50+ Fun And Easy Fall Activities For Preschoolers

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Looking for fun, easy, and affordable fall activities for preschoolers that are actually doable for toddlers?

Here’s a creative list of 50+ simple but fun fall activities that are great for the little ones.

 

These ideas are about making memories, harnessing motor skills, having fun, and recognizing the beautiful fall season.

From leaf crafting to pumpkin painting, you will find activities that are easy to set and sure to bring smiles to your kiddos.

In this article, we’ll unfold five different fall themes for preschool:

• Fall art activities for preschoolers
• Fall math activities for preschoolers
• Fall sensory play ideas
• Fall science activities for preschoolers
• Fall games for kids

Fall Art Activities For Preschoolers

These art preschool activities for fall are more than just fun! They help preschoolers develop fine motor coordination and creativity.

By using fall-themed materials like leaves, acorns, and pumpkins, kids get hands-on experience with textures and colors while boosting their imaginations.

Introduce your kids to the world of creativity and imagination with these art fall preschool activities:

1. Leaf Stamp On Clay

Items required for this activity:

• Fall-colored clay: Auburn, yellow, orange, brown.
• Big Fall leaves: Maple, birch, hawthorn, rowan, sumac, Japanese maple, or whichever you can get. Note: Ensure the leaves have thick spines.
• Black/brown watercolor.

Instructions:

1.  Create ½-inch thick clay disks in different colors. Let your kids help make these clay discs too! They might not be perfectly round, but it’s fun to watch them press the clay with their little fists.

Note: This activity is a great sensory play because it allows kids to feel the soft texture of the clay and explore different colors.

2.  Now, the fun begins. Give your kids the leaves to stamp on the clay disks.

3.  Let the little ones position the leaves on the clay plate and stamp with their small fists.

4.  Ask them to press firmly or help them so that the leaves are nicely pressed to the clay. They can also use a rolling pin to press it into the clay tightly.

5.  Now, remove the leaf. A beautiful and detailed leafy pattern would be visible on the clay.

6.  Additional elements: Make black/brown water. Use a brush or thin straw to let the color flow over the leaf’s pattern. It will help make the patterns stand out.

2. Pumpkin suncatchers:

Items required for the activity:

• Black construction paper or thick black sheet: For the pumpkin outline.
• Contact paper or transparency sheets.
• Colorful tissue papers
• Ribbon: For hanging the suncatcher

Instructions:

1. Cut A4 size contact paper.
2. Cut pumpkin outlines for your kids from the black construction paper.
3. Cut colorful tissue papers into small squares.
4. Peel off the backing from contact paper and stick the cut pumpkin outline over it.
5. Give your kids the cut tissue papers to stick over the contact paper and pumpkin outline. Ask them to paste the tissue paper inside the outline.
6. You wouldn’t need glue because the back of the contact paper is already sticky.
7. Once they are happy with their design, cut the contact paper in the pumpkin shape.
8. Attach a piece of ribbon/string to the top so they can hang their pumpkin sun catcher in a sunny window.
9. Once the fall preschool craft is done, test it in the sun.

Your kids would love it when the sunlight shines through the tissue paper, making the color pop.

3. Floral Brush For Painting

Making floral brushes and painting with them is a fantastic sensory play preschool fall craft because it engages multiple senses.

As children gather inflorescence and dry sticks, they explore different textures and shapes. The colors of the flowers introduce them to the vibrant hues of autumn, stimulating their sense of sight.

Plus, the different floral fragrance activates their olfactory sense.

Items required:

• Inflorescence: Inflorescence is a cluster of tiny flowers and buds on a single stem.
• Dry Sticks: At least 10-15 cm tall.
• Autumn colors.
• Jute/Thread
• Coloring pages are perfect for 3-5-year-olds.

Instruction:

1. Collect fall inflorescence and sticks with your kids.
2. Sit down with your kids and create the floral brushes for them. They can follow your lead and create their own if they want.
3. Attach the inflorescence with the stick using a jute rope.
4. The brush is ready.
5. Now, let your kids dip it in colors and stamp them on white sheets or autumn coloring pages.

