Back to School is probably one of the busiest times of year for teachers. But once things have settled down, take time to enjoy the season with your kids with these fun autumn activities I’ve found! Also check out this post for more fall craft ideas!
Have Fun with autumn activities
There are just so many things to enjoy about fall. Every one of our senses is alive with all of the beautiful colors, smells, and tastes of the season. One way to help your students embrace the autumn season is by getting them outdoors! (If you can’t get your students outside, show videos and/or read stories that showcase the senses.)
Collect Colorful Autumn Leaves
The first thing that comes to many people’s minds when they think of autumn is the beautiful colored leaves. You can collect them and use them to make all sorts of crafts!
- One fun activity to do with leaves is to make Leaf Letters. All you’ll need for this activity are lots of colorful autumn leaves, clear contact paper, scissors and clear tape.
Start by getting a fairly large piece of contact paper ready. Place the leaves on the contact paper color-side down so that most of it is covered. Make sure to keep some clear areas so that the contact paper sheets will stick together. Then place another clear sheet on top of that. Press it down firmly. Use scissors to cut out letter shapes, leaving enough contact paper to keep it together. You may need clear tape in spots to keep the sheets together.
Here are some more ideas of crafts to do with autumn leaves, as well as some other fall goodies like cranberries.
Leaf Rubbings
Leaf rubbings are fun and easy to do! Simply take a leaf, place it UNDER a sheet of thin paper, and use a crayon or pastel to color over the area where the leaf is. Your kids will start to see the shape and details of the leaf as they continue coloring. Your students can make pictures by adding more leaves to their paper in different arrangements.
You can also take this a step further by using the leaves and rubbings to add a little science into your art by discussing the parts of a leaf.
Enjoy autumn food
There are so many yummy foods and flavors at this time of year! Bring in some apples for kids to munch on. Read about how to make maple syrup and let your students try some maple sugar candy! Make roasted pumpkin seeds (either at home or with your class) for a healthy snack.
Applesauce is very easy to make in a slow-cooker. Simply cut apples into quarters, place them in a slow-cooker and set it on low for 4 – 6 hours. The apples will cook down a lot, so make sure you have enough. At this point the sauce will be fairly chunky. You can leave it as is or use an immersion blender to smooth it out. Your kids will love having fresh, homemade apple sauce!
Autumn Writing Activities
If you’d like to incorporate some writing activities, I have just the resource for you!
This Fall Write About The Picture resource has been created for emerging writers, with the goal of enabling students to achieve success with independent writing. Students have been provided with a word bank to help with spelling and encourage ideas for writing.
To begin to extend sentences students have also been provided with color words. They should first color the picture with the ‘best’ color, then use the finished colored picture to enable them to begin to write longer sentences. This is the core of this resource.
Teaching Points:
- Students will need some prior knowledge of what it means to extend a sentence and the role that adjectives can play in this
- Students should be encouraged to use as many colors as possible to color their pictures
Differentiation:
- Alternative handwriting lines
- A second bordered page for students who wish to write at length
- The photo section provides more difficult vocabulary and could lead more able writers towards a what happened next story writing style, should the teacher wish to lead them in this direction
- An editable version of all content has been provided for the teacher to make vocabulary choices. Just type your chosen words in each box!
This resource will work equally well as a ‘grab and go’ resource or as a small group activity where students are encouraged to verbalize their sentences first.
Use these writing prompts while your students are munching on pumpkin seeds and homemade applesauce!
Do you have some favorite autumn activities? Let us know in the comments.
