Inside: Check out these fun & fabulous 7 fall activities for kids and grandkids. Art, sensory, books, baking, and more to make your fall memorable and exciting!

Fall Activities

What is your family’s favorite season of the year?

Isn’t it amazing how each season brings with it a change of weather, landscape, clothes, and activities for families?

For many children and adults, fall is a favorite! (it’s certainly mine) Why? Because September-November is filled with fall activities that include exciting holidays and back-to-school fun!

So grab your kids and grandkids and try out one or all of these 7 fall activities for indoor and outdoor fun! And by changing the colors of paints and paper, these activities can be done year-round!

Many skills are learned from doing these projects that lay the foundation for learning:

• Fine motor skills
• Bi-lateral coordination
• Spatial intelligence
• Creative thinking
• Decision-making skills
• Hand-eye coordination
• Balance
• Sensory integration
• Teamwork

BTW: Click here if you missed an earlier post on How to Make Fall Activities for Kids & Grandkids the Best Ever! 

7 Fall Activities for Kids & Grandkids

#1: Be an Architect! 

Iggy Peck Architect by Andrea Beaty is an inspiring book about a little boy, Iggy Peck who loves to create and build things. But alas, his second-grade teacher is not inspired by his talent until he saves the day (and his school class) with his building skills!

I was inspired by @pancakesandplaydough when creating these cardboard squares for my grandkids to build with.  But I changed a few things to make this project uniquely ours. Instead of painting each cardboard square, we painted ours using a salad spinner.

Read the book to your kids/grandkids first; then pretend you are Iggy Peck and make these fun cardboard creations.

Supplies

• Cardboard squares—cut into different shapes 4×4, 5×2, 3×4, etc. –20 for each child
• Neon acrylic paints (Ikea)
• Salad spinner (Walmart)
• Scissors

Directions

• Cut out 20 cardboard squares in different sizes for each child/grandchild
• With a scissor, cut small triangle-shaped notches around three of the sides of the cardboard squares
• Have each child/grandchild choose different neon paints—use 3 different paints for each spin
• Put three cardboard pieces into the salad spinner
• Squirt paint overall
• Spin several times
• Repeat for all the squares—and let your child/grandchild change paints each time
• Let the squares dry

When the cardboard squares are dry, have each child build something with their cardboard squares by interlocking the notched edges. Encourage Iggy Peck creativity!

#2 Making Fall Trees with Buttons & Paper

Fall activities MUST include making a colorful autumn tree!

Question—what do you do with the packaging paper from Amazon or Home Goods? Whatever you do—don’t throw it away! You’ll need it for this project and the flower project below.

We created these fun fall trees by rolling packaging paper into tree trunks and branches; hot gluing them in place (adult supervision) and afterward, dot-painting the trees with fall colored-paints, and gluing colorful buttons for leaves.

Supplies

• Packaging paper
• Hot glue
• Poster paper
• Tempera paints (Dollar Store—Prang brand)
• Round foam brushes (Dollar Store)
• Colorful buttons and brown & green buttons (Walmart)
• Glue

Directions

• Using the packaging paper—roll and twist into a tree trunk and branches
• Hot glue gun onto the poster board (adult supervision)
• Using fall color tempera paints (orange, red, brown) and round foam brushes—dot paint the trunk and branches of the tree
• Let dry
• Using different colors of buttons, glue the “leaves” on the branches of the paper tree

#3 Fall Activities: Making Flower Ornaments

What do you do with your summer flowers when they “give up the ghost?”

Make fall floral ornaments!

When our summer flowers start to wilt and die, I pick them and save them to make fall flower ornaments to put on our apple tree. It’s a fun way these flowers have one more opportunity to “live!”

These are super easy to make and are reminders of the last bit of summer and fall.

Supplies

• Dried flowers
• Square muffin pan and mini-Bundt pan
• String
• Water

Directions

• Using the dry flowers, have each child/grandchild put a few flowers, branches, twigs into each of the 12-sections of the pans
• Fill with water
• Cut string—about 6 inches. Loop and place (hanging out) of each individual tin
• Freeze
• Pop-out and hang on an outdoor tree

We also did a similar project for Valentine’s Day—when it was snowing outside. Click here to see The Most Fun & Amazing Activities for Valentine’s Day. Those ornaments remained frozen in the cold weather!

