Autumn is a truly beautiful time of the year and today I’m sharing loads of great ideas to help you celebrate the change in seasons with this round up of autumn activities for toddlers.
With tons of ideas including printables, sensory activities, crafts and painting ideas there’s loads of inspiration to keep you busy and most importantly having lots of fun together, whether you’re planning a fall theme at preschool or kindergarten or just want to have some creative fun at home with your child.
As there are so many ideas in this I’ve split this into two sections to make it easier to navigate – Autumn Crafts for Toddlers and Easy Autumn Activities for Toddlers. There’s tons of inspiration in both lists including autumn tree crafts, leaves, hedgehogs and apples.
We have included affiliate links to some of the products and resources and as an associate we may earn from qualifying purchases
What You'll Find on This Page
Autumn Activities for Toddlers
We love sharing simple ideas and I’ve shared over 200 activities for toddlers on this site so if you need more inspiration be sure to check them out!
These activities are designed with toddlers in mind as well as preschoolers so they should be suitable for one and two year olds as well as three and four year olds.
As you will know there is a lot of difference between what children are able to do at each age and in their interests too so take a look through the list to find the activities that are the best for your child. You will, of course, need to supervise all activities too.
This post was originally called 40+ Autumn Activities for Toddlers as it contained 41 activities but over the last year the list has grown as I’ve added new fall activities to it so I’ve updated the post to reflect that.
There are so many fun fall activities out there that this list continues to grow each year so it’s worth bookmarking this page or pinning an image so you can return to it again, I think there’s 49 fall activities for toddlers on it now!
To help you find the activities you want I’ve listed each section in the same order as they appear in the collages below.
Want more inspiration? Check out the posts at the end of this page for more fun themed activities for toddlers including inspiration for Thanksgiving and Christmas.
Autumn Books For Toddlers
I love reading and I love sharing stories with my kids in the hope that it will encourage a life long love of reading in them as well. I’ve totally done that thing where you have to read The Gruffalo every night for three months non-stop so where I can I like to try and encourage my kids to try new books!
I think that sharing themed stories to do with what your child is interested in or learning about is a great way to do this and all the books below are autumn themed books for toddlers – worth checking out for some new ideas!
- The Busy Little Squirrel by Nancy Tafuri
- Goodbye Summer, Hello Autumn by Kenard Pak
- Leaves by David Ezra Stein
Autumn Crafts for Toddlers
Use tissue paper to make this simple apple craft for toddlers.
This pom pom apple tree is one that I made with my daughter when she was two. It’s great for fine motor skills and she really enjoyed it too.
Paper plates are one of my favorite craft materials for toddlers and preschoolers because they’re cheap and can cope with a lot of paint or glue. Why not try this paper plate fall tree?
These autumn leaf suncatchers are ones that I made with my kids and they’re one of our most popular fall crafts with parents too. We had ours displayed in our window for ages! You can watch the video on this page for a quick tutorial on how they’re made or click through for the full instructions.
Grab the paints and make these easy cotton wool painted apples.
We loved making these apple suncatchers.
I made this handprint hedgehog craft with my daughter and we both loved the way it turned out. You can use on of our free printable templates to help you create it too.
Build your own owl with this free printable owl cut and paste craft.
For our take on a classic craft activity try out this apple painting craft.
Can’t face the mess today? Try out this mess free autumn tree craft which can help teach color mixing too.
This time of year is perfect for creating some woodland animal art activities and our resist art squirrel craft is a great place to start!
Use our free template to make this collage acorn craft, it’s a great way to use up any craft supplies you have lying around.
For a simple fall craft using a material you probably own already try our Duplo stamped apple tree craft.
We love this mess free pumpkin craft.
Using scissors is probably going to be too advanced for most toddlers but you can cut out the strips in advance for this paper hedgehog craft and they can stick them on to make the spines.
This foil painted pumpkin can be adapted to make a Halloween craft too.
Corn can be a really popular topic in autumn with both harvest and Thanksgiving crafts and our tissue paper corn craft is perfect for little hands to make as they scrunch and tear the paper.
Grab those paper rolls and make this painted toilet roll owl.
Make a lego autumn leaves craft together.
Popcorn autumn tree craft from Crafts on Sea
Practice tearing with this torn paper apple craft.
Toddlers can color the scarecrow for this paper plate scarecrow craft but will need help to cut the shape out.
I love the way these autumn leaf potato stamps from How Wee Learn look.
This horse chestnut snake from Red Ted Art is the perfect excuse to go for an autumnal walk while you look for materials!
Make some fun leaf art with these leaf monster puppets from Messy Little Monster
Create this pumpkin craft stick keepsake from Fireflies and Mudpies together.
Rainy Day Mum shares how to make a cork printed autumn tree.
Make a dot sticker autumn tree following this tutorial from Fun Learning for Kids.
Make some washi tape autumn leaves.
Autumn Activities for Toddlers
My kids loved exploring this autumn ice tower.
Use squares of scrap paper to make this A is for Autumn fine motor skills activity.
These autumn tree painting ideas are really popular every year and you can use our free printable template to help you make it too, perfect if you fancy trying a few ideas.
My son loved using real fall leaves that we picked up on our way home from preschool to make this contact paper autumn tree.
For an activity that’s super quick to set up check out this free autumn colouring page for kids.
Try out these autumn leaf painting ideas with a free printable from Crafts on Sea.
If you don’t mind activity ideas that might get a little messy then this pinecone rolling painting is good fun!
We have twelve different designs available in our free fall playdough mats pack.
Grab this free hedgehog template and try some of the ideas for decorating it.
I love the colours in this bleeding tissue fall tree craft.
Download our free Christmas wreath template and then give it a seasonal update and turn it into a fall wreath by decorating it with natural materials like leaves and bark, coloured stickers or painting it with reds. yellows, orange and green.
Colour or paint this free autumn leaf template from Crafts on Sea.
Got some balloons left over from parties? Try these balloon printed apples.
This mess free acorn activity is perfect for practising mark making.
Try this apple themed writing tray.
Make some process art with this rolling acorn painting.
Paint or colour this free acorn template from Crafts on Sea.
Make some simple sensory play with this autumnal scavenger hunt playdough.
Try out some of the art and craft ideas with this free pumpkin template.
Teach Me Mommy shares an fall sensory bin.
Autumn process art from Messy Little Monster.
take inspiration from that pile of leaves outdoors and turn them into a beautiful decoration with this autumn leaf threading from Picklebum.
Autumn sensory bin from The Natural Homeschool.
I bet this cinnamon playdough from Natural Beach Living smells amazing!
Autumn sensory bin for toddlers from Powerful Mothering.
Little Bins For Little Hands has a great looking recipe for pumpkin slime that your toddler will love to play with. I bet the scents are amazing too!
Create this autumn tree activity from Powerful Mothering.
Grab the simple recipes for this autumn playdough from Rainy Day Mum.
Nature exploration for toddlers from Schooltime Snippets.
These yarn apples from Red Ted Art would be a great way to use up any left over yarn you have.
This leaf hedgehog from Messy Little Monster looks really cute.
Preschool Powol Packets shares some edible bubble science with apples.
Crate an easy leaf science experiment following this tutorial from Preschool Powol Packets.
More Fun Activities for Toddlers
We love this round up of Halloween activities for toddlers with over 40 fun ideas!
Love Thanksgiving? Get the kids ready with these fun and easy Thanksgiving activities for toddlers
Or (and sorry if it’s too early to mention this yet!) but we have a great round up of Christmas activities for toddlers too.
Thank you