May Gray is a very real phenomenon in Los Angeles, and it catches even transplants every year. It rolls in overnight, remains over Santa Monica and the entire LA coast during the morning hours, and burns off somewhere around 2 PM. Areas inland might be sunny and eighty degrees, while the beach is fifty-eight degrees and overcast. Families in Los Angeles have completely different weather in the morning of the exact same day in May.
This is the single most useful fact about planning may preschool activities, and the one that is completely absent from most seasonal calendars of activities. The standard May activities include flowers and sunshine and picnics. The Los Angeles one requires a morning and an afternoon plan, and they are not the same plan.
So let me show you the month, based on its behavior patterns.
May Preschool Activities That Will Work on a Cool and Gray Morning
The gray coastal morning in Los Angeles in May is cool and damp, with flat light. It is actually pleasant for anyone who does not expect summer, and it allows a type of activity the afternoon cannot offer.
Walking on the beach in May. An empty beach, cool air, no sunscreen discussion, and a preschooler can dig in the sand for an hour without overheating. The coast of Santa Monica in May morning is one of the best experiences for free in Los Angeles, and there is almost nobody there before noon.
Planting projects in May. May is the month when something actually grows here, and a little pot with soil and a seed can become a preschool activity lasting weeks. The classic seed to plant is a sunflower seed because it grows fast enough for a four-year-old to see a result.
Hunting for bugs and snails after the night of dampness. The marine layer leaves everything damp, and snails come out of the soil onto pavement, and there is no preschooler in the world who does not want to inspect a snail in detail.
Walking in the neighborhood collecting items. Flowers, interesting leaves, a rock that looks like something. Jacaranda trees in Los Angeles drop purple blossoms in late May, covering the ground, and preschoolers find the flowers without help.
Preschool activities for May morning also include those boring and reliable ones - going to the library, having breakfast at a coffee shop with a pastry, visiting a farmers market. Gray is not bad weather - it is not beach weather yet.
Preschool Activities for the Month of May and the Holidays In It
May is a month that has more calendar holidays than most other months, and each one provides a preschooler with something to experience.
May Day on May 1st is the underused holiday. The preschool activities for May Day are simple and traditional in the best way possible: paper cones filled with flowers and left on a neighbor's doorstep, ring the bell and run away. Preschoolers love the running part. A ribbon dance on a pole in the backyard requires only ribbons and a broom handle.
Cinco de Mayo on May 5th is a cultural tradition in Los Angeles rather than novelty, and Los Angeles celebrates it properly. Paper cutting, cooking and music. This is an easy way for Los Angeles families to enter the culture of their city.
Mother's Day and all that goes with it - a handprint economy in full swing. Whatever you make, the preschooler should make it - a wobbly card beats a perfectly done Pinterest craft executed by the parents.
Memorial Day at the end of May is the unofficial beginning of the summer season, and usually the month when the weather begins to turn. Beach visits become a possibility. Long Memorial weekend changes the shape of the month.
Preschool activities for May month also have the benefit of being planned in the school-year calendar context - May is the last month of the school year for most Los Angeles preschools, and it includes end-of-the-year concerts, class parties and increasing enthusiasm.
May Day Activities for Preschool Children To Do Right
A short section on May 1st to show you how to use it properly.
May day activities for preschoolers work precisely because this tradition is scaled at a four-year-old level. Little baskets. Little flowers. A short walk to the neighbor's doorstep. Fast escape.
Preparing the baskets is a morning activity - paper cones, staples and pipe cleaner handles. Stuffing them is a walk to pick whatever is blooming - and Los Angeles is full of flowering things in May. Delivering them is the part that works because a preschooler gets to do something both kind and slightly mischievous at the same time.
The flower crown is the other part of the tradition that stays. Any flexible stems, woven or taped together, worn all day long. Simple, pretty and lasting even after falling apart.
If there is nobody in the building who could appreciate a basket delivered to their doorstep, you can also deliver the basket to grandparents, a teacher or yourself, inside the house. The principle works anyway.