4. Leaf Painting

Items required:

• Fall leaves of different shapes and sizes
• Watercolor/oil paints/acrylic paints.
• Paint brushes or sponges.
• White sheets

Instruction:

• Collect leaves: Go on a nature walk with your kids and collect different kinds of fall leaves. Look for a variety of shapes and sizes.
• Set up the paint: Get different colors ready on a palette. Use fall colors like red, yellow, orange, brown, or any colors your kids like.
• Paint the leaves: Let your kids use the brush or sponge to apply paint to one side of a lead.
• Stamp the leaf: Help the kids place the painted side of the lead onto the sheet. Press gently, and then lift it to see the print.

They will love seeing the leaf’s veins and shapes on the paper.

5. Apple Stamping

Apple stamping activity is a mix of art and sensory play.

Material required:

• Apples, cut in half.
• Paint colors
• Paint brushes or sponges.
• Paper for stamping.

Instruction:

1. Let your kids apply their favorite colors on the half-cut apples.
2. Stamp on the paper.
3. Repeat and get creative: Encourage your kids to use different colors, overlap stamps, or even make patterns.

6. Pinecone Owls

Material required:

• Pinecones: All sizes.
• Googly eyes
• Craft glue
• Dry and scrunched small leaves.
• Felt in various colors: Orange, brown, and yellow.

Instructions:

1. Collect pinecones, feathers, and scrunched leaves. Collecting pinecones would be a fun adventure for your kids.
2. Prepare the felt: Cut out small oval shapes for the wings, triangle for the beak, and circles for the the eyes. Your kids can choose whichever colors they like best. You also need paws for the owl.
3. Attach the googly eyes.
4. Stick the beak, wings, and legs.
5. Add two leaves at the top in opposite directions to resemble eyebrows.

7. Fall Wreath

Items required:

• Cardboard
• Fevicol
• Leaf cutouts/real leaves.

Instructions:

1. Cut a donut out of the cardboard sheet.
2. You can either use leaf cutouts or real autumn leaves.
3. Cover the wreath with these leaves using paint or adhesive glue.
4. You can stick leaves on leaves to create a 3D-looking wreath.

Engaging Fall Math Activities For Preschoolers

Learning math can be a lot more fun when it involves pumpkins and fall-colored leaves. These fall-themes math activities will help preschoolers explore numbers, sorting, and counting without missing out on the fun!

1. Leaf Sorting

Collecting fall leaves and sorting them by size, color, and shape is a great outdoor activity for preschoolers that doesn’t cost anything. All you need are a few baskets.

It’s even more fun if your kids have leaf rake toys. They will love pretending to be little gardeners, and it makes sorting even easier and more exciting for kids.

Make sure, you choose a garden that’s full of autumn varieties.

2. Acorn Number Match

Materials required:

• Acorns
• White marker
• Number cards

Instructions:

1. Collect a lot of acorns.
2. You will need to do some prepping for this activity. Using a marker, mark the number on the acorns.
3. Scatter or hide the acorns throughout your garden. Hide them in visible places, so your kids can find them easily.
4. Show the kids the number card, and ask them to find an acorn with the matching number.

3. Pumpkin Shop

Playing “pumpkin shop” is a fun and creative way to introduce preschoolers to basic math, and pretend play celebrating the fall season.

This activity will require a cute “shop set-up.” You can use tables and white cloth to create one. It’s even better if you personalize the shop with a shop name and pretty plants.

Material needed:

• Mini pumpkins
• Play money
• Price tags
• Baskets/box

Steps:

• Make play money and price tags for the pumpkins.
• Set up the pumpkin shop: Arrange mini pumpkins on the table. Give price tags to each pumpkin. The smaller one can go for less money and vice versa. Use simple numbers like 1, 2, or 3.
• The kids will be the shopkeepers. Give them an apron for the role.
• Give play money: Hand your preschooler some play money. They can count the play money and give it to you.
• Ask questions like “How many pumpkins do you want?” or “How much does the pumpkin cost?”

Kids learn about numbers, counting, and simple addition or subtraction.

Related Article: Teaching kids about money: 16 ways to make it easier!

4. Apple Tree Number Match

Material required:

• White sheets
• Red pom-pom or paper circles for apples.
• Markers
• Glue stick.

Steps:

1. Make the apple tree: Use your kids’ hands to make the tree trunk. Dip their palms in paint and stamp on the white sheets.
2. Scatter numbers on the tree; 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6… This is where the kids add the pomp pomp.
3. Encourage them to read the numbers when they stick the pomp on the said numbers.

This allows number recognition and counting practice.

5. Shape Scarecrow

Create scarecrows using different shapes like circles, triangles, and rectangles. Let your kids recognize the different shapes.

