Who says you need a real pool to throw the ultimate pool party? With a little creativity and some engaging activities, you can bring all the fun of a poolside celebration right into your kindergarten classroom! A classroom pool party is the perfect way to keep your little learners engaged during the end of the year countdown while reinforcing key math, literacy, and science skills in a hands-on and exciting way. I’m sharing five must-know steps to plan, prep, and pull off the best classroom pool party ever! So grab your sunnies, toss on your flip-flops, and let’s dive in!

This post contains affiliate links for your shopping convenience. Any purchases made through one of our links earns us a small commission, at no extra cost to you. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. All creative ideas and opinions expressed are purely our own. Read our full privacy policy and disclosure for more information.

Step 1: Send a classroom pool party invitation.

A party isn’t a party without a formal invite!

A week before our classroom pool party, I like to send home this invitation so families are aware of this exciting day!

With this editable invite, you can modify the date, dress code, and any other information you would like to include.

You can print and cut apart these three-per-page invites to send home with students.

Step 2: Organize your classroom pool party activities.

Before you dive into your classroom pool party, you are going to want to prep your math and literacy activities along with the science experiment!

I like to gather all the materials and supplies a few days ahead of time to keep things stress-free.

Once everything is printed and prepped, I organize each center into a bin, tub, or basket. On party day, I can simply grab each container and set up the stations in no time!

Here is a sneak peek at all of the classroom pool party activities!

Literacy Classroom Pool Party Activities

Splashing Rhymes

Match rhyming pictures with this “Splashing Rhymes” memory game. This game is intended for partners, but it can be played individually as well.

To play, the first student turns over two cards. If they rhyme, they keep the cards. If they don’t rhyme, they flip them back over. The student with the most matches at the end wins!

Diving for Words

I like to set this literacy station up as a sensory bin! You can use blue paper shreds and a few pool/beach items, which can easily found at a craft store or dollar store. This small, inflatable pool makes this center more authentic, but you could also create the sensory bin inside a shallow, plastic tub.

Once the scene is set, I hide the CVC word cards in the pool. The students will pull a card, read the word, find the picture on their response sheet, and write the word.

Bucket Blends

This center is all about sorting “S” blends. Each sand bucket will be labeled with an “S” blend. Students will then sort the pictures and place them into the appropriate labeled bucket.

Drinking Digraphs

At this station, the students will sort words by beginning digraph (ch, sh, th, wh). You can either have students sort on the floor, on a table, or even in a pocket chart.

Nonsense Noodles

Grab some pool noodles for this sentence building activity! Students will twist the beginning, middle, and end to create a silly sentence. Then, they will write and illustrate the completed sentence on their response sheet.

Wave of Words

Keep those pool noodles handy! At this literacy center, students will work on CVC or CCVC words with digraphs and blends at the beginning. Students will twist to create real or nonsense words. Then, they will record them on their response sheet. This center is differentiated for various phonics skills, so you can easily choose the skill that works best for your students!

Searching for Sunshine

If you’re students love playing hide-and-seek, they will love this “Searching for Sunshine” activity! First, place the sight word clouds in a pocket chart. Then randomly hide the sun card behind a cloud. Students will come up to the pocket chart, read a word, and check to see if the sun is hiding behind the cloud.

Silent E Sunglasses

This matching game with sunglasses cut in half is great for practicing silent e words. One half has a picture and the other half has a silent e word. The students will work to match the picture to the word.

Syllable Splashers

Students will sort words by syllable count 1-4 with this “Syllable Splashers” activity!

Math Classroom Pool Party Activities

Beach Ball Bowling

Get ready to do some bowling with this “Beach Ball Bowling” activity. For this station, you will need a beach ball and ten plastic bowling pins, water bottles, or 2-liter bottles for the pins.

Students will roll a beach ball to knock down the pins. On their response sheet, they will use the ten frames to record how many pins they knocked down. This station is great for working on decomposing ten!

Beach Ball Dice Games

Students will roll the dice and add, subtract, or count on. There are multiple response sheets for this activity, so you can use what works best for your students!

Diving for Shapes

Similar to “Diving for CVC Words,” you will set up this station up as a sensory bin. Simply hide the shape cards in the pool. Students find the shapes and trace them on their response sheet.

