FREE Activities for Kids: Free Fall Fun – Cookie Dough Recipe Included!

Fall isn’t quite here yet. In fact, it’s still in the 90s here in North Texas, but some areas of the country have already had temps dip down into the 50s. Regardless of where you live, fall is often the most favorite season of all. I’m thinking it’s because it’s that awesome in-between time – between the heat of summer and the bitter cold of winter.

Fall will be here before you know and that means it’s time to begin planning for some FREE fall activity ideas. Don’t you just love the word FREE?! I know I do, so I made a list of some fall activity fun for you and your kiddos below. Feel FREE to share your own family’s favorite fall activities in the comments section!

Local Library Activities

This one is first on my list because it’s probably my favorite. No matter where you live, I can guarantee that your local library will host a variety of fall crafty fun for kids.

Search your local library’s website and look for their events calendar – all libraries have these. Just as an example, my own local library lists dozens and dozens of wonderful activities for kids of all ages. Things like a Campfire Sing Along, Pony Roundup, author readings and much more, are on the list. And the great thing is everything is FREE!

A Walk Through the Woods

Even if you live in a large city, you’ll still likely find a park or two. Take the kiddos for a walk and have them gather up twigs, leaves, acorns, etc. to use in their very own nature art.

Children can decorate poster board by gluing their nature finds. To make an even sturdier piece of art, try using scrap wood. Older children can use hot glue. Younger children can use a good tacky glue. Get creative and personalize nature plaques with names made with twigs.

Host a Kid’s Craft Party

I know when my kiddos were young they wanted craft-themed birthday parties for every birthday celebration. Well, you don’t have to wait for birthday time to roll around to host a kid’s craft party! This idea can be done with just your own family, as a family craft night, or you can have your children each invite a friend over to join in. Recycled items make excellent and FREE materials for craft party projects.

Save things like foam packaging (the kind that come with meat and produce – washed super duper well, of course) or scrap wood to use as a base. Then gather feathers, sequins, beads, magazine cutouts, Popsicle sticks and more to use as art elements. Chances are you have tons of these items already at home. Have the kids glue to their heart’s content and presto – instant artwork.

Bake Some Cookies

Fall is a great time to turn on that oven and do some baking. The smell of baking cookies makes any home smell heavenly and…well…homey. Gather your baking supplies and let the kiddos go to town decorating a simple sugar cookie recipe. Most children love rolling sugar cookie dough ala play clay style into shapes and letters. Enjoying the delicious cookies of their labor with an ice cold glass of milk is pretty fun too.

Super Simple Sugar Cookie Recipe

Ingredients:

1 cup butter or margarine

1 cup sugar

1 large egg

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 teaspoons baking powder

2 ¾ cups flour

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Combine butter and sugar together, then add egg and vanilla, and mix to a creamy consistency.

In a separate bowl, mix dry ingredients together.

Slowly add creamed butter mixture to dry ingredients and mix until soft and all flour is incorporated.

Turn out on a lightly floured board. Have children pull off pieces of dough to create their masterpieces and place on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper for easy removal after baking.

Bake for 7 – 10 minutes, watching for light browning on edges. Enjoy!

Free Bookmarks to Color

I'm sharing this free coloring sheet of four bookmarks to color, from the eBook Review Gal website. Print on standard size white cardstock. Have the kiddos color them in with crayons, pencils or markers, then cut them out to use in books. It's a good way to encourage reading! 

Instructions: 

Click on the photo to open in a new window. Right click to save to your computer, then print. 

Quirky Characters Clown Bunny Bookmark

Just one final idea for those Quirky Characters. What better way to encourage children to read than to have them create their own recycled bookmarks? Just like all the other Quirky Characters I've made, this clown bunny was made entirely from recycled materials. Cereal boxes, colored with markers make up his body. The body pieces were glued together with thick tacky glue (I used Crafter's Pick). Scraps of yarn looped through a punched hole creates the tassel. Super simple and FREE!

Daily Positive Affirmation ACEO Cards

Life can sometimes get us down, but it's important to remember that we are in control of our own feelings regardless of what's going on around us. Easier said than done, right? 

Daily positive affirmations - especially repeated first thing in the morning - can truly make a difference in how our day goes. Repeating a positive affirmation again at night (particularly a word of thanks) can allow us to wind down and prepare for a peaceful night's sleep. I've gone one step further with these little positive affirmation ACEO (Art Cards, Editions and Originals) cards. They can be placed in a prominent place in your home where you'll be sure to see them every day. 

I'm a firm believer in the importance of creating handcrafted items to be used as tools to further a more positive life. After all, we infuse our own energy into everything we do. Why not channel our positive energies? 

Below are just two of the positive affirmation cards I’ve created. You probably have things you’d like to work on in your own life. Tap into those things and use your imagination to make your own cards. Search online for positive affirmations to get ideas.

The first card has several elements. I used a vintage graphic (printed from my computer), tissue paper, rubber stamps, a miniature brad and some sewing (yes, you can use your sewing machine to add some pretty cool elements to your paper art). The entire piece was assembled on top of a standard playing card (perfect size for an ACEO). True ACEOs are 2.5 x 3.5, but you don't have to stick to that size. They're for your own use after all!

The other card was cut from watercolor paper. I used a playing card as my template. I used watercolor markers and word cutouts (printed from my computer). Pretty easy!

You could easily have children make their own positive affirmations. Have them think about what they think they might need to "work" on and go from there. There are lots of "teachable" moments here :)