It’s better if you use different-colored paper to create different shapes for better recognition.

Fall Science Activities For Preschoolers

Preschoolers are naturally curious about the world around them. Introducing science at an early age can be as simple as observing how leaves change color or talking about why apples fall from a tree.

Always let their curiosity evolve, and never try to shush it down.

1. Float Or Sink

Let’s start with something as basic as floating and sinking. Ask your kids “Why does it float, why does it sink,” and answer their curiosity.

Use fall-themed materials like pinecones, fall leaves, twigs, sticks, flowers, apples, pumpkins, and stones for this activity.

Materials required:

• Transparent deep trays (At least 3-4 trays)
• Water
• Fall-themed materials.

Steps:

1.  Fill the trays with water and place our experimenting objects (pinecones, sticks, twigs, apples, leaves, etc.)

2.  Now, ask your kids to add one fall item to each tray. Let’s say, a leaf, a pinecone, a twig, and an apple.

3.  The leaf will float above the water. The pinecone will float initially but sink gradually and eventually. If the twig is lighter, it will remain afloat, but if it’s heavier, the stick will sink. Apple will sink in an instant.

4.  Ask your kids the question: “Why did the apple sink?” “Why does the leaf remain afloat.”

5.  Answer their curiosity: The leaf is light, so it floats. The apple is heavy, so it sinks. Light objects float, but heavier objects sink.

You don’t have to complicate the explanation more than this for the time being.

6.  Now, watch them experiment with different items!

2. Making Cute Ghosts Using Vinegar and Baking Soda

This not-so-spooky ghostly activity is perfect for adding a bit of Halloween fun to fall science. It’s a simple chemical reaction that makes ghosts rise.

Material required:

• White balloons
• Baking soda
• Vinegar
• Empty water bottle (Transparent)
• Black marker

Steps:

1.  Make ghost faces on the balloons: Use a black marker to draw a ghost face on a white balloon. Make silly, scary, or funny ghost faces.

2.  Add baking soda to the balloon: Carefully pour a few tablespoons of baking soda into the balloon.

3.  Prepare the bottle: Fill the water bottle 1/3 of the way with vinegar.

4.  Attach the balloon: Ensure you don’t spill the baking soda while stretching the balloon over the mouth of the bottle.

5.  Release the baking soda: When ready, lift the balloon to allow all the baking soda to drop into the vinegar.

6.  Watch the ghost ride: As the baking soda reacts with the vinegar, it will create gas that inflates the balloon.

Play pretend to be a magician throughout the activity to keep the excitement high! Tell them “When two chemicals react, they often release gas.”

3. Magic Pumpkin Explosion

Material required:

• Small pumpkin
• Dish soap
• Baking soda
• vinegar
• Glitter.

Steps:

1. Scoop out a small pumpkin
2. Add baking soda, dish soap, and a sprinkle of glitter.
3. You can add red, yellow, or orange colors if you’d like.
4. Let your child pour in some vinegar and watch the bubbly potion overflow.

The foamy explosion looks just like a witch’s potion brewing— perfect for fall and Halloween!

4. Apple Oxidation Experiment

Material required:

• An apple
• Baking soda
• Salt
• Small container.

Steps:

1. Cut an apple in half.
2. Let your kids cover one-half with a mixture of baking soda and salt.
3. Leave the other half uncovered.
4. After a few days, compare the two pieces to see how the covered one is more preserved.

Why? Baking soda and salt help slow the decaying process by keeping bacteria from infesting on the apple.

5. Sprout Pumpkin Seeds

Your kids will love this planting session because it includes playing with the soil.

Material required:

• Small-sized pumpkins (fresh ones)
• Pumpkin seeds
• Potting soil
• water

Steps:

1. Prepare the pumpkin: Cut off the top of the pumpkin.
2. Scoop the flesh away: Let your kids scoop the pulp with their hands for a quick sensory play.
3. Rinse the inside lightly to remove any leftover pulp, leaving a hollow shell.
4. Add soil: Let kids fill the hollow pumpkin with potting soil. It would be another quick sensory play. Kids love to play soil!
5. Plant 2-3 seeds.
6. Water the seeds: teach them to gently water the soil until it’s moist but not soaking wet.
7. Find a sunny spot.
8. Encourage your kids to check daily for signs of growth. They can keep a journal to note how many days it takes for the seed to sprout.
9. Add water if the soil is not moist, but never let it be soaking wet.

