Autumn Ideas

[crazyhazy]

This is my first month of having a proper theme so have gone for autumn linking in with halloween in the last week. I have quite a few ideas already, so thought I'd share here and others might like to share theirs too :)

So far we have a woodland walk planned to collect leaves, conkers, pine cones etc, then we'll be doing leaf rubbings, painting and sticking pics with them. We're going to plant some bulbs this month which we'll then use as xmas presents for parents, I also have some halloween crafts planned along with carving the pumpkin. Finally I thought we'd have a trip to the library in the holidays next week to get some autumn related books (can anyone recommend ones to look out for?).

[mrs.h]

hi.

i think your ideas are fab! :) how old are your lo's? mine are 19 and 13 months and i am finding it hard to find the right activities for them.

mrs.h

[Pipsqueak]

lol you planning looks a lot like mine!!!:D

We are going to collect some leafs etc on a walk.

We are going to town to get glitter and more paint, a large black paper/card sheet and we are going to paint fireworks night - incorporating noises!!!

Halloween we will be decorating soon as well.

[green puppy]

Confetti leaves are fun, cut out leaf shapes from card, let the lo's spead glue all over on both sides then put leaf into a bin bag full of crushed dried leaves, shredded paper in autumn colours and glitter and give it a good shake! Good to make mobiles or a big tree picture. We are doing leaf printing tomorrow, collected lots of leaves today. If you let the lo's draw in crayon on paper or card, lots of firework type marks and then paint over the picture in watered down black or blue paint, the crayon shows through making great firework pictures.

[PRINCESSDAISYFLOWER]

make some autumn sensory bottles with twigs, pine cones conkors (sp) etc.
make good musical instruments too!

[FussyElmo]

make some autumn sensory bottles with twigs, pine cones conkors (sp) etc.
make good musical instruments too!

Like this idea got lots of conkers to use :thumbsup:

[PixiePetal]

I am going to try laminating dry leaves we collect, cut them out and hang on a bare branch - not sure if it will work but thought it would look nice :)

Also painting leaves to make prints:thumbsup:

[mushpea]

tommoro we are colouring pictures of hedgehogs then sticking shreded wheat on for the spikes,,, today we made scarcrows,,

[Tina O]

If you have older afterschoolers then they can make some 'acorn people'.

collect acorns that still have their 'top-hat' on, then the kids can paint on their faces or stick on googly eyes. Get them to try and find different sizes of acorns to make different people in the family and the stick or stack them onto Autumn leaves or sticks.

[Chell]

hi.

i think your ideas are fab! :) how old are your lo's? mine are 19 and 13 months and i am finding it hard to find the right activities for them.

mrs.h

I found a tree trunk template that I printed but you could easily draw one. I'm going to get the little ones to finger paint in the colours of autumn leaves so it looks like leaves falling from the trees.

I'm going to get some black card which I will draw the outline of a ghost on. The little ones can help me paint some glue over it then stick on pieces of white tissue paper.

We are going to make pumpkins on paper plates. They can paint the plate orange. I got some printables from DLKT kids that I'll cut out for the pumpkin stem and face.

We're reading Room on the Broom and Funny Bones for Halloween type books.

I found a pumpkin counting rhyme on the net, that is in our song sack.

[nannymcflea]

Hedgehog handprints. either a large hedgehog with hands cut out for spikes or small hedgehogs with one handprint.

Conker rolling painting(like marble painting)

pumpkin plate masks.

spider hand prints use both hands with wrists together(hands turned out), put glue in the paint and sprinkle with glitter.

Black card with white moon and bats printed, use a sponge to cut shape.

[Tink]

I have created a big autumn display on the wall. Yesterday we made autumn trees. Paint lo's hand and a little way down their arm for the trunk and print onto paper, you can either have finger print leaves or use coloured torn up tissue paper, both look really nice.
Today we are leaf printing/rubbing and I also have planned conker rolling like marbles, scare crow pictures and then on to animals which hibernate.
Squirrels, bats and hedgehogs, bit messy but hedgehogs look great with brown rice stuck all over their bodies for spikes, were even going to try making animals out of saltdough and adding rice as spikes leaving to dry and then painting :)

[gem]

I got a hedgehog template and the children glued cut spagetti on. when dry we mixed up some brown paint painted them. We will do a collage background to stick the hedgehog onto with coloured tissue paper and leaves.

[sophiestars]

Love the hedgehog ideas - last year we did hedgehogs made from twigs we had collected stuck onto an outline I had drawn on the paper. (you need lots of glue to make them stick but it looks really effective!)

I am going to also be doing some autumn weaving using a weaving mesh made from a hoop (outside play type) wound with wool all over then the little ones can weave onto it autumn coloured ribbons, fabric, even twigs and leaves - there is a link on here somewhere for it along with lots of other ideas.

[Monkey1]

Love the hedgehog ideas - last year we did hedgehogs made from twigs we had collected stuck onto an outline I had drawn on the paper. (you need lots of glue to make them stick but it looks really effective!)

I am going to also be doing some autumn weaving using a weaving mesh made from a hoop (outside play type) wound with wool all over then the little ones can weave onto it autumn coloured ribbons, fabric, even twigs and leaves - there is a link on here somewhere for it along with lots of other ideas.

It was on Jumpin Jens blog:thumbsup:

[maisiemog]

Confetti leaves are fun, cut out leaf shapes from card, let the lo's spead glue all over on both sides then put leaf into a bin bag full of crushed dried leaves, shredded paper in autumn colours and glitter and give it a good shake! Good to make mobiles or a big tree picture. We are doing leaf printing tomorrow, collected lots of leaves today. If you let the lo's draw in crayon on paper or card, lots of firework type marks and then paint over the picture in watered down black or blue paint, the crayon shows through making great firework pictures.

I love the confetti leaves idea.....guess what we'll be doing tomorrow!!! Thanks for that!!!:thumbsup:

[mrs.h]

hello,

we have made conker chains today. dh drilled wholes through conkers and we threaded string through them. :)

mrs.h

[crazyhazy]

Some great ideas, so glad I posted this! Great to have some inspiration x

[Noomie]

Books: Hibernation, After the Storm (Nick Butterworth), Little Red Hen, Henny Penny, The Winter Hedgehog, Don't Wake Up the Bear.

Make lolly stick puppets to act out the stories.

Discuss how animals collect food for hibernation and also talk about harvest and the time of year where food is collected and stored for the winter. Look at various harvest festivals from different cultures.

[Noomie]

Oh, cooking - pumpkin seed and carrot muffins for example. Lots of fab things to cook at the moment based on harvest.

[Little Poppets]

I have some younger children too - 9 months, 12 months, 18 months and 2 years.

I spread out 2 big pieces of paper on the floor and let the children loose in their nappies to walk and use their hands to smear all different autumn coloured paint all over the sheets. We then let in dry on the washing line. The next day with the elder children I then helped them to draw around their hands on the dry painted paper. We cut out the hands to make leaves and stuck them at the top of a branch I found onto our display board - looks really effective!