The spooky season is knocking on our door. This means fall activities for kids, crazy costumes, and a lot of candies to look forward to! If you do not have enough ideas, we are here to help.
From that fun, outdoor games, like raking the leaves and jumping in puddles, to those fall indoor activities such as home decorating and carving pumpkins. We crafted a list of 17 fun and easy games that you can play with your kids no matter their age. The fall activities are divided into 4 sections so you can easily navigate the one that is suitable for your kid.
Contents
Fall Outdoor Activities for Kids
Rake the leaves
This game is more fun when the whole family plays it. The aim is to rake the leaves into a big pile, the bigger pile-the better, and jump into them! To make this activity even more fun, you can try to make a leaf maze with a route in your backyard or even at the park. Bring your pet with you and make this activity a lot more fun!
Visit a pumpkin patch
Hunting pumpkins is always a blast! Bring your kids to the pumpkin patch and encourage them to choose the one they want. Then, make the trip to the house or your car even more enjoyable by pushing, rolling, or carrying (if it’s not too heavy of course) their pumpkin.
Jumping in puddles
Good raining boots and a few puddles, and a whole lot of fun is there! After a rain, tell kids that they have the mission to find the biggest, muddiest puddle around their house or even at the park. Before going out, make sure they have suitable raining boots and coats so they can jump and splash around. There are a bunch of benefits of outdoor play and one of them is connecting with nature! After lots of laughing, go home, prepare some hot bath for your little ones, make hot cocoa or tea and enjoy!
Explore the nature
Outdoor activities in the fall? Yes, please! Go on a hike or a family walk around the nature near you. Or even better! Plan a one-day trip to nature to explore places you have never been before!
While you are in nature, go on a scavenger hunt! Use a printable guide to help you with the ideas and send your kids to hunt! If they find everything fast, make another list with more items!
If you have a backyard or a garden, do some planting together! Gardening with kids can be dirty but it’s always fun!
Amusement park
Well, amusement parks are always a good idea but they require some money. However, once a year is usually affordable and there is no better time to go to this themed park than in the fall. The Six Flags parks transform into Halloween-themed attractions in the fall. They are located in 16 different states all over the USA. Find the nearest one, and make a short trip with a lot of fun!
Fall Indoor Activities for Kids
Spider web hunt
While spiders are scary for kids, if you turn it into a fun game, they can even overcome that fear. Tell them to go on a spider hunt and see if they can find any cobwebs inside your house or even a basement. Once they do, dust them and clean the house together. After that, tell them to make their spider web by using popsicle sticks, tape, and pipe cleaners.
Decorating the home
October is the month of spooky decoration! And who says that we have to wait until Halloween day? Make the whole month mysterious starting with decoration on your front door. Encourage your kids to make those ornaments together or go shopping to find some silly items for your door. Decorate it together and have some good and scary laughs together!
Pumpkin carving
Probably the most interesting activity, aside from the candy hunt, is pumpkin carving. Aside from choosing the pumpkin, carving it, and making it as creative as it can be is the most fun there is.
Help your kid to make the desired shape since it requires quite a strength. Here’s a little tip, use pumpkin stencils to trace interesting and fun designs.
If you do not want to make such a mess, because, head up – it will be pretty messy, you can use some markers and stickers to decorate the pumpkin. Also, your pumpkin will last longer when you don’t carve them.
Fun fall coloring
Coloring books are always good for many reasons. Especially when they are themed like Halloween and Thanksgiving. These books are great for teaching kids numbers, learning colors, and practicing their motor skills. Here are some free printables to help you with your search.
Bake pumpkin seeds
A good and healthy snack is pumpkin seeds. After carving the pumpkins, dry the seeds, and place them in a bowl with olive oil. Put them on a cookie sheet that is coated with nonstick spray. Bake for 45 minutes at 300 degrees. Once they’re done, drizzle them with salt and enjoy your snack.
Make a Halloween costume
Even though costume hunting is one of the best fall activities for kids, creating their own can be even more entertaining. The importance of play in the early year is beyond belief, so whenever you have the chance, let your kids play explore, and get creative. There are a lot of ideas on Pinterest, from skeletons and pirates to those funny ones like Minions and Mario kart characters.
Fall Activities for Preschoolers
Make a turkey hat
Crafting things like this is great for teaching kids shapes and colors, as well as helping them develop fine motor skills and strengthen their hands. It is one of the best fall activities for groups since they can help each other and inspire one another. Also, it’s pretty funny when wearing these hats so kids will love it!
All you need is some construction papers in various colors, a marker, and a stapler. Let kids decide what colors they are going to use, do not impose them. Start drawing, cutting, and shaping your hat and adding details like nose, ears, and mouth. As usual, Pinterest has a lot of ideas for making a turkey hat, so you can get some inspiration from them!
Corn painting
You can use whatever you have in your household, however, it would be good to have some corn holders, white construction paper, and tempera paintings. Clean the corn cob and throw some colors on it. Start rolling the cob over the paper and create the art!
Make a tree with your hands
The hand tree might not be the newest invention, but it’s definitely a fun one during the fall season. Take some white paper and a lot of different watercolors and tell the kids to start painting. Let them use their hands to create trees, branches, leaves, grass, and everything around!
You can also encourage them to make an Alphabet tree. This is a great ABC game, where kids are not only being creative but also learning the alphabet. Instead of drawing the leaves, take some paper in brown and yellow, and write down the letter together. Make sure the papers are sticky ones, or if they are not glue them to the tree that the kids made.
Fall Activities for Middle Schoolers
Make a pumpkin volcano
Through experiments such as this one, kids can learn about chemical reactions and matter states. All you need is some pumpkin, baking soda, red food coloring, vinegar, and dish soap.
Clean your pumpkin from the seeds and pour some vinegar into it with a few drops of food coloring, then add a few drops of dish soap. The last thing remaining is baking soda, add that too as well, and watch the magic happening!
A leaf slime
For this experiment, you will need orange coloring for food, Elmer’s clear glue, some gold glitter, Liquid laundry starch, and fabric fall leaves. To make a slime use two-thirds water, one-third laundry starch, and one-third glue. Squeeze a little orange food coloring into the slime before mixing, then sprinkle a little gold glitter on top. Add the starch and mix. The slime needs to be stretched and worked to become more stretchy.
Crystal feathers
In order to make crystal feathers, you will need some feathers, salt, jars, and clothespins. We recommend taking the bigger jars for bigger feathers because the crystals will be much more visible and thus bigger as well.
Pour some water into the pot and add salt. Boil the water until the salt dissolves. Continue salting the pot until a layer of salt crystals appears on top of the boiling water. Then pour that water into your jars. Place your feathers into the jars without touching the bottom. You can tie them with the thread on the pencil and place the pencil horizontally onto the jars. Place the jars in a sunny place and wait for about three days before taking the feathers out. The crystals will be clear and big and they will look just magnificent.
These experiments are great as fall activities for kids in middle school. They can learn a lot, experiment with their surroundings, and even invent something new!
