Try these discover centers and invitations to play in your forest school this autumn and invite your children to learn through hands-on play.
Forest school play and exploration ideas for autumn
These forest school invitations to play invite children to explore natural materials through the lenses of play, art, and science.
Try one in your outdoor classroom!
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.
Water Play
Add autumn materials to your water tub. Scoop, sieve, and play!
Imaginary Play and Storytelling
Gather, or offer a basket, of natural materials. Can you make a house? Who lives in your house? What are they going to do today?
Sink or Float?
Gather some autumn materials and bowl of water. Make some predictions: which items do you think will float? Which will sink? I wonder why that happens?
Scissor Skills
Offer some leaves and scissors: snip away!
Weighing
Set out some weighing scales and some apples. What happens when you place the apples on the scales? How do scales work? What are the numbers for? How heavy are the apples?
You can add paper and pencils to record your results.
Art
Set out an empty frame (or draw one with chalk). Gather or offer a basket of natural materials.
Offer a question to read: Can you make a picture?
Investigating Leaves
Use a magnifying glass to take a close look at some leaves? What can you see?
Record your observations in your nature journal.
Leaf Art
Set out paper, leaves, and pens. Can you make some leaf people?
Play
Add some autumn materials to your mud kitchen, or set up a shop stocked with leaves, twigs, and acorns.
Faces and Emotions
Gather or offer a basket of natural materials. Can you make a face? Is your face happy, sad, surprised? What do faces tell us about how people are feeling? You might have a mirror on hand to look at the expressions you can make on your own face.
Fine Motor Skills
Peg up a line of leaves – great to practice a pincer grip.
Free Forest School and Garden Classroom resources!
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Seasons School is NurtureStore's year-round program of living and learning with nature. Our activities and resources focus on hands-on, nature-based learning that connects children with the natural environment.
If you're looking for nature study lessons, arts and craft projects, campfire recipes, foraging ideas, outdoor math and literacy activities, outdoor games, and ways to explore forests, gardens, and outdoor spaces - think of NurtureStore as your forest fairy godmother!
Whether you're in a forest school or outdoor classroom, running a school gardening club, bringing nature lessons into your class, home educating with nature, or wanting to connect with the great outdoors at the weekend, you will love the Seasons School ideas.
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