How to Celebrate Fall Equinox with Kids

We all know that during summer the days are longer and the nights are shorter, while in winter it’s the other way around. However, there are two days in the year where the day and night are equal lengths. We call these days equinoxes. The spring or vernal equinox marks the start of spring while the autumnal equinox marks the start of autumn or fall. 

These natural phenomena give you the perfect opportunity to teach children about seasons, geography, and the Earth’s natural occurrences. Best of all, children learn with their senses, and fall delivers a colorful and vibrant landscape that can fully captivate all of their attention. 

In this article, we’ll show you how to celebrate fall equinox with kids using our teaching resources and list of educational activities. 

Keep reading to find the easiest way to make a fall equinox lesson plan that kids will truly enjoy. 

5 Autumnal Equinox Activities

The Autumn Equinox marks the first official day of fall. We’ll show you how to celebrate fall equinox with kids, so here are five fantastic activities through which you can commemorate this special day with your students. 

Take a Nature Walk

Fall is that time of the year where the trees are colored in beautiful shades of green, gold, red, and yellow, all existing in perfect harmony for our eyes. The light breeze makes us put on warmer clothes and walk closer to one another. 

Taking kids to the park for a walk is a great idea, not just so they fully experience fall with their senses, but so you can teach them about the plant’s life cycle, see the differences between evergreen and deciduous trees, and explore plant diversity. 

Finally, you can encourage students to express gratitude for everything that our planet has given us the past year, everything they have, and for all the new things that are yet to come. 

Collect and Identify Autumn Leaves

Collecting autumn leaves so you can later identify them in class is a wonderful activity for celebrating autumnal equinox. You can do this with your students while taking a nature walk, or ask each student to bring different kinds of leaves from their neighborhood so you can later compare them and learn new things. 

You can also teach kids how to press or preserve some of the leaves, so they can create collages or special fall crafts. 

Make Fall Nature Crafts

Pressed or preserved fall leaves make an amazing resource for creating some of the most artistic DIY crafts. What can kids make? Well, they can turn pressed leaves into place cards, beautiful wreaths, elegant wall pictures, outdoor fall decor, and so much more. 

Children can even make fall cards through which they’ll tell how much they love their friends and family. 

Depending on how much time and resources you have, you can work on simple crafts that only require paper and colored pencils, or go all out and teach children how to preserve gathered fall leaves with beeswax. If your students love to color and draw, its the perfect opportunity to explore the colors of the season and create artworks that reflect the palette and mood of fall.  

Learn With Interactive Autumn Equinox Worksheets

Another way to celebrate the autumn equinox with kids is through educational, yet fun and colorful worksheets. 

On our website, you can find our dedicated Autumnal Equinox Facts & Worksheets bundle that consists of 18-page worksheets. They explore the Sun’s position, changing seasons, cross-cultural equinox characteristics, as well as the festivals and holidays during this period. If you want to delve deeper into the many celebrations around fall, we’ve got worksheets for those too, such as Mabon, and Harvest festivals. 

Implementing worksheets in your class is a simpler and fun-filled way of learning that will not only save you a lot of planning time, but they’re also highly effective. 

Read Books About Autumn Equinox

Finally, a classical way to celebrate the autumnal equinox with your students is to read books dedicated to this wonderful season and the wonders it has to offer. 

Children in preschool or elementary school would enjoy picture books that are visually stimulating and easy to read. Here are a few examples: 

• Fall Leaves: Colorful and Crunchy by Martha E. H. Rustad
• Goodbye Summer, Hello Autumn by Kenard Pak
• We Gather Together: Celebrating the Harvest Season by Wendy Pfeffer
• Autumn Equinox: Celebrating the Harvest by Ellen Jackson
• Leaf Man by Lois Ehlert 

Before You Leave 

Celebrating the autumnal equinox with kids can be both an educational and a joyful event. This is why it’s important to organize a memorable fall equinox lesson plan that every student will enjoy. In our article, we picked five different activities and included a number of teaching resources to help you out in this task so you stop wondering how to celebrate fall equinox with kids. 

Furthermore, you can visit our website and browse our worksheet library where you can find a lot more teaching resources on almost any topic. Plus, on our blog, we regularly share important information about children’s education for both teachers and homeschool tutors.