Awesome Fall activities for Babies {and toddlers that put everything in their mouth}

There are so many fun things to do with your kids in the fall, I wanted to gather a few activities to get you started. These fall activities for baby are safe for babies and one-year-olds who still tend to put everything into their mouths but can also be enjoyed by the older ones too.

You will find both messy and not messy activities so that no matter your mood you will always find something to do. It is important to expose babies to different types of sensory experiences (regardless of how you feel) because this exposure is important to their development.  

Fall activities for baby provide children with an exciting tactile and sensory experience that inspires their curiosity, allows them to explore the world around them and enhances their learning, language, and creativity.

Early Year Resources

**Always watch your little one carefully when playing any of these activities **

To read the full tutorial just click on the link or the image and it will take you to the source page.

Fall Sensory Bottle

I love sensory bottles because once you do them, you can save them for many years to come! babies love to roll them, toddlers like to shake them and the best part is that you don’t need that many supplies, you can get support creative and there is no wrong way to do them!

But if you ask me, I like to add extra glue so the glitter falls down really slow!

Create a fall discovery basket

Fall activities for babies can include a ton of sensory bags. These are fun to look at, fun to squeeze, and super fun and easy to make.

Use real or fake pumpkins to create a fall discovery basket. Collect a few pumpkins and place them in a basket. Let your little one explore the smell, texture, and size of each one.

Learn about Montessori Treasure baskets (And get 35 awesome ideas!)

Fall Water Sensory Bin

Water is a play element that most toddlers love. For this activity add some soap and some red, yellow, and orange cups and bowls to encourage pouring skills as well as some fall elements like apples (real or fake) leaves (real or fake) cranberry trees (watch for safety hazard).

Fall Pumpkin Sensory Bin To work on Fine Motor Skills

For this sensory bin, you need large soft sponges, a bin with water and soap, and some small pumpkins. Encourage your toddler to wash the pumpkins and squeeze the sponges. The squeezing motion will help your baby and toddler strengthen the finger muscles.

If your toddler just wants to suck the water from the sponge then try this bin without the baby soap.

Fall Leaves No-Mess Sensory Bin

Not in the mood for a sensory messy bin? create a large sensory and focus on textures. Lots of fall leaves (real or fake depending on where you live) and some hidden treasures like apples! I say hide real apples as they will try to bite it when they find their price!

Fall Sensory Bags

if you have a very small baby, one that probably is still practicing tummy time then Sensory Bags are great for babies. All you need is a ziplock back and a few fall items inside.

Below you will find some options to have some fun!

Stir The Wonder

If you have an older baby/toddler that tends to grab these bags and put them in their mouth you can tape the bag to the floor to avoid them picking it up and instead, focus on exploring the items inside by squishing and moving them around like this pumpkin guts sensory bag.

Learn how to make all types of sensory bags here

Fall Leaves sensory bag

Using red, and gold glitter, some water, and faux fall leaves you can create a simple fall-themed sensory bag. This fall bag was inspired by this fall sensory bottle which is my favorite sensory bottle of all time!

For babies that are sitting already or even standing up, taping these sensory bags to a window will encourage them to stand and sit while working on cross-body movement. A movement of the arm going from side to side, passing the midline of the body; an early activity that will later translate into writing.

Sensory Bin in a Bag

If you have older children too then you might be looking for activities that both the little one and the older sibling can enjoy. Using the same elements you would on a toddler fall sensory bin, add them in a bag to create a sensory bin bag. This way, little ones still putting everything in their mouth can participate and explore smaller objects that otherwise they wouldn’t be able to.

Water, Oil, and Fall colors

If you mix water, baby oil, and food coloring you get this fun sensory bag. Add some fall leaves from your backyard and you have a sensory bag to discover safely without having to worry if your child puts things in her mouth.

Kids Craft Room

Discovering fall items safely

A great way to share fall and all of our favorite things about it is through a safe sensory bag. Add acorns, seeds, pine cones, and any other fall-related items to discover without having to worry about if they are putting it in their mouth.

Nature in a bag

Collect dry leaves, and colorful leaves, big and small, and add them to a bag. Place them on the floor and secure the bag with tape. Allow your child to explore. Babies can do tummy time, toddlers can explore stepping on them. Talk about what they feel, what they see, and where they come from.

Take them on the nature walk to collect the leaves too! two activities in one!

