Forest school math activities for autumn

Gather your twigs and leaves and use these fantastic ideas for hands-on forest school math ideas for autumn. 

 

 

Forest school math activities for autumn

Here’s a collection of forest school math activities that use real twigs, leaves and seeds to engage children in hands-on math.

Keep a basket of leaves, twigs, acorns, and fir cones handy, and you can quickly and easily set up one of these activities anytime you like, indoors or outside.

If you like these ideas be sure to sign up for my free weekly delivery of forest school and garden classroom resources. Simply pop your email address in the box at the end of this article and I’ll send you all the freebies!

 

 

 

Ready-made forest school lesson plans

Have you got your copy of The Forest Classroom yet? It is the perfect beginner’s guide to running a successful forest school. Download your forest school guide here.

A forest classroom is a place of adventure, discovery, and imagination. It can also be a wonderful place to learn about math and science, explore art and crafts, and develop language and social skills.

The Forest Classroom is a practical guide which will show you how to engage your children in fun and educational forest-school activities. 

These ready-made forest school lesson plans are suitable for forest school leaders, teachers, childcarers and parents with children aged 4 to 10, to learn in a forest, school nature area, local park or your own backyard.

Get your copy of The Forest Classroom here and you’ll be ready to head straight outdoors and enjoy teaching, using our ready-made lesson plans.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

More forest school activities

Don’t miss our forest school literacy and forest school play ideas!

And for a complete programme of seasons lessons, activities and printables, download the Seasons School Autumn Curriculum here. 

 

 

 

Arithmetic

Use twigs to set up number questions – and give your answer in conkers or acorns.

Using natural manipulatives makes the learning fun, engaging, and a bit different – all the better to help the learning ‘stick’.

 

 

Counting

Toddler idea: in and out! An egg carton and a bowl of autumn treasures is fun to play with. Do make sure the items you offer are suitable for your child, especially if they might put things in their mouth.
Maybe they know how to count them all? I always liked this as a ‘witching hour’ activity – something nice to play with alongside me while I prepare dinner.

 

 

Patterns

Can you make a pattern? You can start off patterns for each other to copy and complete.

Following a sequence, repeating patterns, and skip counting are all incorporated as you play.

 

 

Counting

Make a number square and find corresponding items to count. What number can you count up to?

 

 

Bigger or Smaller

Use a twig to make a greater than / less than symbol. Which is bigger: 2 or 5? Place two and five leaves above each number and see which column is taller. Place your greater than / less than symbol the correct way round.

 

Sizes

Gather leaves and compare sizes. Lay them out in increasing and / or decreasing size order. You could use a ruler to measure some.

 

 

Recognising Digits and Counting

Make some leaf numbers; I used metallic and white marker pens. Do you know what number is on this leaf? Can you find the correct number of conkers / acorns / twigs to match?

 

 

Symmetry

Set out paper, a pen, and half a leaf. Can you draw the other half?

 

 

More Symmetry

Lay out a long stick. Create an image on one side using natural materials.

Can you make the matching image for the other side?

Make more images for each other to complete.

 

 

Graphing and Estimating

Gather some natural materials: sticks, conkers, fir cones perhaps. Make some name labels.

How many do you think you have? Do you think you have more fircones, sticks or conkers?

Line up each type of material in a column above its name label and create a graph. Bar graphs can make things look much clearer and help you work out answers more easily.

 

 

Counting and Number Order

Pick a number, find the right number of leaves. Work together to complete a number line, in ascending order.

 

 

Writing Digits

Pick up some fir cones and conkers/acorns. How may do you have? What does the digit for that amount look like?

What does a four look like? Can you make a four out of sticks?

 

 

Place Value

How many is 12? How many tens, and how many ones?

Use piles of sticks to show the number in the tens place, and the number in the ones place.