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5 Fun Things to Do with Fall Leaves

November 6, 2015 by Meg 14 Comments

These simple, fun, and virtually free fall activities for toddlers and preschoolers are a great way to help kids explore the world around them and learn about fall, too! These simple, fun, and virtually free fall activities for toddlers and preschoolers are a great way to help kids explore the world around them and learn about fall, too!

I don’t like winter. Let’s just be clear about that. I grew up in California, and although I’ve been living in Utah for almost 15 years, I still have not gotten used to that mysteriously cold white stuff that shows up every year and makes it hard to drive.

Fall, on the other hand, I LOVE. I love the bright oranges and reds, the crisp mornings, the smells of pumpkin bread and autumn soups and hot cider.

Little Man has been loving fall, too. He’s fascinated by the leaves that are falling off the trees. I love how he tells me not to worry because new ones will grow in the spring. Every time we go outside, he has to stop and look for new leaves on the ground.

In an effort to encourage his curiosity (and to do SOMETHING with the rapidly growing collection of leaves on our kitchen counter), we’ve been using them for all sorts of activities during “Mommy School” time.

Here are some you may enjoy, too!

Five Fun Ways to Learn with Fall Leaves

  1. Fall Scavenger Hunt – We LOVE scavenger hunts. It’s a great way to give Little Man something to do while we go on walks/bike rides. We bring our list, and a colored pencil We found a great one for fall here, and Little Man enjoyed it so much that he begged to do one every day for a week.
  2. Categorizing –  by color, shape, size…it doesn’t really matter what criteria you use, but it’s great for getting those little brains using their critical thinking skills. I didn’t know if Little Man would really be interested in this one, but he wanted to keep finding new ways to organize them.
  3. Leaf Rubbings – A classic. We unwrapped crayons, covered the leaves with paper, and watched with amazement as the shapes magically appeared as we rubbed. It was a great opportunity to talk about how leaves have veins that carry nutrients, just like people do. We also talked about the different shapes of the leaves.
  4. Play Dough Imprints – A similar idea to leaf rubbings, you press the leaves into play dough and see the “fossil” it leaves behind (we like dinosaurs around here, so Little Man liked the reference to dinos). Word of advice: Use fresh leaves, not dried out ones. The dried ones might crumble as you press them into the play dough, leaving you with the awesome task of picking tiny fragments of leaves out of your play dough. Not that we had that problem…
  5. Negative space painting – To be honest, I wondered if this one was going to be a complete disaster, but it turned out great! Basically, we taped the leaves down on a piece of paper and then used red and yellow paint to brush from the center of the leaves over the edges. We were left with some great silhouettes. It also gave us a chance to talk about color mixing (red+yellow=orange).

These simple, fun, and virtually free fall activities for toddlers and preschoolers are a great way to help kids explore the world around them and learn about fall, too!

What are your favorite ways to learn about fall with your kids?

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Filed Under: Crafts & Activities Tagged With: Crafts, Fall, Preschool

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Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Mary Barham

    October 17, 2016 at 7:35 am

    Love these fall activities!! Going to do some this weekend with my babies

    Reply
  2. Jehava

    October 17, 2016 at 8:14 am

    What great ideas that we will have to try out! Never thought of using playdough with the leaves! Thanks!!

    Reply
  3. Shay

    October 17, 2016 at 1:24 pm

    Love these ideas! I love the way the negative space paintings turned out! Super cute and creative!!

    Reply
    • Meg

      October 20, 2016 at 2:06 pm

      Thanks, Shay. I was worried the negative space painting was going to be a complete disaster with my…energetic…boys, but sometimes they pleasantly surprise me. 🙂

      Reply
  4. Melissa @ Discobumblebee

    October 17, 2016 at 7:47 pm

    I love these ideas! We are going to go to the park tomorrow to pick up some leaves for art projects. 🙂

    Reply
    • Meg

      October 20, 2016 at 2:06 pm

      Hope they turn out well, Melissa! We are going to hunt for some more this week, too!

      Reply
  5. haylee

    October 18, 2016 at 1:55 pm

    Such cute ideas!

    Reply
  6. Shannon

    October 18, 2016 at 10:42 pm

    Great ideas! Leaf rubbing was my fave as a kid!

    Reply
    • Meg

      October 20, 2016 at 2:05 pm

      I loved leaf rubbing, too. There is something magical about rubbing the crayon across the page and seeing the shapes appear. Thanks for dropping by, Shannon.

      Reply
  7. Jody

    October 19, 2016 at 11:18 am

    SO SO cute and fun!!! My daughter is just getting to where she talks and understands and she will love these!! Thank you!

    Reply
    • Meg

      October 20, 2016 at 2:03 pm

      Glad you can enjoy these with your little girl, Jody. I think it’s such a fun age when they start to talk and be able to express their thoughts about the amazing world around them. So fun to explore with little ones!

      Reply

Trackbacks

  1. Fall Family Fun Bucket List - The Many Little Joys says:
    September 21, 2016 at 3:37 pm

    […] Make art from leaves […]

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  2. The Many Little Joys of October - The Many Little Joys says:
    November 13, 2016 at 8:46 pm

    […] changing near our house, we’ve gone leaf hunting and used our collection of colors for some fun home preschool activities. I love the variety of leaves in a way I never recognized until a few years ago. Yellow […]

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  3. Fall Recipe & Craft Roundup - Because I Said So Baby says:
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