With the new school year starting it is the perfect time to think about fall activities! From the changing of colors of leaves to the delicious smells and tastes of the season, autumn is a wonderful time of year! This season offers many opportunities to learn across the curriculum, from understanding the science behind how a pumpkin grows to counting the number of apples ripening in a tree. Here are some fall themed activities that you can incorporate into your classroom and school.
Fall-Themed Lessons in the Classroom
Fall is much more than Halloween. Autumn offers many curriculum ideas that you can incorporate throughout the fall.
Math Activities
- Have teams of students estimate the number of seeds in a pumpkin, then cut the pumpkins open and let the kids count how many seeds there were.
- Visit an apple orchard and have your students estimate the number of apples in a tree. Then count to see how close the class was.
- Discuss fractions by cutting apples into thirds, fourths, quarters, etc.
Art Activities
- Find a tree on your school’s grounds. Have the students name the tree and draw a picture how it looks at the start of the year. Every few weeks go back to the tree and have them draw another picture. At the end of the season, have your students look at their pictures and observe how the tree changes during the season.
- Cut an apple down the middle and then cut a groove on the rounded side so the apples are easy to hold. Dip the flat side in ink or paint, then make apple prints on paper or fabric.
Science Activities
- Study skeletons and how the human body’s bones work together.
- Bring a sunflower to class and have the students study its parts. Have the students guess how many sunflower seeds it contains, then gives a prize to the student with the closest answer.
English Activities
- Place a long strip of paper on the wall. Start a story on the left side of the paper strip, such as “Once upon a time, there was a scarecrow, a pumpkin, and a farmer …” Then, one at a time, students can continue the store adding only three, four or five words at a time.
- Students write a Fall poem and explore rhyming patterns or have them create an acrostic poem using autumn-themed words.
Other Activities
- Prepare a fall recipe in class. Pumpkin muffins, apple cake, baked apples or other autumn-inspired foods are great choices. Have them write the recipe and have them bring it home to try with their parents.
- Go on a field trip to an orchard, farm, pumpkin patch, or other sites where crops are ready to be harvested.
- Play some pumpkin-themed games with students.
Fall-Themed Activities for the Entire School
A fall festival or harvest party is a great idea that can be fun for the whole school. For elementary schools, give them an educational theme. Set up booths where kids can play fall festival games and tie in those games with the theme (like math based games or reading based ones). Be sure to include other fall-themed activities such as a hay-barrel maze, scarecrow-making contests, bobbing for apples, craft booths, and sack races. Serve up some autumn food too, if you can. Apple cider and pumpkin pie are great ideas to start with. If your festival is close to Halloween, have the students dress in costumes and include some Halloween activities as well.
Spooky Magic: A Fun-Filled Family Halloween Magic Show!
Bring Cris Johnson to your schools fall festival! In “Spooky Magic,” Cris Johnson presents fun magic tricks wrapped up in spooky sights, and tied with goofy fun! His light, bright, colorful program is especially geared towards children and family events. Kids have great fun watching and participating in the show, but Cris also puts in a lot of humor and special touches just for the grown-ups watching. As always, there is a lot of comedy and a lot of audience participation.
This show is customized for your group based on both the size of the audience as well as the age range. While each show is different and unique, highlights include a mysterious table FLOATS in the air, audience members help mix a spooky Invisibility Potion, and a spooky ghost flies around the room, causing the entire audience to squeal with delight!