It’s officially fall, and Education.com has a huge selection of fun and educational autumnal activities to help you celebrate the season. Here are five family-friendly projects that are easy to do in your home or community.
Nature sketchbook
This sketchbook uses autumn as an inspiration to encourage kids’ creativity. Just print out the pages, bind them together, and head out on a fall hike with a pencil. As you walk, ask your child to follow the sketchbook prompts to draw and write what they see. By the end you’ll have a sketchbook filled with art inspired by the beauty of nature.
Leaves are Falling
Here’s a lesson plan that teaches kids about color mixing via the theme of changing fall colors. After making predictions, learners will blend together different colors of paint to see what new colors those combinations create. This plan includes instructions for an introduction, differentiation, review, and more, making it perfect for classrooms or home schooling.
DIY bird feeder
Autumn is an excellent time for bird watching since it’s when many birds migrate, and one easy way to invite new birds into your yard is by setting out a bird feeder. Follow these instructions to turn a slinky and some household items into a DIY bird feeder you can hang from a tree or post. It takes advantage of the slinky’s tight coils to keep nuts in place, creating a wreath of food for birds to snack on!
Exploding pumpkins
A fall take on the classic erupting volcano project, an exploding pumpkin uses the reaction between baking soda and vinegar to make a jack-o’-lantern that oozes foam out of its mouth. You and your child can have fun carving different designs into pumpkins, then customizing your baking soda and vinegar with different colors of food dye and glitter.
Changing leaves scratch art
Here’s an art project that includes a little science lesson as well. Color a piece of paper with fall-colored yellow, orange, and red crayons, then cover it with green tempera paint. Cut out leaf shapes from the paper, then scratch veins or shapes into them to reveal the crayon colors below. This mimics the reason why real leaves change color: the color is always there, but it’s masked by the leaves’ green chlorophyll! In fall the chlorophyll drains away, revealing the leaves’ brilliant golden colors.
Find more fall activities in the Education.com Learning Library!
