It’s fall, ya’ll!!! 🤪 The weather is actually cooling off in Japan, though the humidity seems to be sticking around a bit. I cannot wait for my hair to unfrizz, for real. To keep celebrating the arrival of fall I thought I would share my favorite fall children’s books and some ideas for fall-related art activities to do with them! I love connecting literacy and art, so I hope you find a good book and art project you can do here! Some of the images you see in this post are from my art education internship at the Pittsburgh Zoo way back in 2013!
Please note this post contains amazon affiliate links because I am an amazon affiliate (see full Amazon Affiliate disclosure at end of blog post).
Fall Books and Art Projects
“You’re My Little Pumpkin Pie” is one in a series of books I really love! They are short and sweet with adorable illustrations. Besides obviously making little pumpkin pies together, it would also be cute to design matching “You’re my little …” t-shirts with fabric markers! You could trace the characters in the book if you don’t have confident drawers, or have them come up with their own idea! Think of how cute your matching shirts would be!
Another fall book I found for free at our second hand store on base is “Edgar and Me.” It is about a crow named Edgar that is found as a baby bird and chronicles his independant life. This could be a jumping off point to go ona walk to look for other birds and give them names, then go home and try to draw them! You could even let your little use the phone to try and capture a photo of the birds you see.
“Leaf man” is about 15 years old but such a good starting point for art projects! You can make your own leaf men and women by collaging different leaves together or even just using one leaf that you paste to a paper and draw on! You could also challenge your children to make other scenes or animals by collaging leaves together. It would be a lot of fun to hunt for the perfect leaves beforehand!
Halloween Books and Art Projects
Okay so I got a huge stack of hand-me down fall books from my sister, and in them was a pop-up halloween book that Emme just adores. What kiddo doesn’t love a pop-up book, right? I think it would be SO fun to help you child create their own pop-up scene after reading this. You could walk through different 3D paper attaching techniques like these. Then, design your own pop-up jack-o-lantern cards to spook your friends! 🎃
The Color Monster is a book about feelings using monsters and color as metaphors. It would be fun to invite your child to draw their own feeling monster or just talk to them about what colors they think are linked to emotions. There is a pop-up version of the book here!
Little Acorn is adorable and instruces the life-cycle of trees! I think this would be a fun segway to start talking about animals that live in trees, or fairies! I used to love making bunny and fairy houses at the bottom of trees when I visited my grandparents cabin. I would gather up a bunch of natural materials and make little pretend entrances and front lawns. I wish I had a photo of one of mine from childhood to show you. I think it is a great practice in empathy too, to think about what animals would need/want to live.
More Fall Art Activities
Alright so if you don’t want art activities related to the specific books, here is a list of other ideas that are fall-related!
- Art and Nature Scavenger hunt walk
- Go on a walk for leaves and then bring them home to make leaf prints (paint them and press them) or rubbings!
- Make a fall sensory bin to play in
- Trace leaves on a light table
- Design your own pumpkin to carve or paint
More ideas?!
Hopefully you noticed the running theme here, to get outside! Cool weather is a great time to explore, and fall brings so many exciting changes to plants and trees! For more art education ideas, click here.
