Fall is the perfect season for colourful arts and crafts, using materials gathered outdoors. It’s a great combination of sensory exploration and cosy crafting. If you are looking for a selection of fall activities for toddlers and fall craft ideas, you are at the right place!

I put together 50+ fall activities for toddlers that are easy to create, supporting fine motor skills, creative expression and also early learning. Whether you enjoy apple-themed designs, crunchy leaves stamping, pumpkin carving, or making dolls out of chestnuts, these ideas will bring a lot of joy into your household.

Table of Contents

• Fall Crafts for Toddlers
• Fall Sensory Play Ideas
• Outdoor Fall Fun
• Apple-Themed Activities
• Pumpkin-Themed Toddler Fun
• Easy STEM Activities for Fall
• Fall Printables & Learning Games
• Fine Motor Fall Activities
• Cosy Indoor Play Ideas
• More Toddler Fall Fun

Creative Fall Crafts for Toddlers

The seasonal magic is all about colour, texture, and easy, low-mess crafting (unlike during the summer!).

Leaf collage with real leaves

Glue some leaves onto paper and create an easy and natural collage.

Apple print art

Gathers apples, cuts them in half and dips them in paint. Then stamp onto paper for a realistic effect and fruity fun.

Tissue paper pumpkins

Use an orange tissue paper, tear it apart and then scrunch it into small balls. Then glue those balls onto a pumpkin outline. Use green tissue paper for the stem.

DIY scarecrow faces

All you need are paper shapes, googly eyes and some yarn to create these silly but fun scarecrow faces.

Paper plate owls

Paint paper plates, add googly eyes (or paper eyes) and paper wings, and you will have a cute owl design.

Coffee filter leaf suncatchers

Use some coffee filters and colour them. Then spray them gently with water, and after they dry out, cut them into leaf shapes. That’s some crunchy fun!

Autumn handprint trees

Draw around your toddler’s handprint. Use it as a tree trunk and finger paint leaves in autumn colours.

Fingerprint acorns

Your toddler can use fingers to dip into brown paint and then create cute little acorns (you can draw the outline to shape it nicely).

Fall Sensory Play Ideas

Fall-themed sensory bins are growing in popularity every year. There is something about those textures and scents that makes moms go berserk, along with chai-spiced lattes. Here are some basic ideas, but if you would love more, check my “The Best Fall Sensory Bins for Toddlers” post.

Autumn rice bin with scoops and leaves

Take 200-300 grams of rice and dye it in fall colours. Add scoops, acorns, chestnuts and leaves for an extra sensory sensation.

Pumpkin spice cloud dough

Some toddlers prefer the cloud dough texture in the sensory bin. If you would like a full “recipe”, please contact me via my contact form. This cloud dough is super soft and mouldable, and it smells like cinnamon, cloves and pumpkin spice!

Acorn and leaf scoop bin

Fill a bin with real or fake leaves and acorns for scooping and sorting.

Corn kernel sensory tray

Similarly to the acorn and leaves bin, toddlers love scooping corn kernels. There are so many cute designs for these bins.

Apple pie playdough

Follow the link provided for a full Apple Pie Play-Doh recipe. It’s fun that smells amazing!

Cinnamon stick treasure hunt

Make one of the previous sensory bins fun again! Hide cinnamon sticks in it and come out with a special reward for each stick found.

Nature-themed water play

Also called the “fall soup”. This one is a bit messy but brings in double the joy. Add leaves, apples, and twigs to a shallow water tray for splashing fun.

Outdoor Fall Activities Toddlers Will Love

Many days, you will need to move the fun outside, but there is so much to do during those beautiful and sunny fall days. Leaves crunching under your feet, you split those delicious cinnamon rolls with your toddler while you collect chestnuts for afternoon crafts. What could be better?

Leaf jumping piles

Rake a small, soft pile of leaves and simply let your toddler jump in. Rolling in is also an option.

Mini nature scavenger hunt

Describe to your toddler what you plan to look for, or give them a sample of a leaf, stick, acorn…anything you can find. Then let them bring you a whole pile of it (only some of the items will make it home, of course!).

Collecting pinecones and sorting

Whilst you’re on it, collect some pinecones and sort them by size, pattern, shape and colour.