Fall activities for baby. Tummy Time play. CanDoKiddo.com
Can Do Kids

Fall Arts & Crafts

Falls is a great time to do arts and crafts! babies might not be doing them on their own but we can certainly enjoy stamping their hands, feet, and why not – their cute butt to make a pumpkin too!

Pumpkin butt

This is my ultimate favorite craft and memory keepsake you can do this year! I found it too late and my son was too big to try it but if you do have a little one, please try it for me! use washable paint and mixed media paper. Paint a baby’s butt and then have them sit on the paper. How cute is that!

Mixing Paint creating an Autumn Tree

mess-free-autumn-tree-craft
Crafts On Sea

Saltdough Keepsake

Saltdough is easy to make and it dries super hard that you can do all types of keepsake. Making salt dough at home is as easy as combining three pantry staples together into a dough. Christmas tree ornaments, or these fall pumpkin keepsake.

To make salt dough you need 1 cup of table salt, 2 cups all-purpose flour, and 1 cup of cold water. That’s it! Mix all ingredients together like a dough.

shape like a pumpkin, place your little ones’ hand and footprint and place in the oven at 250 degrees for about two hours. Allow to cool down before painting with acrylic paints.

Use acrylic paints

Amazing HALLOWEEN & FALL Ideas you will adore! #craftideas

Mommy’s Pumpkin

This little craft was going to be part of a Mommy & Me event I was going to host last year. All you need is two footprints in orange paint to represent the pumkin and then using a black sharpie add the test and last details.

Discovering fall through Sensory Bottles

A great alternative to sensory bags is sensory bottles. By adding some glue or dish soap to the bottle, you make the items inside flow slower.

Sensory bottles are great for babies as a visual tracking exercise. For them use larger items like fall leaves and use a lot of glue or soap to make the items move slower.

Sensory bottles are great for toddlers because it is often used as a calming tool as well as a cause and effect tool. If I shake it .. then this happens. For toddlers, I always suggest adding some glitter as well to keep it interesting. Watch as they glitter settles down after you shake it.

You don’t always need to use water on your sensory bins. Sometimes just adding a few themed items is all you need. Shake it and see what sound does it make.

Sensory bottle ideas:

Discovering Fall through the sense of touch with Sensory Bins

Sometimes all you need is a bucket of leaves to create a sensory bin. Head over to the dollar store or your local craft store and buy these. The good thing about it? clean up is so easy!

fall sensory bin for toddlers
powerful mothering

Edible-Safe Apple Pie Sensory bin

I love to make sensory bins, and I knew I wanted to do a fall themed that could also be edible safe. I added cheerios as the base, created apple-shaped gelatine embellishments using this gelatine cubes recipe and this mold I got at Amazon). I added cinnamon sticks for scent and a spoon and bowl to work on transferring skills. It came out beautiful and the best part is that it is totally safe to eat!

More Apple Themed sensory binS

Create an apple pie themed sensory bin by using oatmeal as a base, real apples, and cinnamon. Sprinkle the cinnamon to activate that sense of smell. I bet it smells fantastic and your child with love it too!

This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is Screen-Shot-2019-10-09-at-2.46.49-PM.png

Cloud Dough Apple Pie

Cloud dough is a mixture between flour and oil. Make cloud dough with an apple scent by using 7 cups of flour, and adding 1 cup of vegetable oil and mix with your hands. Then add a few sprinkles of cinnamon or nut meg spice for added scent.

Uncooked flour can contain bacteria, it is often recommended to using oatmeal flour or similar.

Edible Fall-themed Jello

Jello is one of my favorite messy sensory activities, we have done it to create halloween monster eyes, and a few other activities.

Jello contains sugar so playtime can be sticky! if you don’t want it to be sticky but still want a Jell-O activity you can use unflavored gelatine. It is still fun and look, we did rainbow gelatine cubes.

Edible Playdough

Scented edible-safe can also be used for making playdough. When you have a little one that still puts everything in their mouth you betcha that tasty edible-safe playdough is what you want.

To make this playdough all you need is jello, cornstarch and water.

I tried to make this with koolaid instead of the jello and it smelled fantastic!

Three Ingredient Edible Sensory Dough
freutcake

Not so spooky Halloween bath

Add some glow sticks and plastic spiders to bathtime for a not-so spooky Halloween themed bath.

fall activities for baby

Last Thoughts

Babies and toddlers that still put everything in their mouth can still have a lot of fun to celebrate fall. Do one or do them all, enjoy your little learner and take every opportunity of these activities to work on developing vocabulary and exploring the world around them.