Pumpkin seeds typically take 7-14 days to sprout!

Fall Games For Kids

From running through leaf piles to pumpkin-themed races, get ready for some giggles and happy squeals because it’s time for fall games.

Here’s how you can welcome the fall season with your kids:

1. Leaf Pile Jump

Of course, the first one goes to leaf pile jump. There’s nothing quite like jumping into a big pile of crunchy leaves. It’s so simple yet leaves the day with happy giggles as you dive into the pile of vibrant autumn leaves.

2. Pumpkin Bowling

Set up plastic pins or bottles, and use a small pumpkin to bowl them over.

3. Apple Bobbling

Fill a bucket with water and add apples. Let kids try to grab them using only their mouths.

4. Acorn race

Go acorn cap hunting with your kids. Each kid will require two acorn caps for this game.
Create a start and finish line.
The kid had to get one acorn cap to the finish line, but they could not throw it. They can only push the acorn using another acorn until the finish line.

5. Corn Maze Hide-And-Seek

If your kids are a huge fan of hide-and-seek, why not play it in a corn maze to breathe in fall’s weather?

1. Find a local corn maze.
2. You become the seeker, and the kids hide.
3. Count to 20 and the game begins.
4. Your kids can switch to being the seeker.

Hide-and-seek is a great way to enjoy the fall season and teach kids about the harvests it brings along.

6. Apple Stack Challenge

See how many apples the kids can stack on top of each other before the tower falls. Show them how it’s done.

Start by making the base by creating four rows—the first row has four apples, the second raw has three apples, the third has two, and the last one has one.

A strong base will give your kids a sturdy platform for building the Apple Tower.

7. Pumpkin Hunt

Hide small pumpkins everywhere in your house, yard, and garden. Let kids find as many as they can! Don’t forget to reward them for their hard work.

Tip:

• Choose funny places like in the middle of the leaf pile or borrowed in the soil.
• Continue to drop hints!

8. Pluck the apples

The game combines physical activity with a bit of a challenge. Kids love challenges, especially when combined with jumping.

Choose a sturdy tree and tie apples to a brunch, so they dangle at just the right height for kids to reach when they jump.

You can switch the difficulty level as well if your kids want to jump higher.

9. Falling Leaf Catch

Throw leaves up in the air, and challenge kids to catch as many as they can before they hit the ground.

Related Article: 34 Things To Do When Bored & Stuck At Home With Kids

Fall Sensory Play Ideas For Preschoolers

Fall is full of colors, textures, and scents, making it the perfect season for sensory play. Whether it’s the crunchy leaves, bumpy pinecones, or squishy pumpkin gut— you will not run out of sensory play during the fall season!

Below are easy preschool fall activities ideas for sensory play:

1. Sort Fall-Themed Material.

You will need bins for this activity. It’s even better if you label the bins “Soft” “rough” or “crunchy” so your kids can sort by feeling the texture of the items.

Get pinecones, dry leaves, colorful leaves, acorns, acorn caps, dried corn, etc to the table. Let them feel it and add it to the bin that best suits the touch.

2. Pumpkin Gut Exploration: Getting the seeds!

The task for the kid: Ask your kids to get you all the seeds that are completely free of pulp.

Your kids will dig in the pulp, and separate the seeds one by one. This allows them to feel the slimy and squishy texture of the pumpkin gut.

At the same time, they also get to feel the difference between hard pumpkin skin compared to soft pulp. Tell them that’s how nature protects edible and nutrient-filled food.

3. Apple scented playdough

Apple-scented playdough is a fun way to add some fall flair to regular playdough time. Kids can enjoy kneading, rolling, and molding while smelling the sweet scent of apples.

Material required:

• 2 cups flour
• 1 cup salt
• 1 tablespoon cream of tartar
• 2 tablespoons vegetable pol
• 2 teaspoons apple pie spice or cinnamon
• Red food coloring
• 1 cup water.

Mix all the ingredients and your kid’s playdough is ready!

4. Gardening

Gardening is another great sensory play that also teaches your kids about the importance of planting trees.

As your kids dig into the soil with their hands and small tools. The soil can be dry crumbly, coarse, soft, wet, moist, and therapeutic. Not to forget, soil releases a beautiful scent when mixed with water!

Find more sensory activities for kids here.

