It’s time for pumpkins, apples, and falling leaves! How can families learn through play during this special time of year? 

Sparkler offers families 2,000+ off-screen play-based learning activities, organized by themes and skills. Each Sparkler activity is designed to inspire active learning through play, because children learn best when they are free to explore, experiment, and engage their whole bodies. 

We regularly share lists of featured activities with our program partners to help you identify activities you might want to share with families via our Library (or use in your classrooms) to promote development. This month, we are highlighting activities that celebrate autumn! You can find and share these activities directly from the Library tab in your Sparkler dashboard.

Fall Walk (for babies 0-18 months)

• Let’s go on a walk outside and look for signs of fall!

• The air feels cooler! The sun is rising later in the morning! Birds and butterflies are migrating south! The leaves are starting to change from green to brown, orange, yellow, and red! Acorns and leaves are falling off the trees! Let’s see if we can spot any squirrels eating acorns and getting ready to hibernate for winter!

• How many signs of fall can we spot as we walk around outside together?

Leaf Creatures (for toddlers 18-36 months)

• Let’s find fall leaves outside or make some out of paper!

• Let’s pretend that our leaves are leaf creatures! Let’s use markers, paint, or stickers to make faces on our leaves.

• Let’s play with our leaf creatures! What should we name them?

Pumpkin Spice Dough (for children 18 months – 5 years)

• It’s pumpkin season! Let’s make some pumpkin spice dough to play with and smell!

• Let’s mix one 15 oz. can of pumpkin purée with 2 cups of corn starch. If it’s still sticky, we can add more cornstarch until the dough forms. Let’s sprinkle some pumpkin spice into our dough.

• Let’s poke, squish, and squeeze our dough. Let’s roll the dough into balls like little pumpkins. We can add rolling pins, cookie cutters, plastic animals, or anything else that you like!