Mud kitchen with autumn leaves

This one is a bit messy if you let it go too far, but it’s guaranteed to bring 20 minutes of peace. Use some old pots or bowls, fill them with sticks and leaves (even mud if you dare), and pretend to “cook” it.

Chalk art on fallen leaves

Painting on leaves or stamping with them is always nice, but there is something oddly satisfying about using a toddler-safe chalk to colour on big fallen leaves. And you can reuse those pieces later in other crafts.

Pumpkin “bowling” with bottles

We all tend to have a few extra small pumpkins lying around after we are done decorating our front porch or interior. Set up plastic bottles, or toy bowling pins, and use those pumpkins to knock them down.

Apple-Themed Activities for Toddlers

Early September is a brilliant time for these activities. The harvest time is amazing and sweet, not only for filling our bellies but for entertaining our little ones too.

Apple stamping

Use bits or halves of apples to create beautiful art pieces. Washable paint is great for reusing those apples multiple times.

Apple counting mats

You can use printable charts, pom-poms, or stickers shaped like apples and practise counting. Other options are rolling a paper into small balls or using clay to create tiny apples.

Sorting red, yellow, and green pom-pom “apples”

Whilst you’re on the counting apples activity, you can also teach your toddler to sort those apples by colour. Green, red and yellow are the most common colours, but you can add all the other fall colours, such as brown and orange.

Apple playdough tray

This activity closely links to the previous one. Use Play-Doh to create small apple models for your counting or colour sorting activities.

Taste test and graph favourite apples

If you are the type of family who truly enjoys apples as a healthy snack, you might as well buy different types of apples and do a little taste test. Vote for the best flavour or let your toddler guess it.

Apple tree paper plate craft

This is quite a simple craft, using a paper plate, green and red paint, and brown paper for the bottom. You can also use pom-poms, stickers or colourful papers. But honestly, there are so many other cute designs for apples, mushrooms or pumpkins too!

Pumpkin-Themed Toddler Fun

Most of the people leave pumpkins out of the crafting zone strictly for Halloween and carving. But they are the real gold mine of fall activities for toddlers for both learning and play.

Pumpkin scooping station

This one is quite obvious: we will be scooping out a pumpkin (whether you plan to make a delicious soup or set it up for early porch decor). This activity has to be supervised at all times. But let your toddler dig in; it’s a sensory overload.

Painting mini pumpkins

Decorate your mini pumpkins with stickers, paint, markers or chalk. Get inspired by my Pinterest’s Autumn Mom Life wall, filled with cute ideas.

Pumpkin shape matching

Whilst preparing for the painting activity, you can let your toddler arrange those pumpkins by shape and size.

DIY pumpkin patch

You can use playdough, clay or even paper to create your mini pumpkin patch while you teach your toddler about growing them and harvesting. They love it so much – it’s like a mini fairytale.

Storytime with “Five Little Pumpkins

Which gives you a great heads-up for the next activity – storytime. Search for some rhymes or stories about little pumpkins – I recommend the Super Simple Songs on YouTube.

Sensory bottle with orange glitter and pumpkins

This one is a winner with every toddler – take a bottle (make sure you can see through) and fill it with water, orange glitter and tiny pumpkins (all can be purchased on Amazon or in local dollar stores). It’s such a calming and fun activity!

Simple Fall STEM Activities for Toddlers

STEM activities (interactive and collaborative activities) should never be missed during the toddler stage of life. And the fall season brings so many practice opportunities.

Leaf float or sink experiment

Gather a bunch of leaves, prepare a bowl of water, and together with your toddler, drop the leaves inside one by one. Watch what sinks and what floats.

Pumpkin volcano

All you need is one mini pumpkin, baking soda, red food dye and vinegar. Add the red dye into the baking soda, then fill the pumpkin with it. Use the vinegar for a fizzing effect.

Acorn sorting by size

Acorns, chestnuts, and pine cones – these are, for some reason, very entertaining objects to toddlers. Sorting them by size, colour or shape is never a dull moment.

Counting pumpkin seeds

Whilst you’re on it, you can also sort some pumpkin seeds and count them together. Because they are smaller, I recommend using a paper with some pumpkin drawings and “filling” in the pumpkin shape.

Rainbow leaf chromatography

Use coffee filters and markers to colour them in fall-themed colours, then place them in a bowl filled with water and watch those colours blend. Another option is to use food dye drops.

Colour matching leaves game

This activity is best performed outdoors. Simply look for leaves that match the colour scale.