Diving for Numbers

For an additional sensory bin style station, hide ten frames cards throughout the pool. Students pull out a ten frame card and trace the corresponding number on their response sheet.

Flipping for Five or Ten

You can’t go to the pool without your flip flops! For this flip flop card matching game, I like to buy these flip flop cards, but you can also just print the included cards.

To play, the students will flip over two cards. If they are flipping for five, the sum of the cards will need to equal five. If they are flipping for ten, the sum with need to equal ten. As they make matches of five or ten, they will record them on their response sheet.

Pool Noodle Lengths

This is a great activity for working on nonstandard measurement! Students will measure different sized pool noodle pieces using linking cubes.

Pool Noodle Patterns

For this classroom pool party activity, you will need to pre-cut a variety of pool noodles into 1 in. or 2 in. thick pieces. Students will stack the pieces to create a pattern and then they will color their response sheet to match the pattern they built.

Splash Ball Subtraction

I like to use splash balls for this decomposing ten station but any small, soft ball will work. First, students stack ten plastic cups in a pyramid. Next, they throw the splash ball and determine how many cups they knocked down. On their response sheet, they record the subtraction problem.

Subitizing Swimmers

To work on subitizing, the students will match the ten frames, dominoes, and fingers to the correct swimmer.

Totaling Tubes

For this addition activity, the students throw two/three splash balls into numbered inflatable swim tubes that I grabbed from the dollar store. Next, they add up the points and record their number sentence on their response sheet!

Classroom Pool Party Science Experiment

Don’t forget to add a splash of science to your classroom pool party! This Sink or Float experiment uses common classroom supplies including a glue bottle, marker, eraser, pencil, scissors, and a crayon.

Students will first make a hypothesis as to whether they think each item will sink or float. Then, they’ll test their predictions by dropping the objects into a small tub of water. Using picture cards, they will glue their findings on their response sheet.

Step 3: Send a reminder for the classroom pool party.

To build anticipation and excitement, I like to print these reminder bracelets to remind students and their families about our classroom pool party.

You can also choose to resend that original invite, so everyone is in the loop about this super exciting day!

Step 4: Welcome your swimmers to the classroom pool party.

On the day of our classroom pool party, I completely transform our room. The moment the students walk in, their eyes light up as they wonder if they’ve just stepped out of their kindergarten classroom and straight into a poolside paradise!

To make this possible, I like to display this digital backdrop. I simply project it on the board and leave it up the entire day of our party.

I also love to hang a few banners around the room. Here are some print and go banners you can grab for your own classroom transformation.

• Pool Party!
• Pool Day!
• Goodbye School, Hello Pool!
• Let’s Make a Splash!
• Splash into Summer!

During morning work, we kick off the fun by decorating and assembling our pool party folders. These pool party folders will house all of our response sheets from the day. These folders can be made from a file folder, pocket folder, or a large sheet of construction paper folded in half.

To really set the pool party vibe, I love playing fun, beachy music in the background! With a quick search on YouTube, you can find a kid-friendly version that loops throughout the day.

Step 5: Splash into summer!

As the day comes to a close, I love to hand out these editable certificates, acknowledging the hard work and fun the students had throughout the day!

As a special keepsake to remember the day, I also give each student a small gift. These end of the year student gifts are low-cost, yet meaningful!

Simply attach these punny gift tags to either a beach ball, splash ball, sunglasses, or sand bucket.

• Thanks for making this year a SPLASH!
• This year was a BALL! or Hope you have a BALL this summer!
• I hope you have a BRIGHT summer!
• This year was BUCKETS of fun! or Hope your summer is BUCKETS of fun!

Classroom Pool Party Activities

Grab all of the classroom pool party activities, including the centers, invitations, banners, gift tags, and more here!

More End of the Year Activities

Make counting down to the last day of school fun and stress-free with these FREE ABC Countdown Calendars!

If you love this classroom theme day, you are going to want to check out this classroom Glow Day!

Your students might also love completing this summer bucket list craft!

For a full list of ABC countdown to summer activities, head to this post!

DON’T FORGET IT… PIN IT!