The summer is winding down and making way for my very favorite time of year, fall! Here in Central Florida we don’t have much of a fall, it’s the season when the temperature drops from the high 90s to the low 80s BUT I grew up in the north where fall meant a changing landscape, crisp mornings, and sometimes even the first snowfall.
I may not have the same kind of fall to share with my kids but that doesn’t mean we can’t make our own fall fun!
*This post was originally posted in October, 2012, this is the updated version.
12 Fall Activities to Do with Kids
1. Go to a drive-in living room movie!
Your kids can transform simple household items into a car to “drive” to a drive-in movie right in your living room! Bonus points for popcorn! For this activity you’ll need a large cardboard box, paper plates, markers or paint, glue, metal brads (optional), paper, etc.
2. Dance Party!
Push all of the furniture out of the way and put on some tunes from your childhood and get down with your bad selves.
3. Build a fairy garden.
As summer ebbs and your garden is harvested, consider leaving some stalks and plants to serve as a fairy garden. If you don’t have a garden that is ok, you can make fairy houses out of anything natural that you find in your yard. I hear fairies especially love houses made from twigs and stone. You can use a glue gun to hold the houses together or research making natural bricks and mortar.
4. Make a fingerprint tree!
My children have never experienced the beauty of watching the leaves turn colors, palm trees are green all year (it’s a rough life, I know!) Paint or draw a trunk on a piece of paper (butcher’s paper, craft paper, or the backside of old wrapping paper works great!) and have your child dip their fingertips in different colors of paint, press fingertips to the branches to create leaves. Add cute little animals or make it educational by using different techniques to paint the tree.
5. Create a donation box. Place blankets (used but with a lot of life left!), towels, jackets and winter clothing into the box. Add some nonperishable food and personal hygiene items, and maybe some small toys and games. Drive these items to a shelter, food bank, or local church for distribution. Many schools collect these items during the winter months as well. It doesn’t take much to brighten someone’s day and it’s a good way to declutter before the holidays.
6. Go on a butterfly/insect walk. Visit a park or an area with undeveloped land and see what kind of bugs you see. Have your children draw or photograph the bugs so you can identify them at home.
7. Plant your socks. Wear an old pair of socks on the outside your shoes and walk around the yard. Remove the sock without turning inside-out and plant the sock. Do this every season so you can see what grows throughout the year.
8. Feed the birds. Coat a pinecone with peanut butter, rolls in seeds and set out for the birds (or squirrels!) Just make sure you don’t feed bread to the birds, it’s not good for them.
9. Drink hot cider. You can make hot mulled cider easily using your coffee pot. Place the mulling spices in a coffee filter and pour the cider in the water reservoir, brew as you would coffee.
10. Turn everyday items into fall decorations. Use markers to draw jack-o-lanterns on oranges. Use a straight pin to gently scratch jack-o-lantern faces into the peel of a banana, the design will appear within a few hours. Tissues or small white trash bags can be turned into ghosts with a little bit of stuffing, a bit of string and markers. Cut pumpkins and cats out of construction paper and use spray glitter paint or puffy paint to decorate.
11. Create a leaf rubbing. Place a piece of paper over a leaf and rub a crayon over it. Don’t stop at the leaf, make rubbings of the sidewalk, tile floor, tree bark, etc.
12. Create “stained glass” leaves from old crayons. Remove the wrapper from old crayon stubs and grate or peel the crayons. Place the peelings between two piece of waxed paper (waxed side on the inside!), set your iron to low and lightly iron the waxed paper until the crayon peels melt. After it cools your child can cut out leaf designs. To permanently seal the leaves you can use a bit of puffy paint or glue to coat the edges, hole punch and hang leaves.
