Fall Gross Motor Activities

Adding to the fun of autumn are these Fall gross motor activities. There is so much about this time of year that offers opportunities for heavy work activities and gross motor play, all using a Fall theme!

Use these Fall activities for family fun or ways to offer different movement challenges. Many of these ideas use all that Autumn has to offer: cooler weather, piles of leaves, hay bales, pumpkins, and apples. Other gross motor ideas listed here are gross motor ideas that can be done indoors. Either way, they are perfect for gross motor preschool activities, gross motor activities for toddlers, and whole-body activities to help kids build core strength, balance, coordination, and endurance.

Fall Gross Motor Activities

Isn’t Fall the perfect time to get outside, enjoy the season and the crisp air while getting active?  There are so many great active and gross motor activities you and your family can do even with little prep or planning.  Jump in leaves, go on a nature walk, collect leaves and fall items…just get moving! 

Fall Activities

Collect fall leaves with Leaf Identification Cards.

Print off this free Fall Tic Tac Toe board. Try to fill the board by doing all of the fall activities.

Talk a walk and enjoy nature. What do you see? Smell? Hear?

Get active with a Ghost Catch Game.

Go on a hunt with Halloween Scavenger Hunt

Rake leaves as a family.

Then, JUMP in the leaves!

Spending time time indoors doesn’t mean there’s no room for gross motor activities. Creep and crawl like a spider with this Motor Planning Spider Web Maze.

Explore apples and red while balancing a tree trunk with Learning Apples/Red.

Sing and dance this season with Red and Yellow and Orange and Brown Songs for Autumn (and dance).

Get those shoulder girdles activated with Easy Indoor Halloween Obstacle Course.

For sensory input, try these Fall Vestibular Activities that will add movement.

You’ll love the calming heavy work that these Fall Proprioception Activities offer.

Try Fall Fine Motor Activities, too!

Colleen Beck, OTR/L has been an occupational therapist since 2000, working in school-based, hand therapy, outpatient peds, EI, and SNF. Colleen created The OT Toolbox to inspire therapists, teachers, and parents with easy and fun tools to help children thrive. Read her story about going from an OT making $3/hour (after paying for kids’ childcare) to a full-time OT resource creator for millions of readers. Want to collaborate? Send an email to contact@theottoolbox.com.