September Play Activities 2026

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Ever since our oldest daughter started kindergarten, I’ve been trying to do the same kinds of playful-but-educational activities that we used to do when she was younger with our now two-year-old. That said, while these exercises are mainly geared toward our youngest daughter, but sometimes our five-year-old joins in on the fun too.

Since I have [undiagnosed] ADHD my brain often feels scattered which means that when I try to come up with play activities on the fly, I end up feeling overwhelmed with options or get lost in Pinterest “research” trying to find the best option (with supplies that we already have) and then the play doesn’t happen. In an effort to avoid this, I gave myself “parameters” with weekly themes throughout the year and I try to do five of these types of “educational play” activities a week (usually on weekdays when my oldest is at school, but sometimes they happen over the weekend).

For the month of September we started with Sunflower Week, then moved into Wheat Week, then Apple Week, Corn Week and finally ending the month with Autumn Festival Week to officially welcome the season. I thought I’d share our activities in case you were also looking for some themed play!

If you’d just like a shortcut to shop all of our supplies for this month, they can be found here.

SUNFLOWER WEEK

We did our Sunflower Stamp Art in two parts: one [cut and folded] toilet paper roll stamping session for the yellow flower petals and once those dried we had a second session where we created the brown centers with Q-tip bundles. I love how they turned out!

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Our second sunflower activity was also two-fold. I laminated a sunflower printable and provided black Play-Doh to smoosh to create the flower’s center which we stick sunflower seeds into. As part of poking the sunflower seeds in, we counted to ten and then counted to ten again as my two year old used tweezers to pluck the seeds from the Play-Doh. Such a fun fine motor skill activity for her!

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I loved putting together this sunflower and scarecrow sensory bin for Chloe; I set it up the same way that I’ve done for Sophie in the past and it was just as big of a hit. Chloe did lots of pouring & transferring of fillers and we counted the crows & sunflowers together (Chloe also enjoyed putting the crows “to bed” in their nest).

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One thing that never fails to entertain littles is water play, so I decided to give the girls an opportunity to make “Sunflower Soup” with their little kitchen pots, some utensils, and a few fresh sunflowers (so they could pluck the petals off and explore their centers) in addition to a some faux blooms (which were created to be water resistant). Super simple, but the girls spent close to an hour playing with this activity!

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We had our first ever sunflower field adventure this year and it was so much fun for us to explore — I had no idea there were so many sunflower varieties! The girls had a blast admiring all of the different flowers, racing around the farm, and running away from busy honeybees (that had absolutely no interest in anything other than nectar / pollen 🤣). We visited the sunflower field portion of Bob’s Corn, which is where we typically get our pumpkins in October — they have an excellent pumpkin patch (in addition to their famous corn maze!).

Sunflower Field Excursion

We loved our visit to the sunflower field portion of Bob’s Corn!

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WHEAT WEEK

I ordered some real wheat stems to use for this wheat “planting” activity. I created this FLISAT Wheat Field Topper after being inspired by this tutorial — such a clever idea! On the other side of the table I gave Chloe the opportunity to pull the wheat stems apart, talking a little bit about the threshing and winnowing processes and how we get flour (I doubt she retained any of it, but the wheat was fun to pull apart!).

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Chloe really enjoyed exploring the simple wheat berry sensory bin I put together for her. I used wheat berries as the filler and threw in some faux “wheat” stems, a scoop, and a couple of small bowls. So much scooping, pouring and transferring of the wheat berries and examining of the stems. This was the first time I’ve put a wheat-themed sensory bin together for the girls and I’m already looking forward to pulling it out next year.

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Cheerio Grain Activity: Cheerios acting as “wheat berry” fine motor skills (I know Cheerios are made of oats, but they were what we had on hand and they’re technically a grain 🤭).

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To show Chloe the final form of wheat before it becomes something that we eat, I put together a super simple flour exploration tray for her. I only gave her about a cup of flour in her play tray and a few baking related items. She had such a great time scooping and transferring the flour! I set it up outside for easy cleanup, but if you put a towel or a tablecloth down on the floor you could totally do this activity inside.

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As our final activity, we baked some super easy dinner rolls! I forgot to take a photo of the girls helping me (too much juggling of ingredients and a hot oven with two littles while making a new-to-us recipe 🤪), so the best I could do is an image of our final product. The sour cream really gives them an especially savory flavor profile!

