Let Kids Build a Backyard Obstacle Course with Free Printables

Help kids build their own backyard obstacle course with a free printable design planner.

One of my boys' favorite activities from preschool was the obstacle course - something their teacher would set up on the rare days when the weather kept them indoors. Now that we are home for summer, I knew they would love to have their own backyard obstacle course (we pretty much live in our backyard in the summer). Once I discovered these adorable rainbow colored obstacle course supplies I knew I had found the perfect pieces to set one up, but I had no idea how they would transform my idea into a fun learning activity too!

I received products featured in this post for free from Oriental Trading Company as part of their Blog Ambassador program. This post contains affiliate links. See my Disclosure Policy for details.

Design Your Own Rainbow Obstacle Course

As soon as our big box of obstacle course supplies arrived, I took them outside with the intention of setting them up for the boys. But my independent preschoolers had other ideas. They immediately said, "no Mommy, we want to do it!" and I knew we had a great project on our hands. Of course, being twins, they started to argue over the design almost immediately, so I came up with a way to let them design and build their own courses (and test them out too!).

I created an Obstacle Course Design Set that I have here as a free printable. It has two pages - one that shows all the elements of our obstacle course, and one to use as a layout. Simply download, print, and cut out the obstacle course pieces. Then use the second page to layout your obstacle course design. Click the button below to get started!

FREE

My boys loved manipulating all the pieces on their layout to design their perfect obstacle course. Once they were happy with their design, we glued the squares down and took them outside to bring them to life.

Our obstacle course set up is simple - we used these pieces from Oriental Trading:

• Rainbow Colored Ring Set
• Rainbow Colored Cones
• Rainbow Tunnel

The boys were so excited to turn their paper designs into a real obstacle course - one of my sons was careful to make sure that the rings were in the proper order of the rainbow! And once their courses were complete, they had to test them out!

My boys turned a simple backyard obstacle course into a really fun activity that has kept them entertained for hours - they love challenging each other to come up with new fun designs, and by using the printable planner they can work on so many skills! This is great for fine motor skills as they manipulate the pieces, along with planning and design. And of course they get great gross motor practice as they go through their obstacle courses. This activity will keep us busy all summer long!

Love this printable? Check out our garden planner for kids too!

Want more ideas for playing outside? Here's 35 easy things to do in your backyard this summer!