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!
More forest school resources
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!
Plus, don’t miss our forest school literacy and forest school math ideas.
And for a complete programme of seasons lessons, activities and printables, download the Seasons School Autumn Curriculum here.
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!
Join my weekly email service and I'll send you FREE printables, lesson plans, and activity ideas that you can use with your children in your forest school and garden classroom.
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.
Pop your email address into the box below and I'll send you your free resources.
* By subscribing, you consent to our use of your personal data as per our Privacy Policy, which includes agreeing to receiving interest-based email from us.
Leave a Reply