We are always coming up with some kind of activities for the little learners to do around here. More of our Fall activities for toddlers and preschoolers can be viewed here and here. By the way: Please excuse some of my blurry photos – camera problems here!
Activity #1: Duct Tape Storage Boxes
I bought some cute little glass bowls from the Dollar Isle at Target and they came in those cute little boxes. The bowls are Threshold Ramekins and look like this below:
I hesitated to throw away the boxes as they seemed a bit sturdy. In addition, they were screaming the word “craft” to me as I removed the bowls from them.
To make the storage boxes: We used 2 small empty boxes (as shown in the photo below), duct tape of color choice, and stickers (I already had the duct tape and stickers on hand). Simply cover the outside of the boxes with duct tape. Then add the stickers. Adding the stickers kept their attention for a little while.
Activity #2: Fall Sensory Bin Sorting Activity
What I used for this bin: About 6 cups of oatmeal, sprinkles of cinnamon, and all kinds of random Fall/Autumn stuff we had around the house.
The kids could sort the items in the bin by color or by type of items. Or they could just have fun digging around an eating the oatmeal (like mine did)!
Activity #3: Dyed Squash Seeds Craft
This one is more meticulous and takes a little more time to do as the seeds are so small. The kids will learn to develop their fine motor skills and would be busy for a little while. Yea!
To dye the squash or pumpkin seeds: I used 1/4 cup water to 1 TBSP white vinegar, food coloring of choice, and actually (squash seeds because I had cooked some squash the previous day and saved the seeds). Place them in separate bowls by color and let them sit in the water mixture for a few hours (or even overnight). Stir occasionally. The longer the seeds are in the water, the more color the seeds would have. After I removed them from the water, I baked them in a 200 preheated oven for 15 minutes.
Draw a pumpkin (or squash) outline on a piece of construction paper and use glue to attach the seeds unto the pumpkin. Let them dry flat. I set out all the different types of glue on the table because I was not sure which one would hold the seeds best. They ended up using the glue sticks – worked great!
Activity #4: Pudding Finger Paints
Edible of course, is the word to describe these paints! I used various types of pudding mixes (Fall colors) to create this one. The pudding mixes included from Top left to right: Vanilla (with added red food coloring), Pistachio (I added a little food coloring here, too), Chocolate, Greek Yogurt (Grape flavor), and at the bottom banana cream (it is yellow but I added food coloring to create the orange one and a little yellow food coloring to the yellow one). For the paint: Use 2 Tablespoons of each mix with 1/4 cup cold milk. Sir until fully mixed. For the vanilla, it seemed like I had to add an additional 2 Tablespoons milk to get the desired consistency.
Activity #5: Leaf Wreath with Bible Verse
We desire to teach our kids that God is the Master Creator behind all the beauty we see during the Fall season! To make this, the kids used paper plates and glued real leaves around the edges (they love collecting all the Fall leaves). Then I used glitter glue to write the verse. After it was dried, I punched a hole at the top of the page and attached a ribbon to it for hanging. Note: The writing may not have turn out all the best because one kid just could not wait to get the glitter glue out my hands to play around with it!
So here you have it – 5 Fall activities to keep the little ones busy. One activity can be done per day like we did. Our kids love to doing all kinds of activities so sometimes we have to stretch them out over a number of days to keep us from running out of ideas!
She looketh well to the ways of her household, and eateth not the bread of idleness (Proverbs 31:27, KJV).
I know, my plant needs a little help – poor, poor, neglected plant!
