Fall 2025 Archive

The Innovation Expo is HERE!!

Hey Reachers! We are SO excited to share information about this year's Innovation Expo with you! Everyone (K-11th) is invited to participate in our school-wide, after school November 18th & 19th Expos (Navigators, too! Even if you're not local, we'd love to set up a video to display the projects you're working on!). Local 3rd through 11th graders will also have the opportunity to advance to our regional and Georgia state Tech & Engineering Fair if they want! You can find all the info (including who is required to participate) and answers to your questions on our Innovation Expo page (HERE and on the top navigation bar), and in our Innovation Expo explainer video! >>>

Looking for Fall Enrichment Inspiration? Consider REACHing for one of these!

English Language Arts (ELA)

Have a student that loves reading or writing? Try out some of these autumn themed enrichment options!

Create a Gratitude or Prayer Tree! This is a great option for students to do individually or as a whole family project. Students can get as creative or artistic as they want, but the main thing is creating a space to record gratitude or prayers for this season. Check out ideas for how this could look visually here!
Poet-TREE:
- Have your student collect some of their favorite/most interesting leaves from outside, then challenge them to create poems inspired by the leaves.
- Trace and cut leaves out of paper, then write couplets or triplets on each leaf and piece them together to create Poet-TREE artwork.
- High school students - submit your poem to one of the high school poetry contests below!
Fall is the perfect time to cozy up with a good book, and most libraries have fall reading challenges in their Beanstack apps! Here are some recommended reading lists for you to investigate:
- Younger students: 50 Best Fall-Related Read Alouds
- Middle grades: 20 middle grades books set in Autumn
- Upper grades: YA books with Autumn Vibes - from creepy to cozy and everything in between
Writing Contests:
- K-12th grade: Create a 53-word story for a chance to be published in Prime Number Magazine! (Deadline is the 15th of each month and each month has a new theme to write on.)
- 8-12 year olds: Betty Award Writing Contest - submit your short story for a chance to win cash prizes. (Deadline 10/1/2025)
- 8-16 year olds: Time Traveling Taxi Cab writing contest This UK writing contest is open to anyone within the age range and offers the opportunity to win an Amazon gift card as well as have their writing formally published. (Deadline 9/30/2025)
- 6th-9th Graders: Love science and writing? Enter the Earth Science Week Essay Contest for a chance to win a $300 gift card and geoscience kit! (Deadline 10/17/2025)
- High school: Enter the National High School Poetry Contest for a chance to be published in their quarterly poetry anthology. Fall submissions are due 9/20/2025. Winter submissions are due 12/31/2025.
- 10th-11th Graders: Check out the Patricia Grodd Poetry Prize for Young Writers. This competition is open for submissions between Nov 1st and Nov 30th and is only available for 10th and 11th graders. Winners of this contest will be published in The Kenyon Review.
- 10th-11th Graders: The YoungArts writing competition is open to 10th-12th graders and is accepting submissions through October 8th, 2025. Students can submit writing in the categories of Fiction, Non-fiction, Play/Script, Poetry or Spoken Word.

Mathematics

There are so many fun ways to practice math skills this fall! Which will you do?

Fall Cooking Projects! Cooking is an excellent way to practice math skills for all ages, from counting and measuring to converting and fractions!
- Make Caramel Apples! Calculate the different ingredients needed, how much of each ingredient was used, and/or have your student measure the size of their apples before and after dipping them. How much has the size changed?
- Create Pumpkin Pancakes! Count how many pancakes a recipe makes; measure the height of each person's pancake stack; find the radius, diameter and circumference of a pancake; find the average diameter of your pancakes; calculate the perfect volume of syrup to add to a pancake; or challenge your student to find the best way to create perfectly round or consistently sized pancakes!
- Pick your favorite fall-like cookie recipe and get baking! Here are a few ideas to get you started. Make predictions about how many cookies your recipe should make with dough balls of various sizes; make a batch of smaller cookies and a batch of larger size cookies of the same recipe and calculate how much longer the larger cookies need to bake; pick a friend to bring cookies to, or plan to take cookies to your local hospital, fire department or nursing home and have your student calculate the increase in ingredients needed and/or challenge your student to make the shopping list based off of how much of each ingredient you will need.
Candy math fun! Buying candy for Halloween? Let your students use them for math enrichment, first!
- Younger students: Have students count how many of each type of candy is in the bag. Use the candy for math manipulatives and to create various math equations. Encourage your students to come up with word problems inspired by the Halloween candy before them.
- Middle grades: Have your student create a chart or graph of the candy you've bought. Students can determine the average number of pieces of each type of candy, compare which types of candy are more prevalent, and create a comparison chart of how many of each type of candy were left before and after tricker-treaters visited. Have your student draw conclusions and rank the candies according to which types of candy were most popular with the kids in your neighborhood.
- Upper grades: Challenge students to find the percentages of each of the candies in the bags, and/or the ratios of one type of candy to another. Encourage students to find the volume of candy in a candy bowl/jar before and after tricker-treaters have come, or to calculate the approximate number of candies in a jar based off of how many small candies (like candy corn) fit in one square inch.

