Between the changing leaves, the crisp weather, pumpkins, apple cider, and Halloween, there are many reasons to get excited about fall. Having an array of fall activities for elementary students will help them transition to the new season and create heartwarming memories they’ll cherish forever.
While it’s not always possible to venture out to explore a pumpkin patch or an apple orchard together, there are many great ways to bring fun fall activities (among others) into the classroom!
Here are some easy and creative fall activities that everyone in your class will enjoy.
Get Crafty!
One of the best ways to celebrate the season and spice up your fall lessons is through arts and crafts. Autumn is known for its vibrant and bold colors, such as red, orange, and yellow. Create an opportunity for your students to experiment with these colors.
For example, if you have limited materials and want to minimize mess, handprint turkeys are one of the best fall classroom activities for children to learn about the celebrated bird. Start by having your students either make handprints with finger paint on a piece of construction paper, or have them trace the outlines of their hands and cut the shape out. Then, let them get creative by decorating their turkeys with feathers, colored paper confetti, or any other supplies you’d like!
You can also ask your students to each bring in a pinecone that they’ve found on their family nature walk or outing to make turkeys. All you need is a pinecone, glue, construction paper, and maybe some googly eyes for extra laughs.
A thankfulness tree is a great group project to hang on your bulletin board. Create a large tree trunk out of construction paper or any other material you’d like. Have each student create a few leaves each out of construction paper, decorate them as they please, and write down one thing that they’re thankful for on each leaf. Then, add them to each branch of your tree.
If your students love pumpkins, ask each one to bring in a mini pumpkin. From there, put out some buttons, googly eyes, feathers, glitter, and anything else you’d like them to use to create their own jack o’lanterns. Then, display the pumpkins around the classroom.
Read Together
Fall is a great opportunity to create a classroom reading list to enjoy together. Start with some of the amazing titles in this list of books all about pumpkins, like The Biggest Pumpkin Ever and Pumpkin Magic, among many others.
On the other hand, you can ask your students to bring in their favorite books about Halloween or autumn. Take turns reading passages, or focus on one book each day or week.
Make read-alouds about fall more interactive by creating a play out of a classroom favorite. Make masks and props out of construction paper and easily accessible materials, like paper towel rolls, paint, glue, etc. and have students act out the story!
For more spooky fun that your students will love, ask them to bring in a flashlight for independent reading time. Turn off the lights and pull down the window shades, and have them read with their flashlights. You can also play spooky or fun Halloween music on low to add to the atmosphere.
Learn About the Science of Fall
Autumn is one of the best opportunities to teach the science behind the fall harvest. The best part is, there are seasonal activities you can do without having to spend much (or sometimes, any) money.
With the changing seasons come beautiful changes in nature. This is a great time to introduce your students to fun and easy science experiments and observations. For example, studying the life cycle of a pumpkin, from seed to harvest, is one way you can incorporate some science facts into your lesson plan. (Check out this pumpkin reading list for more ideas.)
Bringing in leaves of various stages of changing color is also a wonderful way to teach students about how leaves turn from green to yellow to brown as the days get chillier. Acorns and the life cycle of trees can also be incorporated into this fun fall science unit.
To get into the Halloween spirit, ask your students to name some animals associated with the holiday (like bats, spiders, cats) and study those animals in depth. You can also include fun craft activities for students to make their own creepy creatures!
Play Fall Games
Games are fun ways for students to learn and retain information. Create your own word scrambles game with words associated with autumn. Write letters on construction paper leaves, pumpkins, etc. and ask your students to find as many words in the scramble as they can!
If your students are competitive, give them a leaf race: Split your students into teams. Each team gets a different colored leaf to blow across the table with a straw. The first team to cross the finish line wins!
Alternatively, you can make bowling pins out of cardboard tubes and roll mini pumpkins (real or fake) to knock them over.
Enjoy making our list of the best fall activities for kids come to life in your classroom and shop the best books about fall below! You can find all books and activities at The Teacher Store.