As memories of long summer holidays fade into autumn, the shorter and cooler days usher in the changing seasons and new opportunities and challenges to keep children occupied.
Cold temperatures mean bundling up in warmer clothes to spend time outdoors, but then you can spend time in the fresh air exploring all that nature has to offer – which could be in your local nature reserve, park, forest walk, or even in the streets close to your home. Look up both high and low on your mini adventure to find interesting leaves in different shapes and colours as well as cones, wild berries and acorns. You might even spot some interesting animals or insects too.
As well as inspecting all your autumn treasure finds, you could take photos of them together or take home your best discoveries to try your hand at making an autumn-inspired collage to be framed – or even create your own autumn wreath.
However, not all children can easily leave their home, whether this is due to lack of suitable equipment or because their condition makes going outside in the cold or damp weather too dangerous for them. So, you can bring the outside inside to them for different activities to keep them busy.
Collecting items for a sensory bin can be a fun way to explore nature in autumn. Simply have a tub, bucket or deep tray that you can fill with sand and bury different items for your child to find. Dried or fake leaves can be a great tactile experience as your child feels the different shapes and textures, as well as compare the wide array of colours as they discover them, but you can also add in pinecones, chestnuts, dried corn, mini pumpkins – and even some plastic insects.
To add an extra sensory boost, cinnamon sticks, dried orange peel or dried apple slices will add some delicious autumnal scents to the sensory bin. You could even add them to a thick piece of string to make your own autumn garland.
For something smaller and more portable than a sensory bin, try an autumn-themed sensory bottle by adding some of the items mentioned above, just choose different sizes of plastic animal, smaller leaves and different textured scraps of autumn hued paper along with some glitter. Wrap some tape around the bottle lid to ensure it’s completely secure so your child can shake it to their heart’s content. Alternatively, you can put orange hair gel, or similar into a sealable leakproof bag and add twigs, leaves and plastic autumn-themed items so they can be squished around wherever you are.
Painting leaves or cones to press on to paper can be fun as well as a sensory exercise, as they let paint squidge through their fingers and they feel the veins and ridges that make the patterns. Alternatively, making your own autumn play dough can be lots of fun too.
Playdough recipe:
Ingredients
- 1 cup (approx. 130g) plain flour
- 1/2 cup (approx. 65g) salt
- 2 teaspoons cream of tartar
- 1 cup (approx. 240ml) water
- 1-2 tablespoons vegetable oil
- Food colouring – think orange, red or yellow for autumn.
To make no-cook playdough, mix 130g of plain flour, 65g of salt, 2 teaspoons of cream of tartar, and 1 cup of water. Add 1-2 tablespoons of vegetable oil and a few drops of your chosen food colouring to the water before mixing everything together. Knead the ingredients on a floured surface until you have a smooth dough that is pliable. It can be stored in an airtight container.
For more ideas and inspiration for autumn sensory play visit:
https://www.twinkl.co.uk/resource/autumn-sensory-activities-pack-t-tp-1689852293
https://www.learningandexploringthroughplay.com/2016/10/autumn-sensory-foam.html