Performing & Visual Arts

Here are some of our favorite autumn-inspired ideas:

Drawing/Painting tutorials:
Younger grades
Favorite fall "How to Draw" lessons
Favorite fall painting tutorials

Middle - Upper grades
Tricks to draw realistic autumn trees - a step-by-step tutorial
55 Easy fall painting ideas

Fall Crafts:
- Pipe Cleaner Pumpkins (younger grades)
- Leaf Skeleton Prints (younger-middle grades) - These make fun bookmarks!
- Fall Macrame Creations (middle-upper grades)

Fall contests to enter:
Songbird Art Contest (K-12th grade - deadline is 11/30/25)
Alliance for Young Artists (grades 7-12 - opens 10/1/25)
CFGL Young Artists Contest (9-11th graders - 10/3/25)
YoungArts National Competition - available for 10th-11th graders in the categories of Photography, Classical Music, Dance, Design, Film, Jazz, Theatre, Visual Arts, Voice & Writing (deadline 10/8/25)

Fall Performing arts ideas:
- Create a fall playlist using Spotify, Prime Music, etc.
- Pick a song that reminds you of fall and
choreograph your own dance for it.
- Create a stop-motion video that shows the seasonal change.

Physical Education

Keep active this fall with these physical activities!

Go on a nature walk! See how many different colors/textures/shapes you can find on your walk.
Invite family or friends to give you ideas for things to look for on an outdoor scavenger hunt through your neighborhood or at a nearby park. Take pictures each time you find someone's recommendation and send it to them!
Join an outdoor Yoga class, like AvaLOM's free class each Wednesday on the Avalon lawn.
Grab your bikes, or rent an e-bike and hit the trails!
Rake leaves, create a leaf maze, or just create a giant leaf pile to jump in!
Check out these epic hiking trails right here in GA - make a bucket list and see how many trails you can hit this fall. Not local? No problem! Take inventory of hiking trails near you and see how many you can visit in the next several months.
Go apple picking or hunt for the perfect pumpkin at a pumpkin patch! Find a corn maze and wander through with a friend!
Check out these other family friendly fall fitness ideas to keep your kids (and yourself!) moving.

Science, Technology & Engineering

Check out these science, technology & engineering enrichment opportunities!

Lean into our Innovation expo and create a project that can advance to the regional and state Tech & Engineering Fair!
These 19 Fall STEM activities will wow any science lover in your family!
Upper grades: These fall STEM activities are specifically geared toward high school students.
Participate in Coding Challenges to learn some tips and tricks and have fun in the process.
8 Coding activities perfect for fall, for techies of all ages!

Social Studies & History

Here are several Social Studies & History related ideas for the history lover in your family:

This fall, nationally we'll celebrate Hispanic Latino Heritage Month and National American Indian Heritage Month! Check out these ideas for exploring these cultures further.
Explore history and fun facts related to the Halloween and Thanksgiving holidays:
- Younger grades: Halloween History for Kids & The First Thanksgiving for Kids
- Upper grades: History of Halloween & Myths of the Thanksgiving Story
- 31 Halloween Fun Facts for kids and adults!
- Fun Facts for Kids around the Thanksgiving Table

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