4 Easy Fall Activities for Kids with CVI

Fall is in the air! The temperature is (hopefully) dropping, the leaves are changing, and everyone is eating apple cider donuts. Can you tell the season of fall is my favorite? In this blog post, I am sharing four of my favorite fall activities for kids with CVI. As with my other posts, these activities are multi-sensory, which means they will also benefit students with multiple disabilities, cerebral palsy, autism, etc.

Fall Activities for Kids with CVI Activity #1- Adapted Books

These adapted books are a great way to introduce and reinforce fall-themed vocabulary. The bright-colored images on a black background are engaging and tactile supports can be added to make it more engaging. These adapted books pair perfectly with the sensory activities shared in the next section. Like many of my other adapted book sets, the Fall/Autumn adapted books include 5 levels (7 versions). The levels range from errorless, to a single word (in large yellow font or red bubbled words), to a single sentence, to two sentences, and finally to a book with interactive pieces. This differentiated set is perfect for multiple students with CVI to use throughout the fall season. 

Sensory Bin

For the next fall activities for kids with CVI, I am sharing a few sensory bin activities. Some of my favorite fall-themed sensory bin fillers are corn kernels, beans, and yellow gift bag filler. 

For the first sensory bin activity you will need:

• corn kernels or beans
• real or fake leaves

This bin will allow students to engage with different textures. They can pour and transfer the beans/corn kernels. They can also find the leaves or sort them by color. 

For the second sensory bin activity, you can use any of the fillers suggested above, with the vocabulary cards from the adapted books that were previously mentioned. Students can work on simply finding and picking up the vocabulary cards. They can also work on identifying a named fall-themed item. Furthermore, two sets of the vocabulary cards can be printed, and students can work on matching. And as I have mentioned before in previous blog posts, the teacher can control the field size by selecting how many cards are in the bin for this activity. 

Fall Activities for Kids with CVI Activity #3:

Light Table Activity

For my next fall activities for kids with CVI, students will be making an autumn-themed sensory bag or you can pre-make the sensory bag for them. 

To do this, you will need:

• a large plastic bag with a zipper closure
• hair gel
• clear tape
• translucent leaves

To start, you will put the hair gel (about 2 cups) and translucent leaves into the plastic bag. Then, use clear tape to seal the bag shut. Students can use this sensory bag with or without the light table, however, the light table can make the bag more engaging. Students can work on simply engaging with the leaves in the bag, pushing the leaves around the sensory bag, sorting the leaves by color within the bag, and so much more!

Textured Leaf Craft

For this craft:

1. Print out a simple leaf outline from Google on white paper. 
2. Cut out the leaf shape and place it onto black cardstock. (Do not glue!)
3. Cut up different red, yellow, and/or red textures. 
4. Students will glue the different textures onto the leaf. 
5. Flip leaf over and trim the edges!

Need any ideas for types of textured materials to use? Be sure to check out this blog post here!