A change in season is always exciting, and for children it can also be educational. Here are a few ways to use the great outdoors to plan your next lesson!

1. Go apple picking.

Apple-picking will never get old—especially for young students!

Take a trip to your local apple orchard to pick some fresh, ripe apples with your students. Apple picking can build young students’ fine motor skills and expose them to environmental science.

After the day is done, you can even encourage students to count how many apples they’ve picked to practice math skills.

2. Get creative with pumpkin-seeds.

Pumpkin seeds are highly multifunctional.

For appropriately-aged children, they can be used for building and formation exercises. Children can use the pumpkin seeds to form letters and numbers with the assistance of multisensory learning materials. Have your children glue pumpkin seeds to construction paper to make an outline of Mat Man®. Then, color him in with fall colors and warm clothes!

3. Make your favorite fall treats.

We all have our fall favorites—and the good news is, they don’t all require an oven. Look up some quality, no-bake fall recipes your students can easily follow and have a fall no-bake bakeoff in your classroom.

Not only will students build fine motor skills, they will also receive the chance to practice measurement skills by following recipe directions and flex their five senses with directions like tasting and smelling the ingredients!

4. Sort differently colored of leaves.

Before you rake up all the leaves, think about how they can be used in the classroom. Leaves can be used to teach students about colors and patterns. Have students collect leaves and bring them into class. You can create a variety of different exercises based on students’ developmental levels that revolve around colors, patterns, or even plant species. Here are some leaf crafts for kids you can try in the classroom—plus, a few fall crafts for grown-ups!

We hope you have a fun, foundational fall and continue to find ways to incorporate the beauty of the season into your lessons!