Fall Activity for Toddlers – Hike, Leaf Hunting and Sorting

It’s that time of year where we start to transition inside as the cooler temps and snow start to make their way into our every day lives. Weeks before becoming a SAHM about two years ago, I was searching all sorts of blogs to find inspiration of what to do with my kids during cold fall/winter days. Honestly, that was one of my main concerns prior to being at home with the kids. I made thorough lists and pinned all sorts of activities on Pinterest, only to find that I dropped the ball on doing many of those things. What I did find, is that I needed to be creative and start using my own imagination in terms of how to teach and play with my kids!

We had a string of nice fall days last week, so I took the kids to get a donut, a little warm beverage for myself and then to the playground.

I love you, Fall!
Yay for donuts!

This particular park has a cute little creek running through so I thought it would be fun to also go for a little hike.

SQUIRREL!

On our hike, I couldn’t believe how many leaves their were in terms of color, size and shape.

Then it hit me! I could make this a fun learning activity!

So I had the kids start gathering leaves

This guy tried to sneak this lovely worm into the stroller on our way out…

What you will need for this activity

  • Patience to find nice looking leaves in all the fall colors (red, orange, yellow, green and brown), in all sizes (small, medium and large) and in different varieties (skinny, wide, maple, oak, etc.)
  • A bag (I had my stroller so we just threw them in there, but I would have been sunk had I not had that – the leaves kept blowing everywhere!)
  • Construction paper in red, orange, yellow, green and brown (Whew, thank goodness I had that on hand!)

We started sorting leaves by color

Little man had to head up for his nap, so we continued on with more technical sorting!

Next, we sorted by size – small, medium and large

Lastly, we sorted by shape – tall/skinny vs. wide/stout

I was so impressed by how well she did with this! She really loved sorting and I really loved watching her try to figure it out on her own!

You can do this all over again and again, which she did because she enjoyed it so much!

You go, girl!

Fun, simple and a great learning activity too! Spur of the moment activities can turn out to be the best ones yet! Happy Fall!

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