Montessori Fall Activities for Kids – Fun, Educational Activities to Prepare Children for the New Season!

No matter the season, Montessori activities are very beneficial for your child. One of the best things about doing Montessori-type activities at home is that you can customize them however you want!

As a teacher, I always enjoyed customizing activities to the season: leaves and pumpkins in the fall, snowflakes in the winter, flowers in the spring…

If you’re looking for Montessori fall activities for your little one (whether you are a parent or a teacher), we’ve compiled a list of 49 fall activities for kids that are super cute and fun, and that your little one will love to do!

You may be interested in: How to Create A Montessori Playroom

49 Montessori Fall Activities

1. Fall Spooning Activity

Spooning is a classic Montessori activity that fosters fine motor control.

Simply provide some fall-themed mini objects or beads, two glass bowls, and a wide spoon and have your baby spoon them from one bowl to another.

2. Fall Bead Stringing

Stringing beads is a great fine-motor activity for little hands.

Place a bowl of cute fall beads in a bowl and provide a shoestring or a pipe cleaner. Make sure the holes in the beads are wide enough to fit over the string or pipe cleaner.

Your kid can string the beads on to the shoestring or pipe cleaner to create a design.

3. Fall Leaf Stringing

This activity is similar to stringing beads and provides fine motor skills, though it is a little easier than stringing beads.

Cut a slit in the middle of cloth leaves. Fasten a button onto each end of a fall-colored ribbon. Your toddler can string the leaves onto the ribbon.

4. Fall-Themed Objects

Mini objects are used in Montessori nurseries and classrooms to help students learn nomenclature and recognise beginning sounds.

Give your kiddo a box or basket full of small fall objects such as pumpkins, apples, acorns, hay bales, scarecrows, etc.

5. Fall Sorting

Sorting helps youngsters differentiate between shapes.

Use a divided tray such as one for party snacks and place some fall-themed objects or beads into the center. Your toddler can sort identical objects into each section of the tray.

6. Fall Sensory Bin

Sensory bins let children explore their senses in a fun and interactive way, and this is one of the easiest homemade Montessori activities.

A fall sensory bin will give your baby endless fun and learning opportunities. Fill a bin with objects such as beans, acorns, leaves, mini fall objects, and potpourri. Allow your little one to play with the objects in the bin.

7. Fall Matching Activity

Matching cards is a great autumn activity for preschoolers. It helps them learn nomenclature as well as practice their visual discrimination skills.

You can purchase a pre-made pack of cards, or you can cheaply purchase a printable set. Just print, laminate, and cut out. Your kiddo can match the identical images together.

Related: Will Skipping Preschool Harm or Benefit My Child?

8. Wooden Tree Puzzle

Trees are a big part of fall for their beautiful colors. Bring the fall trees into your home with a fall tree puzzle for a Montessori inspired toy that your children can put together again and again.

Related: Best Montessori Toys for Toddlers

Choose one that is made out of wood for durability and to teach them about natural materials.

9. Fall Tracing

Tracing sheets are great fall kindergarten activities. Tracing provides fine motor skill practice as well as prepares your little one for writing by teaching them how to hold a pencil and to follow lines and shapes.

Print out some cute fall tracing sheets for your child, give them a pencil, and let them trace for hours!

10. Autumn Montessori 3 Part Cards

3 Part Cards teach younger toddlers the names of objects, in this case, fall objects. Print out some beautiful cards and let them work on nomenclature!

If they can’t read, you can help them identify the letters in each word so they can recognize them.

A set of 3 Part Cards comes with three different types of cards: picture and nomenclature cards, picture cards, and nomenclature cards. They’re very easy to do: just have your baby match everything up!

11. Carve a Pumpkin

Hands-on themed activities are a must in any Montessori environment, and carving a pumpkin is an activity that youngsters of all ages will love.

Help your little one pick out a pumpkin and let them carve it themselves with your help and supervision. Bonus, it’s a fun family activity.

You can even use any leftovers as your Halloween gifts for the Pumpkin lovers!

Further reading: Halloween Gifts for Kids

12. Go for a Nature Walk

Nature walks are educational and fun, and they’re something the whole family can do together.

Take your child to a quiet, wooded area or anywhere you can find fall foliage and plants. Spend some time quietly walking and trying to explore nature.

13. Fall Nature Journaling

After you get home from that nature walk you took in the woods, spend a little time doing some nature journaling.

Have your toddler draw pictures of what you saw along your nature walk, and help them identify and label each thing.

14. Fall Scavenger Hunt

While you and your family are out on a nature walk, you can make it a little more fun with a scavenger hunt. If you aren’t sure of their preference, try asking this or that questions for kids to understand how they would like their scavenger hunt to be!

Print out a list of things to look for, or make your own. A scavenger hunt is a fun activity for children of all ages, even adults!

