Fun Autumn Outdoor Activities for Kids
There is so much fun you can have with kids outdoor activities in Autumn. Autumn is the perfect time for outdoor adventures with kids! It’s not too hot and not too cold. There are muddy puddles for muddy puddle nature walks and golden leaves to kick and scrunch and plenty of Autumn Nature Crafts to make during Autumn too! One of our favourite things to do during the autumn is to head out on a woodland walk to collect conkers, nature treasures and pretty leaves. You can find out some of the things we’ve made once we bring our Autumn leaves home in our post all about Autumn Leaf Crafts for kids.
Wondering what to do outdoors with the kids when it’s rainy? If you’re having a rainy fall, you’ll need our `Rainy Day Outdoor Activities for kids But whatever the weather is doing where you are this Autumn, here’s the ultimate list of Autumn outdoor activities for kids including Autumn nature crafts, Fall crafts, Autumn games for the garden and outdoor day trips and adventures, there’s enough ideas to keep everyone busy! Why not give some of them a try this Autumn?
Table of Contents
Outdoor Fall Activities for Kids
Fun Autumn Outdoor Activities for Kids
1. Make a Den
Here’s a whole host of child led activities for kids to do during Autumn, the perfect season! Making a den is a fun Autumn outdoor activity for kids. Outdoor play is perfect for Autumn, you can marvel at the different colours and making a den can be a fun outdoor autumn actvity for toddlers or older children. Why not try making it a competition between kids? Who can make the best den for their teddies or toys? For older kids you might want to call it a ‘shelter’ and give points for ‘shelters that are the most waterproof’ to keep older kids playing in the woods this Autumn!
2. Play in the leaves
Crunch them, scrunch them, throw them, collect them, roll in them. – have fun with all the beautiful coloured leaves this Autumn! Keep reading for some ideas for Autumn Leaf Crafts for Kids. It’s the perfect Autumn Activity for toddlers!
Fun Fall Activities
3. Collect Conkers
Do your kids collect pocketful of conkers during Autumn? It’s a wonderful way to embrace the season! There’s something special about collecting conkers – the smooth white silky skin inside – the shiny polished conker inside. Click here for some fun things to do with conkers.
Things to do in Fall with kids
4. Make an Autumn Mandala
Collect some Autumn treasures and turn them into land art by making an Autumn Mandala. This is a great Autumn learning outdoor activity for kids to make with fall leaves and a fun way to develop fine motor skills and for more fun activities – try jumping in a pile of leaves! The best part is crunching through them!
5. Visit a Pumpkin Patch!
6. Make a Rainbow of Leaves
You may struggle with the blue or indigo but finding a rainbow of Autumn leaves is a fun nature craft for kids of all ages. It’s a great Autumn Nature Activity for preschoolers to help them learn their colours! Try it after an Autumn Scavenger Hunt to find the leaves! This is a fun fall outdoor activity for kids!
7. Fly Sycamore Helicopters
Find some sycamore helicopters in your local woods and throw them up in the air and watch them spin around and land! You can find them growing on trees like Field maple, Ash trees and sycamore trees in the UK. Do you call these winged seeds sycamore helicopters? Other nicknames for them include spinning jenny, whirligig, whirlybird and wing-nut! Let us know in the comments if you have other names for them! It’s one of the must-do fall activities.
8. Hunt for Toadstools
Got on a nature walk! I’ve always wanted to find a red and white toadstool like they used to have in the Brownie Guide Handbook as a child! It took me a while but a few woodland walks later and I found one! They’re actually called Fly agaric, Amanita muscaria and can be found between late Summer and Winter. They’re commonly found under birch, pine and spruce trees – we found ours under some Silver Birches in Ashdown Forest which is one of our favourite woodland walks near South East London.
9. Visit a Corn Maze
Corn mazes are popping up all over the UK during Autumn as well summer and they make a great fall visit as you can often combine them with a Pumpkin Patch visit. Find a Corn Maize Maze near you for family fun for the entire family! here.
Fun Outdoor Autumn Activities for Kids
Autumn Kids activities you can do in your garden!
9. Make a Hedgehog House
The kids are desperate to see a hedgehog in our garden during the Autumn! So building a hedgehog house in our garden is high up on our list of Autumn garden activities for kids. Making a hedgehog house is the perfect fall outdoor activity.
10. Have a spooky outdoor tea party
Celebrate Halloween with an outdoor spooky tea party, we have lots of ideas here for fun spooky food and fun games for an outdoor Halloween party!
