Fall Science Activities

Fall is officially here. Are you ready for the change in seasons? Here are several fall science activities that are perfect for this time of year. You’ll find apple science, leaf science, Halloween science, and ideas for exploring outside. I get commissions for purchases made through affiliate links in this post.

Fall Science Activities

Apple Science

Apples are a big part of fall. Take the time to explore an apple tree or cut open an apple. These five apple science ideas are perfect for autumn.

Talk about the changing seasons with The Seasons of Arnold’s Apple Tree.

Head outside for an apple tree investigation. Find out if your apples are ripe and ready to eat.

Conduct a mini apple investigation and taste if the apples are ripe.

Try an Play Dough Apple Stacking STEM Activity. Stack and sort the play dough apples.

Our Baking Soda Painted Apple Art combines art and science. Use the fizzy reaction to create some fun apple paintings.

Also check out this collection of Apple Books and Apple Science Activities.

Leaf Science

When I think about fall and fall science activities, I think about the beautiful colors of the leaves on the trees. It’s wonderful to go for a walk and observe the changes that autumn brings.

Have an adventure collecting leaves and other nature objects.  Examine textures, listen, observe, and explore!

Bring your leaf collection home and practice sorting leaves and seeds. Sorting is an important math and science skill and a precursor to classification.

Practice using a ruler with our leaf measurement activity. Observe the differences between the leaves and sort them by size. This is a lovely addition to a fall nature table.

Try these three science experiments with leaves I shared over at St. Louis Mom. Observe oxygen and transpiration in leaves; plus, see the different colors in leaves.

Examine your leaves and create pictures with them. As you build your own Leaf Man, discuss the difference between the leaves – the colors, the shapes, etc.

Try a fall themed STEAM project with baking soda painted leaves It’s a fun way to combine science and art.

Set up an acorn discovery table that kid are sure to love.

Halloween Science

With the changing season, comes Halloween. Much of the month of October seems to be devoted to the holiday. Science and Halloween pair so well together. Check out some of our favorite ideas below.

A Halloween Robot Spider Craft is a fun STEM or STEM activity for Halloween. Design a spider or any Halloween creature and add a motor to make it move.

Use static electricity to make dancing ghosts and bats.

Experiment with a fizzy potions juice lab and make your own witchy concoctions.

Try our super simple Halloween slime recipe. It’s perfect for making individual batches. You can’t mess this one up. The post includes a video to show you how the slime comes together.

You’ll also love our 2 ingredient glow in the dark slime. Watch the video of my 8 year old making this slime.

This glowing Halloween science demo with chlorophyll is sure to impress. Chlorophyll is green under normal light, but fluoresces red under UV light. It makes a fun addition to Halloween science lab decorations.

Create a Halloween science lab that’s perfect for Trunk or Treat or a Halloween party. Choose props that glow in the dark or fluoresce under a black light. Make glowing slime, vampire blood, and other concoctions to fill your vials.

After you carve pumpkins this year, make some pumpkin oobleck (with real pumpkin)! It’s ooey, gooey, and oh so squishy. My kids absolutely love it!

Glowing oobleck is an easy slime recipe that’s perfect for Halloween or exploring with a black light. Tonic water gives the oobleck its eerie glow. We also made some oobleck with glow in the dark paint. The combination is super cool.

Turn your rock collection into pumpkin rocks. What other Halloween themed rocks will you paint?

Grab a pile of pumpkin erasers and try a Halloween STEM Stacking Challenge. Any flat erasers will work for this activity. What Halloween themes can you find this year?

Check out our frozen baking soda pumpkins.

Our Pumpkin Discovery Table is another fantastic fall STEM activity.

Baking soda painted pumpkins and Fizzy Spider Web Art are more great STEAM project that kids will love this fall.

Check out the STEAM Kids Halloween ebook. It has more than 50 pages of spooky fun STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art & Math) activities that are sure to be great fun! Click here to learn more.

Explore Outside

Fall is the perfect time to go outside and explore your surroundings. Work on observations skills and learning about nature.

Go on an outdoor sound hunt inspired by Mr. Brown Can Moo! Can You? by Dr. Seuss.

Learn some forest lessons. The post discusses exploring the deep forest as well as forest edges.

Stay tuned for more fall science activities this year!

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This post was originally published on August 23, 2013.