Wheat Planting & Harvesting Supplies:

Real Dried Wheat Stalks, Silicone Plate, Metal Bucket (from Lovevery’s Scales & Pails toy), [Similar] Small Flour Bag (mine is from a past Bullseye’s Playground play set)
*plowed field, wheat field, and hay bale images are not mine and were sourced from a web browser for home display only

Wheat Berry Sensory Bin Supplies:

IKEA Flisat Table, IKEA Trofast Bin, Wheat Berries, [Similar] Bowls, Scoops, Wheat Stems (cut apart)
*plush scarecrow decor is from Michael’s circa ~2015

Cheerio Grain Activity Supplies:

Cheerios, Printable, Cardstock, Self-Lamination Sheets

Flour Exploration Supplies:

Flour, Play Tray, Brush, Measuring Cup, Measuring Spoons, *Similar Silicone Cupcake Liners

Baking Easy Bread Rolls

Recipe, Stand Mixer (with Dough Hook Attachment), Muffin Tin, Liquid Measuring Cup, Dry Measuring Cups & Measuring Spoons

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APPLE WEEK

We always thoroughly enjoy our annual visit to Swan’s Trail Farms for apple picking. The season opens with our favorite varieties: Honeycrisp and Cosmic Crisp apples! // I’m sure there are other amazing apple orchards to visit (especially in Washington!), but we really love to support this Snohomish farm for so many reasons: (1) the quality of their produce and other offerings (preserves, honey, etc), (2) their commitment to sustainability and responsible farming practices, (3) the layout of the farm and activities offered are very family-friendly / accessible (coming from a family that always brings a wagon with small kiddos that need diaper changes / bathroom breaks), and (4) the kindness and enthusiasm of employees. // If you’re local to Washington, I highly recommend considering a visit to Swan’s Trail Farms for your fall fun activities (it doesn’t end at apple picking — they have a corn maze, pumpkin patch, harvest festival, and so on)!

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Another favorite annual tradition is our apple washing activity after our orchard adventure! It’s such a super simple activity that the girls always love (water play is forever a win!). We just set up a soapy water bin, toss in some scrub brushes and sponges along with towels for drying, and provide a little bucket to set aside the cleaned apples. I will note that we use the apples that are less desirable or ones that the girls have bruised because they’re definitely going to get dropped and receive more injuries.

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When I was setting up the next activity (apple paint stamping), I had a “leftover” half of an apple which I felt would be perfect to offer Chloe for exploration! We talked about all of the parts of an apple and I read “How Do Apples Grow?” to her to explain about seeds and how we get apples! She was fascinated with the apple and how the seeds fit into the core, and we worked on counting by using all of the seeds (our apple had 8!).

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We used two [bruised] apples from our apple washing activity so that none of our delicious ones were wasted for apple paint stamping. For this exercise we just cut our apples in half, removed any loose seeds, and pushed a popsicle stick into the backs of three apples. I just used masking tape to secure a sheet of cardstock, poured some red, yellow, and green paint on some disposable plates (with an art smock on to minimize mess — keep paper towels and wet wipes handy!)

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Sophie has loved this Apple Sorting Set by Learning Resources and it felt like a great time to pull it back out to work with Chloe on color recognition and also sorting by other details (size, worm / leaf / plain, etc). Even though the buckets have color labels on them I also like to set out a sheet of construction paper on the corresponding color to really reinforce the color sorting.

Apple Orchard Excursion

We always look forward to our annual apple picking trips! Wear the right footwear (for dirt & mud!) and we always bring our 1/2(?) bushel bucket. Unfortunately, they didn’t bring it back for sale this year, but this one is similar and holds the same amount.

Apple Washing Supplies:

IKEA Trofast Bin, Scrub Brush, Washcloths, Repurposed Plastic Basket

APPLE EXPLORATION

Apples (halved), “How Do Apples Grow?” Book

Apple Stamping Supplies:

Apples, Popsicle Sticks, Tempera Paint, Paint Plate, Cardstock

Apple Sorting Supplies:

Apple Sorting Set, Fruit & Veggie Buckets, Construction Paper

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CORN WEEK

Bob’s Corn is famous for it’s annual Corn Maze! We absolutely love visiting this farm and there is SO. MUCH. to do there all throughout the autumn season. Their fresh corn can’t be beat! I didn’t realize this before, but they actually grow and sell multiple varieties of sweet yellow, bicolor, and white corns: Honeybee (yellow), American Dream, Bolt (both bicolor), and Glacier White. We loved the ears of corn that we got while at the farm.

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I knew what I wanted to do with this Bubble Wrap Paint Stamping activity, but I wasn’t quite sure how I was going to create the “stamp”. Ultimately, I ended up cutting out a square from a larger sheet and placed a yellow gem in the center (just for color consistency). I chose this item because it had a good sized flat surface for stamping and a little weight to it to help add enough pressure to create the stamp itself. I gathered the edges and held them around the gem with a clear hair elastic; this also provided a good handle for tiny hands. Chloe was a little unsure about using the paint and stamp, but once I showed her how to do make the print, she had a really fun time creating the yellow corn kernels and didn’t want to stop!

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Our Corn Husk Shucking activity was so much fun and required very little supplies and zero preparation (aside from purchasing the corn). I gave the girls a bin to put all of their husks and silks in, just to wrangle the mess, and they each got two ears of corn to shuck. Our five-year-old was understandably much faster than our two-year-old, but they both did a great job removing all of the husks and silks from their corn.

