create – Creative Crafts

Invitations to create do not have to be complicated, nor do you need to buy expensive craft supplies. Basic supplies such as scissors, paper, and glue sticks are a great start. Offer kids scraps of paper, pipe cleaners, recycled papers, and scrap yarn (paper towel rolls, tops, etc.). Let them create with very minimal direction or objective.

5. Paper Crafts

It is a good idea to choose crafts with limited instructions. Complicated crafts could lead to interruptions and frustration. Our favorite simple paper crafts include paper chains, tissue flowers (tissue paper scraps and pipe cleaners), and snowflakes. Offering various shapes cut out of paper is a good option, too.

6. Stickers

Offer sheets of stickers and a sticker book (or sheet of paper for their sticker creation). The stickers could be themed with your read aloud book. We love to make DIY reusable sticker books out of recycled cardboard and contact paper (HERE are the instructions).

7. Stamps

Grab a wooden stamp set and a few ink pads. We have a few collections from Melissa and Doug that my kids love.

8. Perler beads

A large container of colorful Perler beads and templates can be found at Walmart for fairly cheap. I tend to buy them in bulk.

A collection of craft supplies, including watercolors, paint brushes, water can, and painted paper gathered on a chalkboard with white text about arts and crafts for quiet read aloud activities for kids written over the image.

Fine Motor Skills

9. Scissor Skills

Fine motor skills are so important. I recommend supervising closely. If you don’t want to clean up all the bits of paper, cut up nature outdoors, such as tall grass and leaves. Give them an old magazine to cut and paste together a collage.

10. Hole Punching

Offer scraps of paper or leaves to make confetti. This is a great activity that strengthens your child’s grip which is important for utensil manipulation and other fine motor skills. Craft stores have different paper punches, such as hearts, stars, etc.

11. Lacing

This skill requires precision and hand-eye coordination. Lacing cards are great. I had lacing cards in the clinic, but we made a few for home (DIY lacing card instructions). Threading string through macaroni noodles works, too!

12. Paper Tearing and Glueing

This may sound odd, but tearing paper is an excellent quiet read aloud activity for kids. Offer scraps of paper for kids to tear, a glue stick, and a sheet of paper for collage art. Tearing paper improves hand-eye coordination, precision, and bilateral coordination (using both hands to accomplish a task).

BONUS Activity: Lite Brite!

A child is performing a sorting activity with colored balls on a wooden peg board with text written over the image listing fine motor skills for quiet read aloud activities for kids.

Sensory Play

13. Sensory Bins

I am team minimal preparation. 🙂 My favorite sensory bin fillers are bird seed, water, sand, and dirt. The main reason is that I keep sensory bins outside (it’s one of the best ways to limit mama’s stress). These fillers are environmentally-friendly, and I can just sweep the mess off my porch. My typical sensory bin includes a tub filled with a filler and simple toys, such as cups, spoons, and maybe a surprise or two. [Here is my favorite sensory bin.]

Tip #5 Sensory bins outdoors. Fill with NATURE-FRIENDLY filler and sweep THE porch when done.

14. Bath Time

Captive audience with a sensory experience and your kids are getting a bath. You could also do swimming suits in the bathtub with foam letters or practice pouring from containers. If you prefer outdoors, fill a pool or tub with water and offer bath toys. Don’t hesitate to get creative.

Snacks

15. Snack Time and Meals

Fill a muffin tin with a few snacks such as nuts, fruits, slices of deli meat, crackers, or other goodies. It’s the perfect kiddie charcuterie board. Tea times and picnics are perfect quiet read aloud activities, too. Meal times may be a great choice to add reading time for your family.

Colorful wooden building blocks stacked up as a wall with building skills for quiet read aloud activities listed in white text.

MORE Activities

16. Building Blocks

Encourage your kid’s imagination with wooden blocks, Magna-Tiles, legos, Lincoln logs, tinker toys, or bristle blocks. Keep your eyes out for secondhand legos at yard sales and FB marketplace; this is a great way to build your Lego bins without breaking the bank.

17. Stem activities and objectives

Offer building supplies such as paper, toothpicks, marshmallows, blocks, etc, and provide an objective. This is more suitable for older kids. My kids worked on building Eeyore’s house from twigs while reading The House at Pooh’s Corner. Simple tasks are best since you want their brain power focused on the story. Simple objectives could include build a paper plane, bridge, popsicle catapult, etc. Self-control is required here because creations should be played with after reading time. I don’t want to become a paper wad target. 🙂

18. Puzzles

Jigsaw puzzles, matching games, and peg puzzles are all excellent quiet read aloud activities for kids.

19. Purposeful or Themed Toys

Allow them to play with characters, people, and animals similar to the book. While listening to Charlotte’s Web, My girls played with a barn and farm animals.

20. Kitchen Set and Play Food (or mud kitchen)

This could be a great option for indoor quiet read aloud activities or take it outside to a mud kitchen. A mud kitchen could be as simple as a few pots, mud, and a spoon.

21. Magnets

Collect themed magnets, letters, and numbers for them to play with during read-alouds.

Tip #6 Magnets (including Magna-tiles) stick to garage doors, baking sheets, and most refrigerators.

22. Loose Parts

Anything (safe) can be classified as loose parts, such as coins, buttons, beads, shells, lids, containers, pegs, etc. All loose parts may be choking hazards for young children. Kids can sort, match, or use tweezers to pick up the parts.

23. Handicrafts

These are all great activities for older kids who have at least a beginner’s understanding of their craft. Handicrafts could include knitting, sewing, patchwork, weaving, whittling, origami, and tying knots. This might require too much brain power for beginners to master a craft and participate in read aloud time.

Outdoor quiet reading activities for kids during read-aloud are listed over an open book with a leaf and a flower laid on a page for a bookmark outdoors in the setting sun.

Outside

24. Sidewalk Chalk

This is an excellent quiet activity on the porch and a great way to spark their creativity. You could offer shapes or templates to trace. Homemade Chalk paint is fun, too. My oldest enjoys making stained glass chalk art with painter’s tape.

25. Swinging

If you have a wiggly child who struggles to attend to any of these tasks, swinging may be a better option. Swinging helps regulate the sensory system and introduces the child to rhythmic motion which is very calming.

26. Blowing Bubbles & Paper Wind Mills

These are great respiratory exercises that help with developing speech, strengthening the diaphragm, improving posture, and increasing hand-eye coordination.

Tip #7 To keep kids from spilling the bottle of bubbles, tape the containers to a wall or fence.

I have included seven tips within the list above, but I don’t want to leave you without encouraging you. I want the best for you and your child’s reading time!

MORE TIPS: Quiet Read Aloud Activities for Kids

Organize activity bins and keep them easily accessible
Offer these activity bins only during read-alouds to preserve their novelty
Keep supplies and toys separate between kids to prevent distractions
Discover your child’s unique personality and preferences
an audio book counts too (especially in difficult seasons)

Need help finding secondhand books? I have some helpful tips. Check it out HERE.

Read Aloud Booklists for Kids Coming Soon!

In the meantime, Brighter Days Press has an excellent bridge booklist to help get younger children ready for chapter book read-aloud time.

Wholesome Picture Books for Kids:

35 Best Farm Books for Kids

A white gravel road leads up to a red barn with white trim and white fencing up on a hill. The sky is blue with white fluffy clouds and the sun is just starting to set behind the trees.

Get the complete list of farm favorite books HERE.

Ocean Books for Kids: A Picture Book Collection

Children's picture book covers arranged on an ocean blue background with a black outline of a ship. Ocean books for kids include The little island, hot dog, a single pearl, aquatic life, swashby and the sea, ocean meets sky, a house for hermit crab, deep and blue, and over and under the waves.

Get the complete list of good books HERE.

28 Books on Plants, Trees, and Flowers

Book covers are arranged on a pale green background with green artist designs and leaves with bold black text on the image for children books on plants booklist.

Get the complete booklist HERE.

Thanks for Stopping By!

Lastly, I want to thank you for stopping by! Please say Hi in the comment section and share one of your favorite quiet read aloud activities. My girls do excellent with crafts, but we struggle with blocks. I love learning about what works for different families. Homeschooling and read alouds are fairly new to me as a mother, but I have utilized every one of these activities for various reasons as a pediatric physical therapist over the past seven years.

I hope you enjoyed this article. If you found it helpful, please share it with your friends and subscribe to the monthly newsletter. I am also on Instagram and would love to get to know like-minded mamas and grandmamas.