Autumn is definitely my favourite season of the year.  It helps that it includes my husband, son’s and my birthdays “fall” in it as well as those of several other family members, plus our wedding anniversary and, of course, Halloween.  But I also love the rich colours, the natural imagery and the distinctive scent in the air.  And what better day to celebrate it all than the Autumnal Equinox…

Probably because it so succinctly sums up part of my love for the season, the Autumn Free Printable from On Sutton Place was one of the first to catch my eye, designed to “get you going and ready to rake those leaves!”  In this post Ann also links to her fall and comfort food recipes as well as her board dedicated to “the best fall-themed food and decor images that Pinterest has to offer”.

If the changing seasons gives you the opportunity to talk about the days and months of the year with your children then you might find the Free 2014 Pumpkin Calendar Set from 3 Dinosaurs useful to print out.  Cassie has also written a post on Different Ways to Use the Calendar Cards for further activity inspiration.

It’s all about play and getting your kids outdoors for the Woodland Trust’s Nature Detectives who provide printable activity sheets, games and ideas including the booklets Autumn Play, Adventure, Woodland Log Book and Recipe Booklet as well as ID tools and spotter sheets and suggestions for both indoor and outdoor play as well as craft, quizzes, puzzles and more.

Wildlife Watch also offers spotters sheers to download including the Autumn tree and leaf detective page – “Can you tell an oak from an ash?  Do you know which tree those fallen leaves have come from?  Use this sheet to sort out which tree is which.”

There are lots of ideas available about how to bring those fallen leaves inside and incorporate them into crafty activities – spooky ghost leaves and colourful autumn crowns are two of my favourites – but, as A Thrifty Mum points out, it’s not always that easy.

“Living in the north east of England more often than not the lovely autumn leaves are wet, slimy and not very good for collecting and crafting with” Jen writes, so instead the mum has found links to 12 other websites with Free Leaf Printables including I heart crafty things, She Knows and CraftJnr.

Jen’s post also led me to Gina’s beautiful blog at Willowday where “Happiness is: kids + creating”.  I have to agree, although being able to live in a tree house would rate quite highly for me too so, whilst I wait for finances and modern conveniences to catch up with my aspirations, I’d definitely like to give her Build-a-treehouse Printable project a go instead.

My Un-entitiled Life provides Free Fall Printables designed for those “that teach or homeschool your kids” and includes What color are the maple leaves in your neighborhood?, Count & Color the Pumpkins, P is for Pumpkin, L is for Leaf and How many acorns can you count?

Once you’ve coloured in all those pages you can find more available at Crayola, which also has an Autumn Day Mini Book to download, and NetMums which, as well as pictures “from conkers to harvesting blustery days and autumn leaves”, also offers links to ideas for Autumn activities and indoor fun.

Activity Village is always a great source of colouring pages too but its Autumn Printables and More Autumn Printables go one better providing instructions on how to draw your own country critters to colour in including a headgehog, two scarecrows and a squirrel.  The website for parents and teachers also includes seasonal acrostic poem printables, bookmarks, lacing cards, letters, story paper, writing paper, a scarecrow poster and a pumpkin frame as well as a range of scrapbook papers.

If you’re in the crafting mood then why not try your hand at Gina’s Designs Freebie Friday Fold Up Leaf I found via A Crafty Blether who created an Autumn Leaves Banner from the printable.

However it’s a musical mood that Sara’s blog Let’s Play Music, “all about musical activities you can do at home or in the classroom with kids of all ages” wants to get us into.

Suggesting that Red & Yellow & Orange & Brown is “one of the easiest action songs for Autumn, and teaches children about the different weather that comes with the changing season”, her post includes the words that are sung to the tune of Skip to my Lou as well as a worksheet that explores the sounds of Autumn which can be also be used as a listening game or a game of matching pairs.

If all that will keep you going through October but you feel you might need more for November, then click on KC Edventures’s 55+ Fantastic & Free Fall Printables for links to some “quick & easy go-to activities” that acknowledge how busy this time of year can get.  Split into four categories – Outdoor Nature Fun, Explore with Woodland Animals, Autumn Activities and Pumpkin Printables – the list includes an Autumn Scavenger Hunt for Toddlers and Pre-schoolers by From Chalkboards To Strollers, Printable Woodland Friends Bookmarks from The Elli Blog via The DIY Adventures and the Life Cycle of a Pumpkin from Itsy Bitsy Fun.

Enjoy the autumn!

Do you love finding printables on the internet?  Do you have particular favourites?  Or have you featured some on your own blog?  Email karen.malpass @ inkfactory.com with your links and we may be able to feature them in a future post.