Fall is already in the air! This time of year is so much fun to give your little one plenty of new sensory and learning experiences.
They’ve just come off the high of summer, soaking in the sun, splashing in the pool, and spending hours at the park. Now that the weather is cooling down, they’ll have to get used to being cooped up inside again. It’s now your turn to come up with activities that will be both stimulating, entertaining, and educational to keep your little one busy while indoors.
The good news is that you don’t have to reinvent the wheel to come up with new activities for your toddler. We’ve got some great, simple ideas below using these FREE printables and a few materials that you should have around your house. Give your toddler opportunities to color, learn, and play while learning about the new season.
Fall Leaf Activity Printables
I don’t like to have my children or students JUST color a picture. That can get boring for them and they also aren’t using all of their potential skills that way.
There are so many fun and educational ways that you can use printable sheets and not just by writing or coloring on them! Print a few of each to use over and over with each kind of activity. Consistency is key when you’re teaching a young child.
If they see the leaf 3 days in a row, it will be easier for them to recall that shape is a leaf. If they see the letters F-A-L-L three days in a row, they will be better at recalling those letters.
Below you’ll find a variety of ways to use these printables. Let your toddler have fun and see what other unique ways you can come up with.
Coloring
Use crayons or markers to color both the leaves and letters.
I’m obsessed with these Finger Crayons for young toddlers. They allow your child to hold the crayon with the proper grasp so they don’t end up forming a bad habit in the future.
Many toddlers or children have poor grasps on crayons and pencils because they are never taught how to hold them correctly! I see it as an Occupational Therapist all the time among elementary school-aged kids.
Skinny or jumbo crayons don’t help a toddler to properly hold their crayon. When they’re not assisted, they may end up in Kindergarten with a poor grasp and sloppy handwriting.
Finger crayons make it so easy for your toddler to hold the crayon perfectly and develop an optimal grasp for their future handwriting needs.
Dot markers
I’ve also included the leaf printable with circles inside so that your child can use Dot Markers to color.
Kids love dot markers because they are much easier to use than regular markers or crayons. They don’t have to put in a ton of effort to make their mark on the paper.
You just hold the canister upside down and it’s almost like a stamp pad. Just teach them how to make the dot with the dot markers in each circle and they will pick it up quickly.
When they see the circles over and over, they will begin to recognize this shape. Circles are one of the first shapes that a toddler will learn so make sure you’re speaking about circles as they fill them in.
Use stickers
Toddlers love stickers. Therefore, I try to incorporate them into most of the activities that I do with worksheets/printables because coloring can get pretty boring for a toddler!
Stickers are also a great fine motor activity. Your child will develop a strong pincer grasp (using the thumb and index finger together) from picking up the sticker from the sheet and placing it down.
Have your child place dot stickers within the leaves, on the lines, or in the letters with the plain picture. Use the circle printable sheets to put stickers within each circle.
You can get dot stickers with your child’s favorite characters, objects, or colors which will make it much more exciting for them.
Get creative with multi-sensory materials
I love to use tissue paper as a colorful way to decorate pictures for toddlers. It’s such a great fine motor skill too!
Have your little one rip the tissue paper into small sections. You may have to teach them how to rip because it’s not a skill that comes completely natural.
Then, have them crumble each little piece of tissue paper into a ball.
Use a glue stick to have them glue each piece down to fill up the entire leaf. They will love the colors and material of the tissue paper as a new tool to decorate with.
Practice Learning Letters
You’ll see the word FALL on the top of the page. This is a simple word that your toddler may learn and recognize easily.
Have your toddler color the letters each a different color, put stickers inside the letters, or trace the outlines. There are only 3 letters in the word FALL, so as they are coloring, make sure you are naming the letters and asking them what it is.
If you have an older toddler (3+) you can even start teaching them the sounds that go with each letter.
Practice Learning Colors
Have your toddler get familiar with the colors of fall (red, brown, orange, and yellow). Give them only these colors of crayons, markers, stickers, and tissue paper to use as they learn that these are the autumn colors.
Here are some ways to work on learning colors with this activity:
- You name each color as they use it
- Have them name the colors
- Tell them to color 5 leaves red and 5 leaves brown
- Tell them to color the letters orange and the leaf yellow
- Have them choose between orange or yellow tissue paper
- Color each leaf a different color
- Have them choose their favorite color to use
Related Post: 9 Simple Ways to Teach Colors to Your Toddler
Practice Counting
Using the printable with multiple leaves, your child can practice counting as they color. Tell them to count all the leaves on the page or only color 3 leaves red and 4 leaves orange.
Placing one sticker on each leaf may also help them to count each leaf.
Use language
Toddlers are little sponges and they are constantly picking up new words each and everyday. The best thing you can do to help their vocabulary grow is to talk to them ALL THE TIME.
Make sure you are using all the words that would be mentioned throughout this activity. Here are some ways to incorporate language below:
- naming all the colors
- counting the leaves using numbers
- saying and pointing to each letter
- action words like color, rip, peel, stick, turn
- naming objects like dot marker, crayon, tissue paper, stickers, leaf, paper, glue
- praise words like Great job and It looks beautiful.
I hope you and your little one enjoyed this activity! Let me know in the comments below.
