Try out these awesome calming autumn activities for kids. This list includes relaxation, mindfulness, sensory, craft and nature ideas which will allow kids to connect with the season and find a little space for themselves. When kids learn the importance of taking some down time and practicing healthy coping skills, they learn an important life skill that will support their mental health and well being as they grow.
Pin Calming Autumn Activities for Kids for Later
Please be aware that this post contains some affiliate links. These are products and services that I truly love and using the link brings no extra cost to you and helps fund Calm Ahoy Kids. Thank you
List of Calming Autumn Activities for Kids
So let’s get into the list, I hope you enjoy doing these calming playful activities with you children as much as I did with my son. I hope that you enjoy a little bit of calm, some creativity and lots of connection!
1. Take a Leaf Breath
Leaf Breaths is a soothing, nature based, shape breathing technique. This mindful breathing activity, helps kids to learn deep breathing, using a visual cue. Its’ especially calming as kids can trace their finger around the shape as a way to keep them grounded in the moment.
{Check out our printable leaf breaths kit here}
Print out the breathing poster or you can simply find a leaf to practice with. Get your children to trace their finger up on side of the leaf and breathe in, then pause and trace down the other side as they breathe out. The more sides, the more breaths.
{Free Balloon Breath Printable}
2. Make an Autumn themed Calm Jar
Make an easy 2 ingredient Autumn themed calm jar {see the recipe here}. We chose a lovely brown / bronze shimmer powder for out Autumn themed jar. We later added some crumbled leaves too. They took a few days to absorb in the water, but they floated around in a lovely swirly way, just like the Autumn leaves falling from a tree.
3. Have Fun Sweeping the Leaves
One of the first mindfulness practices I was taught was to make an everyday chore mindful by using your 5 senses. Practice this fun mindful exercise with your kids and get them to move mindfully as they sweep up the leaves. Get them to sweep slow, then fast! Using the left arm, then on one leg! What do they notice? What can they see, touch, smell and hear as they do it.
Add a little creativity to this exercise and make an easy nature broom to do the sweeping with. {Nature Broom Blog Post}
4. Sip a Warm Hot Chocolate
Making and drinking hot chocolate is the perfect mindful activity for kids. Each stage of the process can be done with care and anticipation. Then finally you get to really enjoy and savour all the hard work that’s gone into your delicious creation.
We are big fans of hot chocolates in this house and love taking a flask and the ingredients out on a chilly Autumn walk, finding a cozy nook and staying warm together. Cozy, calm, connection through hot chocolate, yum!
5. Create an Autumn DIY Calm Corner
Create an Autumn themed DIY calm corner at home or in your classroom. Add lots of Autumnal colours, add Autumn books (see the list below), make sweet orange and cinnamon playdough {Easy Playdough Recipe} and practice Autumn leaf breaths.
See my Instagram post below for all the details and more pictures.
6. Read an Autumn Themed Story Book
- The Very Last Leaf by Stef Wade – This cute book is a great book to help teach young children about how some things in life can be a challenge or be scary or daunting to them but with courage and support they can achieve anything.
- Sweep by louise Greig – this a great picture book for children of all ages. It can help children to understand their own emotions as well as being aware of others.
- In the middle of Fall by Kevin Henkes – A sweet and simple book about the changing of seasons and the temporary nature time. It encourages you to stop and savour because soon things will change.
- A little bit of Brave by Nicola Kinnear – Set in a beautiful autumn forest, Logan is a rabbit who never leaves his tree. All the adventures his friend Luna goes on sound far too scary for him, but he finds his courage and bravely heads out into the forest.
7. Go Foraging and Paint with Blackberries
Painting with berries is a really simple and fun activity. We used blackberries that we went out and picked, the colours came out really vibrant.
8. Imagine an Autumn Day
Imagine the perfect Autumn day and use imagery to relax the mind and body. Ask children to imagine what would their perfect Autumn day look like. What would they wear? Where would they go? Who would they be with? How do they feel?
Then ask them to notice what can they see, smell, hear, taste and touch? Get them to notice the little details. They could then draw a picture or write a story. Imagery can help us to feel calm and relaxed, its a way of using our positive imagination.
9. Take an Autumn Colour Walk
Take an Autumn themed colour walk with your kids and look out for all the beautiful, changing colours of Autumn. A fun addition could be adding in a seed scavenger hunt. Looking out for Conkers, Acorns, Sycamore and other seeds on the ground as you take your walk.
Find out how to make a DIY color walk kit here and download both of our free autumn/fall and rainbow colour walk printable’s (as well as other goodies) in our free resource library.
10. Feel Calm with a Conker
You can use a Conker as a calming focal point by holding in tight in your hand. We can use our hands as a convenient and easy way to calm ourselves. By directing our attention to our hands and the feel of the Conker, we are grounding our selves in the moment and calming our minds and bodies.
Another easy activity is to draw a spiral on a Conker and then trace you finger along the spiral as you breathe in and out. A handy little seed that can be kept in your pocket when you need a bit of Autumn calm.
11. Make Some Leaf Art
Leaves are so great for using in nature art projects. Kids can print with them, rub them, make a collage or sketch them and notice all the patterns. Go take an Autumn colour walk (no.9) and then use the leaves you collect.
Use our Leaf breaths kit and mix creativity with calming breathing exercises.
12. Make an Autumn Snail Sanctuary
Collect lots of natural resources and make a snail sanctuary. We made our own DIY playdough and used empty snail shells to create our snails. We then made a home for them in a deep tray, using leaves, branches and other natural resources. A lovely way to practice kindness and caring for our little snail buddies. {See more pics in my Instagram post}
13. Make an Autumn Sensory Box or Calm Kit
Make an Autumn sensory box or calm kit, a great little activity for kids to make and then use to practice calming coping skills. We make our kit into a little box, so easy to pop in the car for our travels or use in different rooms. You could even make a mini one to fir in a pencil case for school! {See my Instagram post for all the details and more picture of our Autumn calm kit}
14. Play with a Paper Sycamore Seed Spinner
We learnt to make Sycamore seed spinner when we visited the museum last year, it was just good fun. You can find a free template to use here . The seed spinners were very calming to watch as they floated down to the ground. If you get a chance go and find a real life Sycamore tree, Autumn is the perfect time to watch the seeds twirl down to the ground like little helicopters.
15. Create an Autumn Leaf Garland
Make a leaf garland, collect leafs and simply use a craft stamp to cut out shapes then hang the leaves up as a simple, but lovely nature crafts. See all the details here {Star Leaf Garland}.
I hope that you’ve enjoyed this list of calming Autumn activities for kids and that you give some a try. We really enjoyed trying them out and taking the time to find some calm in the beautiful fall / autumn season.
Take care – Emma x
3 thoughts on “15 Calming Autumn Activities for Kids”
Comments are closed.