15. Go Apple Picking

Everyone loves harvest season apples, and picking apples is a great fall activity. It’s great for Montessori because it gets youngsters out and interactive with nature.

Find a you-pick farm near you, and spend a day picking apples and tasting delicious treats.

16. Visit a Pumpkin Patch

Visiting a pumpkin patch is one of the most fun harvest activities for preschoolers and children of all ages.

Your baby will get to spend some time in nature, and some pumpkin patches have fun activities like hayrides or corn mazes.

You can even pick out some pumpkins to take home and study or cook.

17. Apple Science

After you bring those apples home from the apple orchard, do a little science lesson with them before you bake them into a delicious pie.

Cut apart an apple and teach your little kid the names of the parts. Use some simple nomenclature cards to teach them the names.

18. Bake a Pie

After you bring home those apples or pumpkins, bake a pie with your child. No matter how old they are, children love to help bake, and it’s a great Montessori project!

Whip up a delicious apple or pumpkin pie and decorate it with cute leaf shapes. Then you can enjoy eating it together!

19. Make Some Apple Cinnamon Play Dough

Texture and scent are wonderful things for your Montessori toddler to explore.

Some homemade playdough scented with apple cinnamon is not only a delicious fragrance for little noses, it’s also free of toxins.

Homemade playdough is easy to whip up, and it will keep your little one entertained for hours on end.

20. Fall Pin Poking Activity

Pin poking is a great activity for fine motor control that leads to writing.

Print out some pin poking sheets, or make your own, and place them on a piece of cork board or a thick piece of felt. Provide your children with a large push pin or a special pin poking tool, and let them poke away.

21. Enjoy Lovevery Play Kits

Lovevery is a toy subscription service that provides your babies with age-appropriate, high-quality toys every month.

For a monthly fee, you get all sorts of fun and educational toys that suit your child’s developmental needs. All of the toys are specially designed to help your baby along their developmental path.

Though not technically Montessori, they are made out of high quality materials that are friendly in a Montessori environment setting.

You may be interested in: Montessori Toys for Babies

22. Leaf Puzzles

Get your child some educational but fun puzzles that are fall-themed, like these leaf puzzles.

Your baby can learn the names of different leaves while practicing shape recognition and fine motor skills. Look for puzzles that are beautifully made with wood and other natural materials and that are realistic.

23. Fall Counting

This fun activity helps your kiddo associate quantities with numerals.

Write numbers inside of a fall-themed ice tray or mold, and fill a bowl with small fall-themed objects such as corn kernels.

Have your little one count out the correct number of kernels into each shape. Alternatively, you can use tweezers to provide extra fine-motor skill practice.

24. Fall Stamping

Stamping is a fun motor skill activity, and one that can be customized for each season.

Give your kid an outline of a tree and some fun stamps, and let them put leaves onto the tree. The finished artwork can be displayed around your home, or you can make it into cards to send to family and friends.

25. Fall Shape Punching

Punching shapes with a decorative shape puncher is a fun fine motor skill activity for minors of all ages.

Give your children a fall-themed paper punch and some colorful construction paper and let them punch out shapes. Save the shapes for another activity or use them as confetti for a fall-themed party!

26. Fall Pasting

Pasting is a classic Montessori activity. Use those shapes your child punched out in idea number #25 to make a picture.

Provide them with a tray complete with a background to paste onto (a tree for apple pasting, a pumpkin patch for pumpkin pasting, etc) and a small tub and brush of glue.

PS. An empty nail polish bottle works great for this!

27. Botany Puzzle

Montessori Botany Puzzles come in a variety of different topics.

Choose a tree puzzle for the harvest season to teach your kiddo about the trees that they see around them. They will be able to practice fine motor control, shape recognition, nomenclature, and science.

28. Apple Lacing

Lacing provides hand-eye coordination practice as well as fine motor skills that are important for learning how to write.

Give your baby a cute fall-themed lacing toy such as an apple and let them practice lacing through the holes. It will provide hours of fun for your little one.

29. Fall Pouring

Pouring is one of the first activities an infant learns in a Montessori classroom.

It provides fine motor skill practice and hand-eye coordination. Place two tiny pitchers on a tray, and fill one with fall-themed items such as beans, corn kernels, or tiny beads.

Your toddler can practice pouring the items from one pitcher to the other.

30. Fall Stencils

Tracing is a great fine-motor skills activity that prepares your kid for writing as it teaches them how to hold a pencil and how to follow lines.

Give them a stencil of fall themes with some paper and a pencil. After they trace the shape, they can color in and decorate the shape however they like.

31. Fall Tree Number Matching

A number-matching activity helps your baby recognize numbers. Draw or print out a tree outline and write numbers on it where the leaves will go.

Cut leaves out of felt or colored construction paper and write corresponding numbers on them. Your little one can place the correct leaf on the matching number.