#4 Sensory Bucket Walk

Kids LOVE sensory play! And here is a super fun activity your kids/grandkids will LOVE!

The inspiration for this project is from @raisingdragons4—and it’s a keeper!

This fun fall activity will keep your kids/grandkids entertained for at least an hour as they experience it over and over again!

Watch the video below–the kids were actually in their bathing suits (we were going to the canyons after this to play in the water & mud). And you will see that they “skip” one bucket–the one with ice, but they love the flour bucket. The last 2 buckets have warm and cold water in them but you can’t see the colors (red & blue) because of the residue of shaving cream!

Supplies

• 9-10 buckets your kids/grandkids can put their feet into (Dollar Store)
• Different things to step into—river rocks, flour, shaving cream, warm and cold water, ice, bubble wrap, sticks, sand, pasta, garland, etc.

Directions

• Fill each bucket with the items suggested above.
• Line the buckets in a row
• Have each child/grandchild step from one bucket to the next
• We did this order: bubble wrap, garland, river rocks, pasta, ice cubes, shaving cream, flour, warm water, cold water
• With the warm water, I added red food coloring and with the cold water, I added blue food coloring
• At the end—have a hose ready to wash off their feet
• Rinse and repeat

#5 Fun Fall Activities: Making & Painting Paper Flowers

Here is another super-duper fun fall activity that uses packaging paper. It’s a great activity to get your kids/grandkids using their hands and scrunching up paper into fall, spring or summer flowers.

Here are the simple directions

Supplies

• Packaging paper
• Watercolor paints (Ikea & Walmart)
• Cardboard
• Hot glue
• Sharpie marker

Directions

• Cut a piece of cardboard in a long rectangle 8”x30”
• Using their hands, have each child scrunch up 3 or more pieces of packaging paper—to resemble a flower
• Hot glue the flowers to the cardboard
• Paint with watercolors. They can use fall colors (red, yellow, brown) or let them choose their own colors.
• When dry, use a sharpie marker to draw vines and leaves between the flowers

Inspiration: @aplayfilledlife

#6 Sensory Play: Slime

Most kids/grandkids LOVE slime! Yes, it’s messy—but there are so many fun lessons to be learned with messy!

I’ve seen recipes online to make your own slime, but I decided to take the easy way out and buy it.

Our grandkids loved playing with it—even the two boys who don’t like to get their hands in goo. It’s one of those activities that will entertain your kids/grandkids for a long time.

Suggestion—make certain you purchase a tray or something to contain the slime—easier for clean-up, too.

Supplies

• Slime (Walmart—about $5 a jar) But check out this glow-in-the-dark slime from Amazon
• Plastic art trays (Amazon)

Directions

• Give each child/grandchild their own jar of slime and help them take it out of the jar—it takes a bit of effort.
• Put the slime on each child’s/grandchild’s art tray
• Let them play with and explore the slime
• You can also add little plastic toys (Dollar Store) to the slime and let them discover each toy in their slime

Clean-up is a bit tricky—have your kids/grandkids rub their hands and fingers together and the friction will cause the slime to roll off.

Don’t shy away from the messy, gooey projects—kids/grandkids need to have experience with different sensory sensations—they’re building blocks of learning!

#7 Apple Streusel Bars: Fun Fall Activity in the Kitchen   

There is nothing to compare with cooking and baking with your kids/grandkids in the kitchen! So many fun lessons to learn—including fractions as they measure, pour, stir and whip!

And making anything with apples is one of the best fall activities!

This Apple Streusel Bar recipe is from Our Best Bites—and check out their amazing cookbook.

We have a Fuji apple tree and our grandkids picked the apples and helped make the streusel bars.

Fall and apples are synonymous so we’ve also made apple butter and applesauce. Click here for our Best Crockpot Apple Butter for Kids & Grandkids to Make in the Kitchen that can be enjoyed all year long!

What are some of your favorite fall activities that you do with your kids and grandkids? Please comment in the section below!

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