Fall Playdough Leaf Activity

Now that the leaves are starting to change color, I think my kids will love the chance to play with this fall Plasticine invitation.

Strengthen hand muscles

This fall-themed foliage activity allows kids to have fun while learning and strengthening their hand muscles. Rolling, stretching, crushing, and otherwise manipulating playdough engages children’s hand muscles, which is critical in preparing them for self-care tasks, such as tying shoes and writing, which require well-developed hand muscles.

Get ready for this fall playdough activity

To make your own fall leaf playdough invitations, grab any fall-themed materials you have on hand or go on a nature hunt with your kids to collect items.

In our Autumn Leaves Playdough invitations, I included:

Check out the Playdough Hub page for basic playdough recipes. (Leave the playdough white for this activity.)

Adding small objects like fall leaves, leaf table scatter, and cookie cutters to our playdough keeps children engaged while also giving them tools to express concepts that interest them. My daughter pressed the table into the playdough (a great finger muscle exercise) and then started counting the leaves.

Another child in our group took the opportunity to compare the properties of a tough leaf spread with a more fragile real leaf. He pressed them into plasticine and compared the marks they left. He tried inserting two leaves into the plasticine by their stems; he touched their surfaces with his fingers.

This observation-based learning and experimentation with different materials helps lay the foundation for later scientific work. This is also a good time to encourage children to use descriptive language to compare materials, such as hard versus soft.

different types of games

Kids came up with lots of ways to play with this simple autumn leaf playdough invitation, including:

• Making patterns with leaves (early math skills)
• Cover the leaves with white plasticine “snow” to remember that after autumn comes winter
• Make your own fall leaves with cookie cutters
• Use pliers to insert the leaf fragments into the plasticine (practice holding the pen while playing)

I left the playdough white to encourage children to use manipulative tools during play and imagine the playdough in different ways. Later we painted the playdough and made fall themed playdough beads.

Introduction: Jennifer Tammy writes at Study at Home Mama, sharing hands-on learning activities, easy recipes, and parenting inspiration. She is a single mother, a trained psychologist, and a certified Montessori kindergarten owner. You can connect with her on Facebook, Pinterest or Instagram.

More fall ideas