32. Montessori Leaf Cabinet

The Montessori Leaf Cabinet is a great activity any time of the year, and especially in the fall.

Each drawer has a variety of leaf shape puzzles, along with matching nomenclature cards. Your infant can play with the puzzles while learning the names and shapes of different leaves.

33. Press Leaves

Pressing autumn leaves is a great way to preserve the colors of harvest season for many years to come.

Gather some leaves and place them between the pages of a book lined with parchment paper or wax paper and let them sit for a few weeks until they are dried out.

34. Create a Fall Collage

Use those leaves that you pressed to make a beautiful harvest season collage that you can display around your home.

Simply paste your pressed leaves onto a piece of cardstock to create preschool fall art. You can add other items to your collage such as seeds, acorn caps, etc.

35. Create Some Leaf Animals

Another fun activity for those pressed leaves is to make cute animals out of them.

Use the leaves to form animals and other things, and glue them to paper or a card. You can frame them, or send them to family and friends as a greeting card.

36. Read Fall Books

Reading is always a great idea for your Montessori child! Choose some fun fall-themed books and read them to your baby every day.

Bonus points: reading in a fall setting! You can even look for some fall-themed book ideas online.

37. Fall Reading Log

Whenever you read one of your books with fall themes, let your youngster fill in a fall-themed reading log. Your child can work towards a goal such as a trip or a prize.

38. Make a Handprint Turkey

Help your baby make a cute turkey craft for Thanksgiving. Help them trace their hand to make the feathers and use a small cup for the body.

Cut out a neck and head from paper and use googly eyes. The turkeys can be a great tabletop decoration for your Thanksgiving dinner or fun homemade Montessori toys!

39. Fall Color by Number

Color by number activities can help your little ones practice fine motor skills, color recognition, number recognition, and coloring within the lines.

Print out some cute fall-themed color by number sheets and let your toddler color them.

40. Apple Cutting

Set up an apple-cutting station for your older toddler so they can prepare their own harvest season snack. Place an apple cutter on a tray , a bowl for the scraps, and a plate for the apple slices.

Your baby can practice preparing their own snack for snack time.

41. Pumpkin Hammering

Many Montessori classrooms include a hammering activity, as it provides fine motor skill and hand-eye coordination as well as practical life skills.

Give your little one a small pumpkin, some golf tees, and a small wooden hammer and let them hammer the golf tees into the mini pumpkins.

42. Visit a Corn Maze

Winding your way through a corn maze is a fun fall activity for any age!

Take your family on a trip to a corn maze and spend some time wandering through the maze and looking at the corn stalks. It’s a fun activity and science lesson in one!

43. Corn Craft

Create a cute corn craft with your kiddo by gluing dried corn kernels to a corn-shaped background.

Glue some paper leaves over the kernels. These Montessori crafts can be great seasonal decorations for your home, and provide fine motor skill practice.

Related: Why Do Kids Eat Glue?

44. Corn Tweezing

Using tweezers provides excellent fine motor and hand-eye coordination skills for your child.

Give your kid an ear of dried corn and some tweezers and show them how to remove the kernels one by one with the tweezers. You can use the removed kernels for other crafts.

45. Fall Dot Painting

Dot painting is great for fine motor skills and hand-eye coordination. Print out some dot painting sheets and provide your child with some dot painters or paint and q-tips.

They can fill in each dot with the dot painters to create a piece of art that they can display in your home.

46. Sing some Fall Songs

Singing is always fun! It gives your child an introduction to music. Sing some fall songs together for an easy, any-time, anywhere activity.

47. Learn How to Put on Shoes and Coat

Coats and shoes are essential for colder weather – and constantly putting on your child’s outerwear can be time-consuming.

Teach your toddler how to put on their shoes and coat with some fun Montessori tricks.

48. Fall Cutting Strips

Cutting strips are always found in a Montessori classroom. Help your children practice their cutting skills with some fun cutting strips.

Just print out some cutting strips and give your kid a pair of child-safe scissors.

49. Play in the Leaves

Playing in the autumn leaves is such a classic autumn activity for preschoolers, and people of all ages love it.

From a Montessori perspective, it’s a great idea because it gets your child out in nature and allows them to interact with it (not to mention it gives them a lot of sensory input!). Find a pile of leaves and play away!

Conclusion

If you’re struggling to come up with fall lesson plans for preschoolers, look no further than our list of 49 Montessori fall ideas.

No matter your child’s age, you’ll be sure to find something that they, or that you can do as a family.

Each activity is designed to give your child practice in a variety of skills, including fine motor, pre-writing, nomenclature, and practical life, whether you’re visiting a pumpkin patch as a family, or your little one is spending some quiet time with a sensory bin.

Feel free to comment below if you have any questions or comments on any of these Montessori activity ideas. Follow us on Pinterest @babyjourney0183 for more ideas!

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