Fall means colors in beautiful earth tones and lots of exploration with natural materials. While summer is my favorite season, fall holds a special place in my heart because it awakens the 5 senses. That’s why I love this collection of 30 fall activities for preschoolers.
Hands-on fun!
Ready to see them?
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30 Fall Activities for Preschoolers
Mixing red and yellow at the easel:
We love mixing colors and have done so in a variety of ways. In this activity, we used a large sponge to encourage using the entire arm while working at the easel.
Scooping objects into plastic pumpkins:
We filled the sensory table with dried peas, sand and rocks. Scooping is a fun way to strengthen fine motor development.
Exploring leaves:
Leaves are most beautiful as they start turning colors! We love to go on walks and collect leaves to explore in the classroom. We display them on our science table, as well as on top of our light table.
Blending fall colors at the art table:
In this activity we mixed colors using balloons. It was quite fun! This is one of those activities that could be adapted to any season by changing the colors.
(See more about balloon painting here.)
Fall sensory bin:
We dyed pasta shades of orange and added pine cones, sticks, leaves, bowls and bug catchers.
Paper plate pumpkins:
We painted paper plates with glue tinted orange. Small pieces of yellow and orange paper were pressed into the tinted glue, as well as facial features and a stem. To keep this from being too crafty, we let them choose what they wanted to add to their pumpkins, in any way they wanted. No two were alike!
Exploring the color orange:
We placed various orange objects on top of a mirror to explore.
Tweezers and small pumpkins:
One of our favorite fine motor activities is transferring small items with tweezers. This is the basic set-up, and you can then add any desired small objects.
Orange play dough:
Mix up a batch of play dough, color it orange, and add objects to change the texture a bit, such as these sequin pieces. A great sensorial experience! (You can see more of this activity here.)
Cornmeal in the sensory bin:
Cornmeal was added to our sensory bin along with dried corn. We placed mortar and pestles in the bin as well, as an invitation to grind the dried corn.
Pumpkin rolling art:
Line a tray with paper. Place miniature pumpkins in trays of paint. Add utensils. As the pumpkins are moved across the paper with the utensils, a design is created on the paper.
Painting fall paper cut outs with pipettes:
One of our favorite fall books is Nuts to You. After reading this book, we like to work on our fine motor development by squirting paint onto squirrels using pipettes.
The giant pumpkin:
I love to do group projects throughout the year to expose the children to working together. For this activity I cut out a large pumpkin shape from white paper. I had the children rip orange paper and then glue it onto the pumpkin paper. We finished with the facial features before hanging it on our wall.
Making pumpkins out of flubber:
After creating a batch of flubber, we pressed pumpkin cookie cutters into it to create a pumpkin shape. Markers were then used to decorate the flubber pumpkin, along with googly eyes.
Tweezing Corn:
Set some dried corn on a tray with tweezers. The kernels can be pulled off the cob with the tweezers. This is a good challenge, and great exercise for hand-eye coordination. (See more here.)
Leaf prints:
Stamping with cookie cutters is fun all year long! For the fall season, we like to stamp with leaves and pumpkin with fall colors. (You can see more leaf printing here.)
Fall wreaths:
Cut the center out of a paper plate so that you just have the outer ring. Tint white glue brown and press leaves onto it. There you have a simple wreath!
Cinnamon apple pie play dough:
The classroom smelled like the holidays when we added this to our play dough table! We provided various kitchen utensils for some pretend baking fun.
Set up a pumpkin stand:
This is one of our favorite dramatic play ideas! We add pumping, baskets, scales and a cash register for a pumpkin stand.
Sensory pumpkins:
Cut paper into pumpkin shapes. Squirt paint onto the paper and then cover with plastic wrap. As the fingers press on the plastic, the paint moves around.
Macaroni necklaces:
Dye small pasta pieces various fall colors and invite the children to thread them onto yarn for necklaces.
Paint pumpkins:
This is especially loved by toddlers. Just take some paint and brush it onto the surface of pumpkins! When finished, wash off the paint and start all over, or save for another day!
Hammering golf tees into pumpkins:
This is another favorite! We use our plastic hammers and golf tees for many different activities, but I think this is love the most. (You can see more here.)
Fall leaf collage:
Take a large piece of cardboard and roll various fall shades on it. Glue leaves on top. Love the colors!
Spiders in the sensory bin:
Dye rice orange and add various-sized plastic spiders. We added some black beans and flicker lights, too.
Orange tissue paper collage:
Cut orange tissue paper into strips. Thin liquid starch a bit with water a bit. Place strips of paper onto a larger sheet of white paper and brush the starch over the the paper.
Nature collage:
Fall is a beautiful time to enjoy a walk! Take along a bag to collect items that are found on the ground and glue them onto paper.
Stamp with pumpkins:
We placed red and yellow paint into containers and placed small pumpkins in them. The pumpkins are then lifted out of the paint and stamped onto paper.
Make apple prints:
A timeless classic, stamping with apples! Tip: carve a handle into the apples after slicing them in half. This is easier for little hands to hold while stamping.
Go stomping in puddles!
There’s nothing like stomping in fall rain puddles!
Your “non-carved” pumpkins have given me lots of ideas on how to get my little ones involved in the process. Very creative!
Thanks,
Gwynn
You always have the best ideas! I have tons of your stuff pinned!
Thank you, Gwynn and Angie!
So many great play-based ideas! What wonderful ways to explore.
Thank you, Caroline!
kids will be really looking forward to Halloween. 🙂
Love this! We’re featuring your post on Share It Saturday this week over at Sugar Aunts! Thanks for linking up 🙂
I appreciate your effort your focus on creativity is beneficial for kids.
Great post, amazed to see how you used various painting activities for preschool kids activities.
Such fun ideas for the kids to enjoy this fall! Thanks for sharing on our Facebook share day, looking forward to pinning and sharing this week!
Thank you, Heather!
Wonderful collection of fall activities! Thanks, again, for taking the time to share via FB. I don’t always have the opportunity to see all that you post! It’s a wonderful way for me to connect with your blog. Hope YOUR week is going well!
So many great play-based ideas! What wonderful ways to explore.