4 Easy Activities to Celebrate Fall With Your Preschooler

Do you have a preschooler? I no longer have preschoolers, but I love utilizing my expertise in this field from all my years working and teaching in a variety of programs. With that said, check out my weekly posts directed toward early learning and beyond…

October is a wonderful opportunity for activities to celebrate the fall season. Here are easy fall-themed activities for preschoolers that you can do at home together!

1. Explore and Identify Fall leaves

Fall is a time of change, of transition. The leaves on the trees change color, the days get shorter, and the weather becomes cooler. This is a time to explore and identify different leaves.

Head out on a nature walk. Be sure to bring a plastic bag or something to easily put the leaves into. Encourage your preschooler to pick up as many different kinds of fall leaves as possible. This is actually a fun and engaging activity for them because they are not only using their gross motor skills of walking, they are utilizing fine motor skills with their senses on seeing the types of leaves, colors, texture, and more!

Photo by Michael Morse

*Side note-make sure outside is completely dry, trust me, trying to even pick up slightly damp leaves is no fun.

As soon as you have as many leaves as you wish, head back into the house and lay them flat out on a table, floor, or any hard surface. To cut down on messes, lay down newspaper, tarp, etc., to make for easy clean-up time.

Have your preschooler sort out the different colors or sort by type of leaf. An added extra is to teach them the names of each leaf, for example, the maple leaf.

For added leaf fun, place a leaf underneath a white sheet of construction paper. Computer paper works fine as well. Have them do a crayon rub of the leaf. Grab fall-color crayons and watch the magic happen. Preschoolers love this!

2. Create Pumpkin Spice Playdough

Photo by Meruyert Gonullu

Making homemade playdough for my preschoolers (classes and own kids), was once of my favorite activities! Pumpkin Spice Playdough gives off the perfect fall scent. Here is the recipe:

What you Need

1 cup water.
1/2 cup salt.
2 tsp cream of tartar.
2 tbsp vegetable oil.
12 drops yellow food coloring, 4 drops of red food coloring.
1 cup flour.
Dash of pumpkin pie spice.

Directions

Simply just heat on low the water, salt, and cream of tartar in a medium-sized pan and stir well until all the ingredients are combined. Then slowly add in the vegetable oil and food coloring. Several drops of yellow and red food coloring will give the playdough the perfect orange shade.

Slowly begin to add the flour. Don’t pour in all at once, this is a gradual process. Keep stirring until you see the dough begin to form. Once the dough is ready, place onto a cutting board or hard surface. I typically like to sprinkle flour onto the surface so that the dough doesn’t stick. While you are kneading the dough, go ahead and add the dash of pumpkin spice. A little goes a long way.

Store the playdough in a zip-lock baggie. It’s good for a few weeks until you need to make new playdough.

Kids learn math like measuring and fine motor and sensory skills such as stirring and kneading. Pull out any playdough toys and cookie cutters and let your preschooler have fun creating!

3. Fall Scavenger Hunt

While searching for leaves is inevitable from the previous activity idea, how about searching for other related things you will see in nature during the fall season? Search for:

Pumpkins
Pinecones
Acorns
Mushrooms

and more!

Here is a fun FREE printable that you can take with you to help your preschooler with their search. They can mark it off as they go! Take a picture as well! 😉

Here’s a sneak peek of the printable. But click the link below the screenshot to download yours and print! Remember, it’s FREE to celebrate the opening of our new shop!

Download—>Fall Scavenger Hunt Printable

PIN & SAVE FOR LATER

4. Fall Unit Studies-Pumpkins

Download and print fall unit studies for your preschooler to learn more about the season…specifically, PUMPKINS!

I created an engaging unit study for your preschooler to practice specific fine motor skills such as cutting, matching, patterns, and more! Here’s a sneak peek below:

You can snag your pumpkin unit study HERE.