There’s something about a scarecrow preschool theme that makes fall learning feel extra fun! If you’re looking for a way to bring the season into your preschool routine, these hands-on scarecrow activities give little learners plenty to explore while they practice early math, literacy, and fine motor skills.
Children can count and build sets from 0–10, match colors, clip matching letters, “feed” lowercase letters, thread fall pictures, and build a scarecrow of their own. Choose an activity for your homeschool morning or set out a few as preschool centers, then pair them with a scarecrow story for a cozy fall learning day.
Table of Contents – JUMP to click ahead!
Fall Theme Sensory Bin
One of the easiest ways to add excitement and hands-on learning to your preschool week is with a themed sensory bin. So many of the activities in our Scarecrow Preschool pack incorporate a sensory bin, so it’s best to knock out the preparation early on! Our Fall sensory bin is always a hit—it’s simple to put together and offers tons of playful learning opportunities! Here’s how I like to set ours up!
FIRST, gather your materials. I like to use a plastic storage bin with a lid so I can cover and store the bin once it’s prepared. Choose your filler, like the dry oats we use in ours. Something about the oats really makes all the Fall colors in our scarecrow theme POP and gives children a very unique texture to experience. Once you’ve chosen your filler, fill your storage bin as much as you feel comfortable with (knowing each individual child can handle working with different amounts of materials).
NEXT, grab some extra Fall themed items like plastic apples and pumpkins, faux leaves, colorful pompoms, etc. These items make the perfect backdrop for the printable items in our preschool Fall packs! Scatter them throughout your sensory bin filler and watch the theme really come to life!
FINALLY, choose a space that you feel comfortable using the sensory bin with your child. I tuck ours away in our homeschool room with the rest of our Preschool manipulatives, and keep our sensory bin blanket nearby for when it’s time to get to work. The rule with our bins – everything stays on the blanket! This makes clean up SO much easier.
READY, SET, PLAY!!! When your sensory bin is not being used for the printable activities in our Scarecrow Preschool theme, allow children to explore freely! Watch them scoop, pour, dig, and more! I love taking our bin our when I need a little extra quiet time for homeschooling an older child, or honestly if I just need an extra minute to sip my hot coffee!
Scarecrow Theme Overview
This Scarecrow Preschool theme is sure to give your little learners TONS of fun practice! Children will have 6 center-style activities to choose from – 2 Math, 2 Literacy and 2 Fine Motor centers. In addition, I’ve included book recommendations for 5 scarecrow theme picture books and links to their read aloud videos on YouTube!
We love using a Preschool mini theme like this when we have some extra time in our learning time or are looking for an extra special addition to our regular themes! They’re perfect for fitting in as you can.
PS See how we use this theme in our Preschool scope and sequence by grabbing our FREE Preschool Curriculum Map below!
Counting Mat
Counting mats are super fun additions to sensory bins! To use this activity, children choose a crow picture card and count the number of crows on their card. Then they’ll use the printable crows to build the matching number of crows on their scarecrow mat! To move on, simply remove the crows and choose a new card!
Color Puzzles
These scarecrow color puzzles are just so sweet! To use, children complete the color puzzles by building the cutie little scarecrows! To make this activity even more fun, try laminating the pieces and adding this make-your-own magnet strip tape. Then have kiddos build magnet puzzles!
Upper and Lowercase Matching
“Find and Feed” activities have become some of our absolute favorites! To play this activity (and YES, it really does feel like playing!) children choose a haystack uppercase letter card and identify the letter. Then children sift through their Fall sensory bin to find the matching pumpkin lowercase letter so they can “feed” it to the scarecrow. Not only is this a fun activity, it’s an excellent exercise for those little fine motor skills of theirs! Keep “feeding” the scarecrow until all the pumpkins are gone!
Alphabet Clip Cards
We LOVE clip cards! To use this set of cards, children identify the letter on the left side of the card. Then they’ll find and clip the matching letter on the right side of the card. This is one of my favorite activities for the littlest learners because it strengthens fine motor skills while helping them practice letter identification, something that takes lots and lots of practice!
Build-a-Scarecrow
This build-a-scarecrow activity may just feel like a fun craft activity for your little learners, but really they are practicing such SUPER important fine motor skills. Some of these pieces (like the hats, shoes, etc.) are so small and take some good work to dig out of the sensory bin. So by the time they have built their cute little scarecrow buddy, they have had some wonderful exercise!
Scarecrow Theme Threading
We have recently discovered another new “school” favorite! My oldest daughter LOVES to crochet and sew, so of course my preschooler wants to be just like her older sister. The solution? These ADORABLE Fall and scarecrow theme threading cards! The “holes” are even prepped for you – simply print the pages, laminate the whole sheets, and then use a whole punch on the holes to create preschool-friendly sewing activities!
Ready to learn with your toddlers or Preschoolers ALL MONTH LONG?! You can save TONS when you grab this set of centers in our October Preschool Curriculum! The bundle includes 5 engaging October themes (like spiders, Halloween, Fire Safety, and more!), complete with a week of lesson plans for each! You’ll also get 25 NO PREP Halloween theme fine motor skills worksheets and crafts, and 40+ NO PREP Math and Literacy worksheets for extended practice!
Let’s hang out!
I hope this post helped you get a better look at our Scarecrow Preschool activities! Got questions? Let me know! I’d love to chat and get to know you better! You can find us below in some of our favorite places to hang out. Can’t wait to chat with you about your Preschooler’s learning journey!
SAVE THIS POST FOR LATER!
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