10 Colourful Toddler Activities to Fall in Love with Today
Quick! The Fall colours won’t last much longer!
Activity Sneak Peek:
- Colourful Leaf Cutting Bin
- Autumn Tree Craft
- Fall Colour Walk
- Wild Loose Parts Activity
- Easy Apple Cider Recipe
- Outdoor Leaf Colour Sorting Game
- Classic Fall Leaf Rubbings
- Fall Inspired Readings
- Royal Leaf Crown Activity
- Simple Autumn Wreath Craft
We are in the heart of October and our family has been exploring the wonders of the Fall season.
There are countless ways to discover the brilliance of the season, and I would like to share with you- 10 Colourful Toddler Activities to Fall in Love with Today!
We’ve been loving all of the Fall themed activities lately. We kicked it all off with our Harvest Moon celebration. Be sure to check out How we Celebrated This Years Harvest Moon if you haven’t already.
We decided to combine Autumn Equinox week and Autumn Leaves week from the Exploring Nature with Children nature study to celebrate ALL THINGS AUTUMN in one spectacularly colourful extravaganza!
So, go grab yourself a pumpkin spice latte or hot apple cider (recipe below!) and get ready for some serious Fall activity inspiration.
1. Colourful Leaf Cutting Bin
For a quick and engaging activity, making a colourful leaf cutting bin is the way to go. All you need is
- Colourful leaves
- Safety scissors
- A bin or bowl
Amelia has really been into using scissors to cut all sorts of materials into small pieces, and crispy, crunchy leaves made the PERFECT object to practise her scissor skills on.
After collecting an array of leaves outside, Amelia used her scissors to cut the leaves over the bin to make a fun, Fall confetti, while working on her fine motor skills.
Once finished, we had a bin full of leaf pieces which made for great sensory play. We also used the leaf cuttings to create an autumn tree craft (see number 2!).
2. Autumn Tree Craft
With our colourful leaf confetti in hand from our leaf cutting bin activity, we were able to do an Autumn tree craft.
I have seen similar crafts using bits of tissue paper, but we decided to use what we had created instead. Leaves really are nature’s tissue paper afterall!
For the craft, I drew the bare tree onto a piece of cardstock. Amelia then squeezed glue onto the empty tree branches and stuck our leaf confetti onto the tree.
Voila! A simple masterpiece to hang on the wall. No need to purchase Fall decorations when you can create them with nature.
3. Fall Colour Walk
My personal favourite Fall activity growing up was going on Fall hikes. The sight of the colourful trees, the smell of the crisp, Fall air, the sound of the wind blowing the crunchy leaves. It’s just the best!
We have been taking lots of Fall colour walks to explore the changing scenery around us. The beauty is that you don’t have to go deep into the mountains to take it all in.
Exploring the Fall colours can be done ANYWHERE!
Amelia likes to bring a bag on our walks to stash the colourful leaves and other treasures we find along the way. Brooks has been loving this too as his new favourite thing to eat are the leaves that get tracked into the house…
4. Wild Loose Parts Activity
With all of the little bits of nature collected from our Fall colour walks, we had an impressive pile of materials to play with and create something from.
The bits of bark, nuts, pine needles and stones provided inspiration to make a craft with the wild loose parts. We have been noting the squirrels in our yard caching their nuts for Winter. So, we went with that!
I drew the outline of the squirrel on a piece of cardstock. Amelia then used the wild loose parts to fill in the body of the squirrel in a sort of mosaic pattern and glued them in place.
The long pine needles made for a nice fluffy tail for this cute little squirrel craft.
5. Easy Homemade Apple Cider
Making apple cider is deliciously simple and fills your home with the smell of apple-cinnamony goodness! If you haven’t made it before, then you need to give it a try!
Ingredients
- 1 orange
- 10 medium sized apples (we used apples picked from a friend’s tree)
- 3 cinnamon sticks
- 2 tsp whole cloves
- maple syrup to taste (if desired)
Directions
- Peel the orange and cut orange and apples into quarters.
- Put orange pieces, apple pieces, cinnamon sticks and cloves into a pot on low heat for 8 hours (we put the pot on our woodstove for the day).
- Remove from heat and mash the softened fruit with a spoon or masher.
- Strain the cider and add maple syrup to taste if desired. Enjoy!
Leftover apple cider can be stored in the fridge for 7 days and reheated before serving.
Amelia was able to help with preparing the fruit, stirring the pot before it got too hot, and best of all, enjoying a warm, healthy mug of apple cider.
6. Outdoor Leaf Colour Sorting Game
Our trees are dropping a variety of coloured leaves right now which created a great opportunity to make a game out of sorting the leaves by colour.
I drew the outline of a leaf on 5 different paper bags and Amelia coloured each leaf a different Fall colour. We used green, red, orange, yellow and brown.
Then we went outside, set the paper bags down and Amelia ran around collecting leaves and dropped them into the corresponding coloured bags.
She had a blast sorting the coloured leaves and had even more fun running around trying to catch leaves as they were falling from the trees.
7. Classic Fall Leaf Rubbings
When I think of classic Fall activities, this is one that sticks out to me the most. Leaf rubbings are so fun to do and make beautiful artwork (even if you lack artistic skill).
All you need:
- Leaves of different shapes and sizes
- A piece of paper
- Tape to hold the paper in place
- Crayons
Amelia arranged leaves that we collected on a nature walk onto our table, and I taped a piece of paper in place on top of the leaves. Amelia then used different coloured crayons to scribble all over the paper to reveal the leaf patterns.
Tip: Using broken crayons lengthways helps to show all of the little details from the leaves underneath.
We ended up with such a pretty picture and gifted it to Nana and Papa.
8. Fall Inspired Readings
The journey of a little squirrel who is discovering the world around him as Fall approaches. The Mommy squirrel encourages the little squirrel to explore and try new things but also ensure that she will always be there if he needs her.
But, if ever you need me, I will always be near.
Mommy’s Near
A cute story showing what different woodland animals do in the Fall to prepare for Winter. Learn what the squirrels, birds and foxes do during the Fall season. The book has a peak through tree to view all of the animals in the book from the front cover.
9. Royal Leaf Crown Activity
Amelia turned three this weekend and to honour our Autumn Princess, we made a leaf crown for her to wear!
To make the crown, I cut 2 strips of cardstock that together measured the circumference of her head. Amelia glued all kinds of beautiful leaves onto it and I taped the ends together once the glue dried.
We went outside and Amelia played Queen of the leaf pile as we raked together a giant mountain of leaves to run through.
Brooks absolutely loves leaves so he also had such a fun time trekking through the pile of crunchy leaves with his sister.
10. Simple Autumn Wreath Craft
Do you like the idea of making an Autumn wreath but don’t know how to weave sticks? I’ve got you!
We made a simple Autumn wreath with just a handful of materials.
- A variety of leaves
- 1 piece of cardstock
- A large and small sized bowl
- Pencil
- Scissors
- Glue
I traced a large bowl to make a circle on cardstock and then traced a smaller circle inside the large circle. I cut out the wreath template from the cardstock and Amelia glued leaves all over the cardstock until we couldn’t see any more paper.
Once the glue dried, Amelia helped hang our Autumn wreath for everyone to admire.
The Fall season is such a fun and creative time to explore the natural world with your children. I hope you found inspiration with 10 Colourful Toddler Activities to Fall in Love with Today!
I’d love to hear from you!
What is your family’s favourite colourful Fall Activity?
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