May Ideas for Preschool Afternoons Once the Sun Comes Out
By 2 PM the marine layer normally burns off, and another set of may activities for preschoolers becomes available.
Water fun starts being possible in May. No full beach, but a basin of water outside, a sprinkler for twenty minutes, a splash pad at a nearby park. The Virginia Avenue Park splash pad in Santa Monica normally opens around Memorial Day, which makes the end of May the turning point of the season.
Sidewalk chalk and bubbles on the dry concrete. Chalk works poorly on damp concrete, which is why this is a May afternoon activity rather than morning one.
Visiting a park in the afternoon becomes a comfortable thing again. The Tongva Park, Palisades Park on the bluff and any other green space in the neighborhood. The light in Los Angeles from 2 to 5 PM in May is the good light.
And the opposite side of the coin - inlands in Los Angeles in late May can already get hot. If the coast is finally sunny and the valley is 94 degrees, the families in Los Angeles in different parts of the city need different afternoon plans.
Preschool Activities for May that Will Fill the Awkward Transition of the Day
The actual planning difficulty in Los Angeles in May is the couple of hours between gray morning and sunny afternoon. The preschool ideas for May should cover that period of time, and this is the least glamorous part of the month.
Indoor sensory activities fit well here. A bin of dried beans and scoops. Playdough, made in the morning while it is still warm. Water beads in a basin. These activities will engage a preschooler during the transitional time without weather dependency.
Baking something. Muffins, cookies, anything with stirring and timing that a preschooler can monitor.
Reading books - and May is actually a great reading weather, cool enough to stay put inside.
And on the days when the marine layer remains all the day long, which does happen, the indoor activity has to cover the entire afternoon.
That is why we have a floor for Los Angeles families. Our Santa Monica location at 828 Pico Blvd and Los Angeles location at 10672 West Pico Blvd have walk-in Open Play from 10 AM on weekdays and 9 AM on Sundays, no booking required. Multiple-level climbing structures with zones for various challenges, soft surface, seats with a view of the floor. One child $35 for a two-hour session, $25 for a second sibling, $20 for a third, two adults included per family. The $200 monthly membership is chosen by families whose visits become weekly.
May is a busy month for us, and there is a specific reason for that - it is also a birthday season leading to summer. Birthday packages cost $1,800 for Basic, $2,300 Adventure, $2,700 Ultimate, and $5,700 VIP with food and private party room. An 18% service fee applies to all events, 40% deposit secures the date, and the balance is due 5 days in advance. May and June weekends fill up fast, and families with spring birthdays should be booking rather than browsing.
Creating a May Preschool Activity Calendar Without Overplanning
A May activity calendar for preschool families does not need to be complicated. Four anchors a week is enough, and empty days are what will make the planned ones work.
The structure that will work throughout the month: one outdoor morning activity, one indoor physical activity, one activity of making something, one activity involving other people. Do this each week, swap the activities and you have a rhythm without a full-time coordinator.
Calendar events fit naturally into this framework. May Day on the first week. Cinco de Mayo in the first week. Mother's Day on the second week. Memorial Day on the end. Four pre-made anchors that fit into the month.
Weekly repeated may preschool ideas beat novel activities that happen once. A preschooler who waters sunflowers every morning of four weeks is going to have a better month than the one who did twelve different crafts.
An honest confession about preschool activity calendars - most of them get abandoned in the second week. Plan for four activities per week, rather than fourteen, and there is a good chance you will still be using it on May 30th.
What Changes at the End of the Month of May
The month has a clear turning point in it, and it is worth keeping an eye on.
Around Memorial Day the marine layer normally begins to break earlier. Splash pads are opening. Preschool years are ending. Beach afternoons finally become warm. The whole family calendar changes in about ten days.
For preschoolers, the visible markers work better than the dates. Pool opening. The first really warm afternoon. Last day of preschool. Mentioning these aloud - "that was the last Tuesday of the preschool year" - will help a four-year-old to understand time.
And then comes June, the gloom continues under the new name, and LA families are planning morning and afternoon activities again.