FAQs

How Do You Teach Fall To Preschoolers?

There’s a way to teach your preschoolers about fall without having to bore them. The key is to heighten their intrigue and interest and subtly give them a bit of the talk.

This doesn’t mean you have to sit them down with you. No, you can do this at the time of enjoying all these fun fall activities for preschoolers.

More fall activities for kids.

1.  Walk through Autumn Parks: During fall, the landscape is painted in hues of auburn, red, yellow, orange, and brown. Tell them, “The leaves only turn colorful when it’s fall.”

2.  The fallen leaves create a beautiful canvas that wouldn’t skip your kid’s curious mind either. Tell them, “In the fall season, the leaves take a break from making food for the trees, so they change color and fall to the ground.” It’s one way to give autumn an easier definition.

3.  Enjoying the mentioned fun preschool fall activities out in the crisp air of the season.

4.  Leaf crafting: Use fallen leaves for art and craft. It can be paintings or collages.

5.  Sensory bins.

6.  Acorn collection

7.  Pinecone hunt.

8. Storytime, songs, and poems.

9.  Change in clothes: As the wind gets cooler, our wardrobe readjusts to sweaters, scarves, and gloves.

What Is The Best Fall Activity For Preschoolers?

Your first goal is to keep your kids engaged, entertained, and interested. So your autumn projects for preschool should be fun more than anything. When learning is fun, it becomes easier to grasp new concepts.

Below are 10 more fall ideas for preschool:

1.  Pumpkin painting: Give them colors and ask them to draw/paint on the smooth surface of the pumpkin. Don’t stop them from experimenting with different colors. This is the only way to air their imagination and creativity.

2.  Leaf Maze: Create a simple maze on the ground using leaves. Give your kids a token or pawn made of acorn caps or small pinecones. Ask them to navigate the pawn through the maze to the final line.

Related Article: Puzzles For Toddlers!

3.  Fall color hunt: Give the kids paint swatches with fall colors (orange, yellow, red, brown, auburn, etc) and have them find items in nature that match each color.

4.  Pumpkin ring toss: Place a small pumpkin on the grounds and have them throw rings (like hula hoops) to try and land them around the pumpkin.

5.  Mini target goal: Let the kids roll and kick pumpkin into the goal.

Related Article: 28 Toddler Activities For Entertainment!

What Is Fall For Preschoolers?

Kids remember the highlights of any season. For instance, for kids, winter is when it’s cold and Christmas happens. So, it’s important you take them out in autumn parks and wind often.

The colorful landscape will surely become a beautiful memory in their tiny brain. Perhaps, they will start to remember fall as “When colorful leaves fall.”

For preschoolers, that is more than enough. You can add more such highlights to the fall season by engaging your kids in these fun fall activities.

5+ Unique and fun Autumn ideas for preschool to celebrate the season with your toddlers:

1.  Scarecrow dress-up relay: Gather old clothes and have loads work in teams to dress up a scarecrow as fast as they can! If you have two kids, split them in the mama team and papa team.

2.  Hay Bales Castle: Collect hay bales (About 10-15 depending on the size of the castle you and your kids want to build. Let your kids be an equal part of it and then they play castle-castle.

3.  Leaf Tic-tac-toe: Draw a tic-tac-toe board on the ground with chalk or use sticks. Use different leaves as game pieces for a fall-themed twist. It’s way better than playing tic-tac-toe on a mobile phone.

4.  Pinecone bird feeders: Cover pinecones in peanut butter (or a nut-free substitute) and roll them in bird seeds. Let your kids follow your lead and do the same. Hang them up outside and watch birds come for a snack. It’s a great way to teach your kids small acts of kindness and why kindness is important.

5.  Fall color collage: Let your kids collect a variety of colorful pieces and stack them together into a beautiful collage.

6.  Fall leaf crown: Make crowns by gluing leaves to an adjustable twig. You can also make tiaras, rings, and necklaces with the pretty leaves and autumn flowers.

7.  Make Pumpkin slime: Make orange-colored slime and add pumpkin seeds for a sensory experience.

What Is Fall in Simple Words?

• “When leaves start to change colors and fall on the ground, it’s fall season.”
• “When we pick apples and pumpkins, it’s fall season.”
• “When we play these fun fall activities, it’s autumn.”
• “When we feel slightly cold and your mama starts wrapping scarves around your neck and sweaters on you, it’s fall.

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