Autumn is full of wonderful educational activities for young children. Today’s post features our favorite October activities for preschoolers. There’s something for everyone, with nature activities you can enjoy indoors and out! You may also enjoy this collection of Halloween activities for preschoolers.

Fun October Activities for Preschoolers

Young children are naturally curious, and the changing leaves and seasons of October offer so many delightful opportunities for learning and growing through play!

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Preschool Art for October

October is often a wonderful time of year to really look at leaves and how they change over the course of the year! If you are lucky enough to live somewhere where leaves turn brilliant colors in October, go on a leaf walk and see what you can find. The leaves don’t change color much in our current home in California, but they were incredible in Massachusetts. We saved some of our favorite leaves, and they remain beautiful all year round.

Capture the magic of fall with this fall suncatcher preschool craft. Suncatchers do a wonderful job of brightening windows on stormy days, too. This is a simple art activity that even very young children enjoy. All you need is colored tissue paper and contact paper.

Lots of young children have mixed feelings about Halloween. Use felt pumpkin faces to explore these emotions. You can also let children draw their own faces on pumpkin jack o’ lantern chains.

If you need a quick and easy art activity, keep it simple by having the kids make a wall of pumpkins.

October Sensory Play for Preschoolers

Add googley eyes to play dough for spooky free play fun. This sensory activity is wonderful for cold and stormy October days.

Make some time to get outside and simply enjoy the sensory experience of playing in leaves!

October Science Activities

October is often a time of changing weather patterns. Use these free weather tracking printables to record your local weather. Can you detect any sort of pattern? Is it getting colder? Warmer? Rainier? Cloudier?

Is the weather the same all around the world in October? Try tracking weather around the world and find out! Make sure you pick locations in both the northern and southern hemispheres. My kids love seeing just how similar – and how different – weather can be when you look at weather reports from all over the world.

Halloween offers an imaginative theme for science experiments. Ghost balloons make a magical chemistry experiment that scales easily for large groups of children. I once did this experiment with my children’s entire elementary school!

These dry ice experiments captivate children’s attention. Dry ice can be dangerous, so be sure to demonstrate them with safeguards in place.

Fall Themed Active Play

Rainy day? Channel that Halloween theme and keep the kids active within an enclosed space with this spider web obstacle course! I love that you can set it up in a small space like the underside of a table or fill an entire room. Preschoolers also love this adorable DIY monster carnival game.

Different seasons smell and feel different. Take the kids on an October five sense walk and see what they see, feel, touch, smell, and hear.

Is the weather still nice where you live in October? If so, be sure to try these preschool game day activities!

What are your favorite October activities for preschoolers?

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MaryAnne Kochenderfer

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MaryAnne is a craft loving educator, musician, photographer, and writer who lives in Silicon Valley with her husband Mike and their four children.