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After the girls had their husk shucking experience I let the ears of corn sit out on our counter for the rest of the week so that they dried up a bit and weren’t quite so juicy. Then I let the girls explore the corn by pulling the kernels off of their cobs. We did this activity in our beloved IKEA Flisat table — each of my girls had one half of the table to dissect their corn (complete with bowls for collecting kernels, a pair of tweezers and a magnifying glass). We broke this up into a few different sessions, but it was nice to have the activity ready to go whenever I needed something to occupy the girls while I did something like swapping laundry.

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For our final corn activity of the week I put together a very simple Dried Kernel Sensory Bin for the girls. I just used popping corn kernels as filler and included a scoop, bowl, pitcher and recycled coffee creamer bottle for pouring and transferring; my five-year-old got bored with this activity pretty quickly (understandably), but my two-year-old played with this bin for quite long time.

Corn Maze Excursion

Such a fun autumn activity to do as a family at Bob’s Corn!

Corn Bubble Wrap Stamping Supplies:

Cardstock, Corn Printable, Tempera Paint, Paint Plate, Bubble Wrap, Yellow Resin Gem, Clear Hair Elastic

Corn Husk Shucking

Fresh Sweet Corn, IKEA Trofast Bin

Removing Corn Kernels from Cob Supplies:

[Old] Fresh Corn (or Dried Corn), IKEA Flisat Table, IKEA Trofast Bin, Small Bowls, Magnifying Glass

Corn Kernel Sensory Bin Supplies:

IKEA Flisat Table, IKEA Trofast Bin, Popping Corn Kernel Filler, 3D Printed Basket, Play Ears of Corn, Small Silicone Scoop, Small Pitcher, Repurposed Coffee Creamer Bottle

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AUTUMN FESTIVAL WEEK

This week we did a combination of welcoming the general fall season as well as learning about the Mid-Autumn Moon Festival!

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I put together a Autumnal Foraging Sensory Bin to really welcome the fall season with an assortment of small and large pinecones, as well as faux mushrooms and acorns. I used dry pinto beans as the filler and included tongs, a scoop, and various recycled cups and bowls for gathering and sorting of items.

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We decorated Autumn Fairy printouts with leaves that we foraged from our back yard (but this could also be a great opportunity for a nature walk on a trail or even in your neighborhood)! The girls got really creative with all of the beautiful leaves in various sizes, shapes and colors. It was really fun to see what they came up with.

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Paper Lanterns are a big part of the Moon Festival so I found some small ones that would be easy for the girls to assemble and decorate. I also wanted a kit that included lights and hanging stick handles — we really liked the ones we ordered! I think it would have been fun for the girls to gently paint or attach tissue paper to them for a papier-mâché / stained glass look, but we chose to use stickers this year! To be honest, our stickers didn’t stick very well (given the shape / ribbed texture of the lanterns), but it was an easy option for my toddler to pull them off the sheet to practice her pincer grasp and place them on her lantern. We’ll probably go another route next year!

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I’m just going to go ahead and tell you that I didn’t make the right choice with my mooncake selection for our Mooncake Tasting / Exploration activity. I chose a filling flavor that sounded familiar enough that the girls might be willing to try it / actually enjoy it… and I regret not getting the traditional flavors instead. The mooncakes that I bought were coconut flavored and I just think that we were expecting the filling flavor and texture to be a little different. This is absolutely nothing against the cakes as I believe they were exactly how they were intended to be, but our expectations were incorrect. Next year I’ll know better and get the red bean, white lotus and mixed nut varieties. I’m so glad we tried the coconut ones this year! they were beautifully made and decorated, but I’ll just make different flavor decisions next year.

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After tasting our mooncakes, we used a play dough / stamp set from @momthemage to make our own mooncakes! The girls LOVED playing with this set — so fun! This activity was the perfect way to round out our Autumn Festival Week and finish out our September.

Autumn Play Bin Supplies:

IKEA Flisat Table, IKEA Trofast Bin, Pinecones / Mushrooms, Acorns, Pinto Bean Filler, Tongs, Scoop, Recycled Bowl and Jars

Autumn Fairy Supplies:

Cardstock, InspireMyPlay Printable, Foraged Leaves
*Optional: Self-Laminating Sheets

Lantern Supplies:

Lantern Kit (including lights & sticks!), Bookmark Kit (for alternative tassels), Sparkly Ribbon, Stickers

Mooncake Tasting

Coconut Mooncakes, Bean Paste Mooncakes, Mooncake Variety Pack

Play Dough Mooncake Supplies:

Play Dough, Mooncake Stamper, Play Doh Tools, Moon Festival Printable, Play Dough Mat

Whew! What a busy, but super fun September. I’m so grateful for the ability to make these memories with our little girls.

Sending hugs —
xx, Natalie

September Play Activities 2026

SUNFLOWER WEEK

Sunflower Stamp Art Supplies:

Sunflower Seed Activity Supplies:

Sunflower Sensory Bin Supplies: