Fall activities for toddlers are a wonderful way of transitioning from one season to another.
Playing, experimenting and using all different senses to discover what fall has to offer for our little ones.
These fall activities explore the many items that can be found during this season such as crisp leaves, acorns, apples, chestnuts etc.
We also have 20 Cool Pumpkin Activities For Toddlers if you love being creative with pumpkins too!
Creating activities for fall allows our toddlers to work on many skills:
- Introduction to new vocabulary to progress their language
- Fine motor skills
- Concentration
- Hand-eye coordination
1. Paper Roll & Apple Rice Tray
Do you have a large piece of cardboard, color paper and a few toilet paper rolls? Then you can make this beautiful apple themed fall activity for your toddler.
Not only can you reuse it multiple times during the season but you can also save it for the next year.
Your little one will absolutely LOVE the sensory component of this activity – rice.
Which, by the way, you can also use for other activities.
Extend play and learning with one of these Awesome Books About Apples.
Find all the details here: Paper Roll & Rice Apple Tree
2. Pinecones & Pom Poms
Such a good fine motor activity which toddlers will love to do with coloured pom poms.
Simply prepare a small bowl of pom poms (I selected fall colours) and a large open pinecone.
Show your little one how to place a pom pom within the pinecone- the activity really is that simple but effective!
They look great to keep on display too. Thank you @learnwithluca IG for this wonderful activity that my daughter just loved going back to time after time.
3. DIY Lift-The-Flap Fall Board
How many times have you found your baby wipes opened by your little monkeys?
I’m guessing the answer for most people will be LOTS!
Toddlers love to open and close these flaps.
Make a great lift-the-flap fall board with leftover baby wipe lids by following our easy steps here.
4. Apple Prints
I always have memories of when I was a child painting with potatoes cut into half and using them as painting stamps.
This alternative idea of using apples is perfect for fall to get discussing apples and where they come from.
Take a look at our suggestions of Books About Apples to further our little ones’ learning.
Photo Credit: IG @sensorywithflorence
5. Spooning Chestnuts
This activity by mommysandmontessori.com has a very quick set up and will keep our toddlers entertained for way longer!
Place two bowls down, one filled with chestnuts and the other empty.
Using a spaghetti spoon show your toddlers how to spoon up the chestnuts moving from one bowl to another.
This works on hand-eye coordination, concentration and is obviously an important day to day skill.
We recreated this activity slightly by using acorns but with the same concept.
6. Squitty The Squirrel
Either a fun, printed image of a squirrel could be used or a good drawing challenge for mummy – my lack of drawing skills will definitely go for the first option.
A fantastic seasonal posting activity which will encourage an expansion of our little munchkins language whilst building their fine motor skills.
Photo Credit: IG @manine_curiose
7. Nature Sorter
An absolutely wonderful activity to get toddlers rummaging through nature to find the correct items.
Watch the concentration on their little faces as they pick up the item eg. an acorn, observe and then try and place in the correct hole within the nature sorter.
Photo Credit: IG @playathomemama_g
8. Nature Shape Matching And Puzzle
A great opportunity for language development and introducing various new words that mummy can talk about.
By drawing around the items that you have collected on your fall walks, an interesting and textured puzzle can be created.
Photo Credit: IG @recycleandplay
9. Playdough Hedgehog
Our toddlers will love to poke the toothpicks into the soft, squishy feeling of the playdough and create their very own hedgehog at home.
Coloured pipe cleaners or straws could be an alternative to the tooth picks. Make sure the hedgehog has a name by the end of the activity.
Photo Credit: www.taminglittlemonsters.com
10. Fall Leaves Sensory Soup
A messy play sensation where our toddlers can help create their very own fall soup.
Place different size spoons, whisks, small cups and more into the sensory bin and they will adore scooping and moving the soup around and placing into different containers too.
Photo Credit: www.andnextcomesl.com
11. Sponge Painted Thanksgiving Turkey Craft
We couldn’t write about fall activities and not mention thanksgiving and these cute turkeys.
The sponge is an easy but effective way of painting with little ones.
The finish result could be used to hand up during thanksgiving or used during animal playtime.
Get practising your turkey sounds mummy’s.
Photo Credit: www.theresourcefulmama.com
12. Leaf Foxes
Such fun to see leaves come to life by simply adding eyes and a pom pom as a nose.
You could use any left-over pom poms from the 2. Pinecones & Pom Poms activity further up in this article.
Get your little ones to stick the pom poms and eyes down themselves and you very well may end up with a wonky fox- we will love them just as much even with their imperfections.
Photo Credit: www.gluedtomycraftsblog.com
13. Leaf Sensory Bags
You could really let your imagination go wild when deciding what to put inside the leaf sensory bags.
No mess and lots of fun!
Our little munchkins will love pressing down to feel and move around the contents of the sensory bag beneath their fingers.
Photo Credit: www.kidscraftroom.com
14. Marble Painting Apple Craft
Combining marbles and painting in one activity is sure to be a toddler success.
They will have their mouths wide open in amazement as they see the marbles move around the paper and colouring their apples in a beautiful effect- mummy will be pretty amazed too!
Photo Credit: www.craftingchicks.com
15. Apple Cinnamon Playdough
I don’t know about you but just reading the name of this playdough makes me want to smell it straight away.
A perfect fall playdough recipe that will get our toddlers smelling and feeling the delights of this time of year.
I wonder how many of us will be making an apple and cinnamon pie after using the playdough.
Photo Credit: www.naturalbeachliving.com
16. Fall Sensory Bottles (pocketofpreschool.com)
Wonderful for both babies and toddlers to explore the different movements and colours of fall related items placed inside the bottles.
Ideas of things to go inside the bottles are fall coloured pom poms, lentils, leaves, corn, acorns, chestnuts…the list is endless.
Photo Credit: www.pocketofpreschool.com
17. Raking Leaves In The Sand Box
Experiencing and digging in the sand is a super sensory activity that will see our toddlers finding different ways of reaching the leaves amongst the sand.
The rake and spade within the sand will allow our kids to learn useful skills which are very useful in day to day life (especially helping mummy in the garden.)
Photo Credit: www.myboredtoddler.com
18. Fall Leaf Science
We love science experiments during play time which will leave our younger and older toddlers amazed.
This is such an interesting activity to teach our little learners who are all too enthusiastic when learning new things at this age.
Photo Credit: www.alittlepinchofperfect.com
19. Bobbing For Apples
Bobbing for apples is always a firm favourite at halloween parties.
This can be slightly adapted for our younger ones by using tongs to grab the apples out of the water. T
his will help to improve their fine motor skills.
You could use both red and green apples to create a colour sorting task or also counting.
Photo Credit: www.fantasticfunandlearning.com
20. Easy Fall Button Tree
It is difficult to say who will have more fun with this cute activity using buttons of all different shapes and sizes.
The button tree is perfect for building little ones concentration, hand-eye coordination and fine motor skills.
The result is very beautifully decorative.
Photo Credit: www.handsonaswegrow.com
Have a look at our 15 Favourite Fall Books and 10+ Books About Apples which would perfectly accompany these fantastic activities.