11. Apple Bobbing
A classic Halloween game – played by filling a tub and filling with apples. Because apples are less dense than water, they will float to the surface. Players then try to catch an apple with their teeth without using their arms. If you want to get really messy – try following this with a game of hunt the sweets in the flour! Kids will love the sticky mess! You could also try apple picking in a local orchard! Or making caramel apples!
Autumn Nature Activities for Kids
12. Catch a Spider Web
Have you ever tried to catch a spider’s web? Spider’s are nature’s great artists so it’s super special to marvel a spider’s web up close.
To catch a spider’s web…..
You Need:
- Spiderweb
- Talcum powder
- Black paper
- Hair spray
What to do:
- Find a spider’s web by searching carefully in tall grass and bushes.
- Once you have found an empty web, sprinkle talcum powder all over it. The powder will help it to show up.
- Spray hair spray on a piece of black paper. While the spray is still wet, gently push paper up against the web so that it sticks to the paper.
- Spray the web on the paper with a little more hair spray to seal it!
Fun Things to do at Night during Autumn with Kids
13. Go on a Night Torchlit Walk with Kids
The great thing about Autumn is the nights start getting darker with cooler temperatures so it’s a great idea to take a fun torchlit walk without actually having to miss the kids bedtimes! Try taking your Autumn lanterns to light the way and a flask of Hot Mulled Apple Juice to warm kids up on the walk.
14. Play Glow Stick Hide and Seek
Best played on a very dark evening. Kids add some glow sticks to their hair, their clothes – wherever! Then hide and wait for people to spot their glowing sticks!
15. Go Star Gazing
Stargazing is a great way to inspire young astronomers and also a lovely relaxing way to end the day! Take pillows and blankets and head to a place without much light pollution (a woods or high up on a hill is ideal) and see which constellations you can spot!
Autumn Leaf Crafts for Kids to Make
16. Autumn Leaf Lantern
Display all the Autumn leaf colours in an autumn leaf lantern. They make a great Fall project for kids to make. Find out how we made our Autumn Leaf Lantern here. Then take your beautiful lantern on a torchlit walk.
17. Autumn leaf snow globe
This is a quick and fun Autumn leaf craft for kids to make. How to make an Autumn Leaf Snow Globe.
You will need: A Mason Jar or jam jar, some Glycerine, a branch, blu tack and a variety of Autumn Leaves.
Stick the branch to the lid of the jar with blu tack. Add some Autumn Leaves to the jar with some water and a few jobs of glycerine (to help the leaves float). And stand back to admire your beautiful leaf snow globe!
18. Make Acorn People
Collect some acorns and draw some cute faces on them with a permanent pen! Some of them will need to keep their hats on!
19. Conker Crafts
There are lots of things you can do with conkers besides the traditional game of conkers. Take a look at our 5 activity ideas for conkers. You can even use conkers to play noughts and crosses!
20. Autumn leaf tealight candle holder
You just need some jar jars, autumn leaves and glue (mod podge works well) and by sticking the leaves on the jam jars and adding a tea light candle – you have yourself some beautiful Autumn table decor! Or try adding a wire around the top to make a lantern!
Indoor Autumn Nature Crafts for Kids
If you prefer to cosy it up indoors, there’s always fun autumn sensory play for toddlers – that’s always a big hit with preschoolers as something fun to do in the Fall. You could even have fun with autumn nature treasures inside – check out our fun five things to do with conkers (or horsechestnuts or buck eyes as you call them in the US.) If you have a little one age to aged 2 to 8, you might like to try making our autumn leaf people and for slightly older children – these pumpkin sensory potions are going to go down a complete treat!
Indoor Autumn Activity Ideas for Kids
21. Autumn Sensory Playdough
Try making pumpkin spiced playdough and add pine cones, acorns and even dried teazels for kids to have some Autumn Sensory Play.
22. Paint with Pine Cones and Conkers
Painting with pine cones is lots of fun for kids. Preschoolers can try painting pine cones to make a fun display or rolling the pine cones and conkers in paint to make fun patterns! We have 7 more ideas here for fun process painting with kids.
23. Make Autumn Leaf People
This is an easy but fun Autumn craft for kids – it includes painting for getting messy, a good way to use up all those leaves they’ve collected and you even get a Autumn Leaf Puppet person to play with at the end! See the full instructions in the link above!
24. Autumn Sensory Play
Autumn Sensory play for toddlers is easy to set up and uses up all those nature treasures that the kids have been collecting. See our post linked above for a whole host of Autumn Sensory ideas perfect for exploring all the senses and great for tuff trays too.
Happy Autumn Adventuring – let us know your favourite outdoor Autumn Activities for kids?
Find more outdoor Autumn activities for kids in this Autumn Bucket list full of Family Fall Activities. **Download your FREE Autumn activity bucket list here**
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