11 No Mess Fall Toddler Activities You NEED To Try At Home

Looking for simple and fun fall toddler activities to keep your 1 or 2 year old entertained? You'll love these ideas using everyday household items you probably already have at home!

Even better? They are great to pull out while cooking Thanksgiving dinner or to keep your toddler entertained and engaged while waiting to eat during family gatherings or if you're staying in this year and just doing the whole immediate family at the house, some ideas for a special day

Youtube Fall Toddler Activities Video:

Turkey Run

This is a great Thanksgiving Toddler Activity ready in 5 minutes, low mess, and builds so many skills! From fine motor, color sorting, language, cause and effect, early quantitative concepts and more! Discover more details on how to set up the Thanksgiving Toddler Activity: Turkey Run here!

Feed The Turkey

A fun Thanksgiving spin on the montessori classic object permanence box! Your toddler will have so much fund with this no mess activity! Check out all the details here: Thanksgiving Toddler Activity: Feed The Turkey.

Fall Montessori Smelling Jars

Discover how to DIY montessori smelling jars at home in this no mess fall themed toddler activity! It's a great sensorial activity for picky eaters too! Check out the full Montessori Fall Smelling Jars Activity here!

Contact paper tree

A no mess fall themed toddler activity you can use with real leaves or sticks from outside or with construction paper or tissue paper! Learn how to set up and adapt the Fall Toddler Activity: Contact Paper Tree here!

Pumpkin Stickers

Discover an EASY No Mess Pumpkin Activity For Toddlers: Sticky Pumpkin! Plus tips for how to work fine motor skills, update it for the holiday (e.g. doing it for Fall vs. Halloween vs. Thanksgiving).

Rubber Band Pumpkins

I love when you can use 1 item for multiple activities and this Pumpkin Fine Motor Activity For Toddlers is perfect to do at home this Fall or Halloween or Thanksgiving! You can literally go from the rubber band pumpkins to washing pumpkins in minutes!

Pumpkin Bath

One of my daughter's FAVORITE activities on this list! Pumpkin Bath: Easy Toddler Activity For Halloween Or Fall is an awesome at home activity rooted in montessori ideology and a great way to keep your toddler engaged and entertained – especially if you need a few minutes to cook or clean up dinner!

Scavenging Fall Foliage

Scavenging for fall foliage is one of my favorite outdoor fall activities for toddlers! We do this once a week, I just bring a bag with us and have my daughter collect things in it. It teaches responsibility for taking care of her bag of goodies, gives her some sensory experiences in touching new textures, and gives me supplies for the rest of the activities on this list.

Stenciled Leaves

Supplies:

leaves
paper
pencil or crayons

Collect some leaves from outside. Then lay the piece of paper over your leaf and show your toddler how to rub the leaf print onto the paper with a pencil or crayon to get the impression of it on the paper. For younger toddlers, you can hold your hand over theirs until they get the hang of it.

Before the age of 2, toddlers are still learning that they need to hold the paper down while coloring, so you may need to do that for them. Or you can lay out some leaves, then tape the paper on top of it.

When you are done with the leaves save them for our next fall toddler activity…

Painting Leaves

Supplies

Leaves
Paint
Paper

Start by collecting some leaves from outside. Then have your toddler paint the leaves – you may need to model this for them. You can also model using the painted leaf as a stamp on the paper as well.

Sensory Bin

Supplies:

Really whatever you have on hand!

A bin
Spoons/scoopers or smaller containers
Fallen leaves/sticks/acorns/pinecones
Whatever you have on hand at home (rice, beans, etc.)

Simply set out a storage bin and fill it up with your fall themed items! You can put them in containers to start if you want. Personally we do sensory bins using the under the bed storage bins as they have the most surface area and my daughter can get in/out if she wants.