Fall Printables & Early Learning Games

Pinterest offers so many beautiful and easy options for fall-themed printables. Use them to prepare ahead your activities for a toddler.

Fall-themed matching cards

Simple picture cards for matching leaves, pumpkins, and acorns.

Leaf shape lacing printables

You can print paper leaves or use real ones, punch a hole in them and use yarn to practise threading. Then you can hang them as fall-themed decor.

Colour-and-cut autumn scenes

Practice safe snipping with your little one and some colourful printable fall scenes.

Letter tracing with leaf backgrounds

Alphabet tracing worksheets with cute seasonal designs.

Fall counting clip cards

Count the items and clip the correct number with a clothespin.

Toddler bingo: fall edition

Make it easy and fun – use pictures instead of numbers for matching.

Fine Motor Fall Activities for Toddlers

This section happened because the seasonal fun met fine motor skill development.

Threading with yarn

We tried threading with leaves, but what about threading with chestnuts or acorns? You will have to prepare them in advance and punch some holes in them. If you don’t like the idea of it, you can always print some on paper or buy fall-themed beads.

Pom-pom sorting in a pumpkin tray

Is there anything more fall-themed than this? Use tongs to move coloured pom-poms into mini pumpkin cups.

Button the scarecrow

Print and cut out some scarecrows that your toddler can fill up with buttons. It can be a pumpkin too.

Autumn sticker peel-and-place

Offer our toddler fall-themed stickers to place on a scene. You can also purchase pre-made ones. Most of them are used for mirrors or windows and are reusable.

Fall-themed cutting strips

Easy printables with dotted lines for cutting practice.

Playdough stamping with leaves

Use playdough and press leaves in it to discover textures and vein placement.

Cosy Indoor Fall Play Ideas

Even during those gloomy and rainy days, you can still experience fall indoors.

Sensory bottle making

Fill in see-through bottles with dried corn, oats, and dyed rice. glitter, or fall-themed clay beads. You can also fill the bottle with water or keep the “dry” version.

Building a blanket “fall fort”

Toss some cushions and fairy lights under a blanket for storytime. The cosier, the better.

Indoor leaf hunt

A mini scavenger hunt with leaves or acorns is always so much fun for little ones, especially if there is a small reward awaiting them.

Toddler dance party to fall songs

Prepare some cool fall-themed playlists and learn new seasonal songs with your toddler.

Baking mini muffins together

Involve your toddler in baking some cute Halloween treats or mini muffins. Let them pour ingredients or stir batter.

Puzzles with fall scenes

Practice matching skills and vocabulary with some fall-themed puzzles.

More Toddler Fall Activities to Try

Honestly, fall is the perfect season to spend more time outdoors with your toddler. It’s not too cold yet, but the heat stopped blasting, too. Long walks, grabbing spiced chai lattes, and visiting pumpkin patches are magical.

Decorate a fall-themed sensory wall.

Let your little one help you to decorate this year. Seclude a section of your home just for them – you can hang those dry, zip fall-themed decorations where they can pin all those cute fabric apples and hedgehogs.

Make a DIY fall-themed busy board.

Get creative with a fall-themed DIY busy board. Grab a wood plank and add zippers, buttons, leaves, and Velcro for busy fingers.

Sing fall fingerplay songs

Add a little fingerplay to the previously mentioned singing activity. Try songs like “Autumn Leaves” with hand motions.

Leaf-themed bath time

You can purchase from a range of fall bath products, or you can cut leaves, acorns or pumpkins out of foam. Lush also has so many Halloween-themed bath bombs. Let your toddler throw it in and watch it dissolve.

Final Thoughts

Everyone raves about summertime fun and activities, but I honestly love fall and all the things connected to it. If you have older kids who are back in school and you stay home with a toddler, this guide will come in handy.

Crafting during the fall season creates so many beautiful memories – from bookmarking the first leaf collection to picking up that first pumpkin. These 50+ fall activities for toddlers are designed to keep things simple, fun, and developmentally rich.

Next, you can read about “45+ Easy Fall Crafts for Kids That Toddlers Can Do Too” and other posts where I describe how to prepare your toddler for shorter days and Halloween events. Make sure to also download the “Fall Activities for Toddlers” checklist. Share it with other parents, and enjoy every cosy, crunchy moment this season brings.