Fall Science Center for Preschool

This season marks the arrival of pine cones, gourds, and mini pumpkins at grocery stores, and they happen to be fantastic additions to my fall science center for preschool. This is always one of our favorite preschool activities for fall.

This preschool science center for fall offers opportunities for kids to explore seasonal changes through a variety of hands-on materials. Using items like leaves, acorns, apples, and pumpkins, these activities support both science and math development. Let me show you how.

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Ready to explore autumn with your preschoolers? A fall science center offers fantastic chances for preschoolers to dive into seasonal changes through direct observation and hands-on activities. By utilizing materials like leaves, acorns, apples, and pumpkins, these engaging experiences naturally boost both science and math skills.

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Introduce this simple object investigation into your fall preschool science activities. It’s perfect for autumn math activities too, as it covers practical skills like sorting, counting, and comparing. Whether you’re setting it up as part of your indoor leaf sorting and counting math centers, integrating it into exciting pumpkin science experiments, or arranging fall sensory science centers, the possibilities are vast. This activity, like all these options, encourages both inquiry and classification.

These nature-based fall STEM experiences fit perfectly with early learning goals. What a great way to foster active engagement with the environment and bring the vibrant autumn season to life in your classroom!

Read this: Fall Graphing Activities for Preschoolers

How to Create a Fall Science Center for Preschoolers

As an early childhood educator, I’m always looking for the simplest ways to bring the best learning into my classroom. In the fall, that means taking advantage of all the foliage and natural elements available. Add some magnifying glasses and some scales, and your math and science center is golden!

Preschool Science Center Materials

• gourds, mini pumpkins, pine cones, etc.
• silk leaves (Optional. You can use real ones, but they tend to get crunched up, making a mess).
• balance scale
• platform scale
• jumbo magnifying glasses

The Set-Up

Organize the gourds, pumpkins, pine cones, leaves, etc. into separate trays. I like to use these wooden trays or some wicker baskets. I feel like it makes the science center feel even more like fall.

Spend some time making organizing the materials to make the science center look nice and inviting. After all, you want your preschoolers and toddlers to be curious enough to engage. Include magnifying glasses and some scales, like a balance scale and a platform scale. Use as many scales as possible, even if it’s a digital scale.

Now, invite your preschoolers to come and explore their new fall math and science center!

Hands-on Fall Science Center for Preschool

When it comes to science activities for preschool, I prefer to let the children explore without distractions. I observe their engagement with the science center, allowing them to guide me on what they need to learn.

The preschoolers were initially drawn to the scales, as they were less familiar than the magnifying glasses we often use.

They quickly started experimenting with the scales, problem-solving, making observations and exploring what the scales could do. Here is a quick post on how to use a balance scale with preschoolers.

One child even noticed the needle on the scale moving, although he didn’t immediately grasp the concept that heavier objects caused higher readings. He simply enjoyed the cause-and-effect relationship of placing objects on the scale.

This is where, as a teacher, I come in. This is guided learning. I sat down next to my student and watched as he placed the white pumpkin back on the scale.

Me: What happening to the scale when you put the pumpkin on it?
Student: The red stick moves.
Me: The red stick is called a needle. Does the needle move every time?
Student: Yup.
Me: How far does it move?
Student: To right there. (Pointing)
Me: That’s just a little past two pounds. See the number two right there? Does the needle move past two with every pumpkin?

The student kept experimenting with various pumpkins. While we didn’t do this, it’s a great idea to add some ten frame number cards to your science center materials, too! These one to one correspondence counting cards would work great, too!

Using the balance scale, the children compared the weights of different objects. For instance, they found out how many pine cones equaled the weight of a mini pumpkin.

They also learned that five pine cones didn’t always weigh the same as another set of five. This sparked an interesting discussion.

Me: If there are five pine cones in this bin, and five in that bin, will they weigh the same?
Student: Yes.
Me: Have you tested that idea? 

I then showed the student how to compare the weights, counting out five into one bin and then I invited the student to count five into the other. (I intentionally chose the smallest pine cones to make my point).

Me: Uh-oh. The scale is telling us they don’t weigh the same. How does the scale tell us they don’t weigh the same?
Student: This side is more dippy. [ Closer to the table, thus lower than the other side. ]
Me: I see that, too. One side is lower than the other because it is heavier. But they have the same number of pine cones. Why don’t they weigh the same?

The student then took the pinecones out and lined them up on the table. With further discussion, she realized the pinecones varied in sizes, and thus varied in weight, too.

We explored this concept again with different mini pumpkins.

Other students were content to explore the differences of gourds and pumpkins at our science and math center. She loved feeling the bumpy gourds and tried to make them stand on their own like the pumpkins could.

This science center kept my preschoolers busy learning throughout the majority of our fall preschool theme.

But if yours ever start to get bored, all you have to do is switch out a few items for something else. Pinecones for silk leaves, mini pumpkins for small pie pumpkins, etc.

Read this: Fall Shapes Board Game

Fall Science Activities for Preschool

Keep a range of engaging science activities for kids at your fingertips! From dissecting leaves to discover their intricate structures to conducting simple experiments with apples and pumpkins, these hands-on activities foster a love for science in the crisp autumn air.

• Fall Science Center for Toddlers
• Pumpkin Sink or Float Experiment
• Investigating Seeds
• Leaf Rubbings
• Fall Leaf Impressions
• Bird Migration Challenge
• Sunflower Science Center

Children’s Books about Fall

Amazon offers a great selection of fall picture books perfect for the season.

These books vividly capture the magic of autumn with colorful illustrations and engaging stories that young readers will adore. These are the fall picture books we keep in our science center.

Fall Themed Manipulatives

Make your fall preschool theme complete with these manipulatives! Preschoolers love using them and teachers love that they are so versatile.