Whether you are an educator or have a child at home that you are looking for new, fun, hands-on activities to try with them, this collection of 30 Fun Fall Kindergarten Learning Centers will give you lots of ideas this season!

I am lucky to work in an area that greatly values play as one of the best ways for a child to learn. Our kindergarten program is play based – children learn through hands-on play. This teaching style is great for me because I strive for hands-on learning in every grade I teach. With play based learning comes a lot of hands-on centers and activities.

Coming up with new learning centers every few days can be tricky, but fall offers lots of great ideas and natural themes such as, leaves, pumpkins, acorns and even apples. Bring these fall themes into your classroom or home this season with these kindergarten learning centers and ideas.

Many of the fall centers for kindergarten can be done independently by children if they are shown and modelled how to complete the activity. Always make sure to supervise children during activities.

Most of the centers include a link below the related picture. Click the link for a full activity description. However, a few of the activities do not include a link because the activity is just a simple idea.

However, if you are looking for more ideas and details of how to use the simple activity, leave me a comment at the end of the post and I’ll let you know how I used the activity in my classroom.

If you’re looking for more fall activities for kids check out this collection of popular fall activities for kids including a Fall Escape Room Game.

Fall Kindergarten Learning Centers – Art

Kids will love these simple art activities using fall materials.

All you need is a pumpkin and some paint or markers for this activity. Keep it simple and children can paint and/or draw all over the pumpkin to decorate it. This is also a great activity to use left over pumpkins from Halloween.

DIY Scratch Art Leaves are gorgeous! Easy to make with our free printable templates and so colorful and vibrant! A lovely craft for Fall and Thanksgiving.

This Fall Snow Globe is a cute and easy Fall kids craft or décor idea! Learn how to make a falling leaves sensory bottle with step by step video instructions!

Pumpkin apple stamping is an adorable and easy fall craft for kids with simple supplies you likely already have at home!

Is there anything better than the sound of leaves crunching under your feet in the fall? Create a Fall Leaves Bookmark Craft for Kids station!

This activity is intended for Thanksgiving, but it can be made any time of year. Grab a white pumpkin and either give kids a marker or help them with the printing, to create a meaningful decoration.

The colors of fall are here. The changing leaves on trees offer many opportunities for children to explore colors and color mixing in art.

Why not make the creative process a sensory activity as well? Fall colors are the catalyst for these unique fall marbled and paint resist trees.

How adorable are these fall hedgehogs? Use colorful leaf cutouts to create these adorable critters.

Fall Centers for Kindergarten – Science

This season is a great time for new science experiments for kids. Use simple materials to create exciting hands-on experiments that will get kids excited about science, and fall.

This fizzing apple experiment uses kitchen ingredients to create a chemical reaction, or explosion as kids will be excited to call it. Shape your ingredients like an apple or even a pumpkin for a fall theme.

STEM challenges are a great learning activity for young children. They are done largely independently and encourage children to problem solve and think outside of the box.

Try creating a boat for a mini pumpkin that not only holds the pumpkin but also looks great.

This is one of my favorite science experiments that I do every year in class. Show children a true chemical reaction where foaming bubbles ‘explode’ out of a jack-o-lantern.

Fall Kindergarten Learning Centers – Math

Math and numbers are a core learning skill for children. Simply making math class fit a theme, like fall, can make it new and exciting.

Try using themed ten frames, fall pumpkin pieces and a die for this math learning center. Children roll a die or two and use the pumpkin (or other pieces) to represent the amount shown on the die.

Kids love carving pumpkins and picking out a great pumpkin for Halloween, but have they ever looked really closely and inspected one? Find the circumference, number of seeds and even if your pumpkin floats or sinks with this pumpkin investigation booklet. These pumpkin activities are the perfect fall centers for kindergarten.

Use your left over pumpkin seeds with this free printable worksheet for children to represent the numbers on the page with seeds.

Discover six fresh fall-themed fine motor skill play activities for kids. From apples and acorns to den-building and a pumpkin patch, these are cute tinker tray ideas your little ones will adore!

I love the idea of using pumpkin seeds. This is also a great sensory activity as children learn about and reinforce their numbers.

Match the numbers on the card to the pumpkin with this hands-on math. Change out the numbers and amounts based on what you are currently learning.

Head out on a woodland walk to collect some conkers and then use these ideas to have some fun with an Autumn favourite: conkers!

Fall Kindergarten Learning Centers – Sensory

Get your hands, or feet in these sensory learning centers and celebrate fall as you use your senses.

This pumpkin pie slime is super jiggly (as opposed to stretchy) and stays in place when you mold it, so it’s perfect for pretend cooking sensory play! Grab a mini pie tin and a rolling pin and get “baking!”

These super soft fall playdough recipes smell like your favorite things about the season! Learn how to make apple, pumpkin, and cinnamon scented play dough in 2 minutes in the microwave!

Don’t throw out old papers or art work. Hang onto it for this recycled pumpkin craft. Kids will learn a little bit about how paper is made and they get to get their hands on paper mulch.

Roll it into a ball, and add a few details to create an adorable pumpkin decoration.

Fall Centers for Kindergarten – Hands-On Play

The next few activities include a little bit of everything hands-on, but they don’t focus on a specific subject area. These table top centers are great for little ones to play and explore.

This fall center for kindergarten was a hit in my classroom the other day. Give children freedom during their play by simply giving them materials to play and create with, but no specific task. They can create a story or simply design a house or yard. Keep the materials fall themed for the season.

This is a super simple idea, but it is always a very busy kindergarten learning center. Use a pumpkin, toy hammer and golf tees. Children experience the feeling of hammering, but with a golf tee into a pumpkin.

I created large and small felt boards years ago that I absolutely love and they get lots of use out of. Set out some felt boards and any shapes or figures made from felt for children to create images and stories.

This Handprint Acorn Lacing Craft is such a fun way to build fine motor skills this Autumn.

Fall Kindergarten Learning Centers – Building

Use some simple materials to create something amazing.

Loose parts play is always a hit with kids. Give a collection of fall themed materials, such as colorful leaves, and allow children to create and design.

This Fall LEGO Challenge is full of fun ideas and building prompts that will keep your kids busy this autumn season!

Fall Centers for Kindergarten – Leaves

You can’t talk about fall without including leaves! Leaves are an easy material to get your hands-on during the fall season and they are perfect for hands-on learning.

Create a left imprint and learn some of the leaves you may find with this kindergarten learning center idea.

Go outside for this easy leaf scavenger hunt and genius idea of attaching the hunt onto a bag. When you find the items add them to the bag to keep them all together.

Adding educational value to your learning centers easy with this fall leaf rubbing craft and activity. As children rub their leaves and create a print, they can also create words and recognize their letters. It’s an easy trick to put the letters on the leaves.

Rake a bunch of beautiful leaves up for this final preschool and kindergarten learning center. Challenge children to find and match each of the letters on the leaves to the letter on the cardboard.

Learning Centers Extension Ideas

If there are a few centers that are a hit with your children you can always change the theme slightly as you move into winter or another theme. For example you can switch out pumpkins for snowmen or acorns for snowflakes.

You can also alter some of the ideas to focus on any units you are working on in class. For example for the final example and leaf matching activity, try printing numbers on each leaf instead of letters.

Hands-On Teaching Ideas Free Library

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More Hands-On Teaching Ideas

Fall is a great time for lots of themed activities. Check out more play based activities to try in your classroom or home. From fall STEM activities to fall outdoor learning activities and even a Halloween escape room, there is lots to keep kids busy and learning.