Sorry for no blogpost last week – things have been a bit hectic. We’ve been up to our eyes in ‘autumn’ for the last fortnight anyway, so it makes sense to share it all in one post. The transient art activities we enjoyed a couple of weeks ago (shared here) resulted in quite a few discussions about the silk leaves we were using & we went out on a little walk around our school field & wooded area to find some real ones. We had a lovely time, which is why I thought they might enjoy a few other autumn-inspired activities. Here are a few of the opportunities I set up…
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Exploring Autumn Goodies
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Stretching, Threading & Balancing at the Finger Gym
Out came a few homemade goodies – made by my lovely hubby. The threading post is new (just dowelling rods into a log slice), but you’ve seen the geoboard & golf tee balancing thingy before.
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Pushpins in Leaves
The children love this fine-motor activity…
These are hand drawn leaves but if you’d like to download a copy you can do so here:
Leaves for pushpins from Rachel (“,)
Hole Punching Leaves
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Threading Leaves onto Sticks
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Fine Motor Fun with Conkers
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Autumn Walk
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Maths Opportunities
Counting on Leaves (& Pattern Making)
Apples & Leaves on Trees
You can download these trees if you want a copy. They’re a bit ‘wonky’ as I’m still waiting for all my technology to be set up in school & had to hand draw them with the mouse, but you’re welcome to a copy if you think they’ll be useful:
Trees for the maths area from Rachel (“,)
Sorting Leaf Beads
I’ve had these leaves for years, but you can find similar on eBay if you search acrylic leaves. You can buy the same trays from Amazon…
Sorting Autumn Coloured Buttons
Counting onto a Number Grid
I’ve shared this grid before, but you can download a copy here if you’d like to: Grid for counting from Rachel (“,)
Counting Acorns
Autumn Counting
Matching Shades of Colour to Autumn Leaves
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Autumn Sensory Bowl
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Exploration on the OHP
Shapes & Laminated Cellophane Numbers…
Leaves
They look so beautiful!
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Autumn Leaves & Minibeasts
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Autumn Dough
Invitation to create leaves…
Invitation to create ‘trees’…
… with pipe-cleaners & buttons…
Leaf Imprints in Play Dough
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Printing Leaves
They are now looking pretty, hanging from a branch – although it’s tricky to capture on a photo…
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Painting Sunflowers
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Transient Art
Autumn Inspired
This little girl chose to embellish the picture on the tile & then add a frame…
Decorating Leaves
Decorating Bark Pieces
Tap the Magic Tree
(I love this book!)
Leaf Man
Another fab book!
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Decorating Leaves
We started to use the Sharpies pictured here, but they didn’t work very well, so we had a go with chalk pens instead. I forgot to take a photo of the chalk pens. Sorry! :-/
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Small World Play
Woodland Animals & Fairies
I am still keeping my small world area fairly simple as the children learn to look after the resources & tidy up after themselves. Here we have woodland animals, fairies, wood slices & homemade toadstools…
Farm
I changed it into a farm as a result of some observed outdoor play…
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Classroom Signs
There are a few of this these type of signs available on the internet. These are ones I made using Highway Code signs a few years ago. The ‘tidy’ signs are very handy & the children like to be able to save an unfinished creation with the ‘Work in progress’ signs. There are two versions of the work on progress – a ‘flat’ one (four on the page) & one that you can fold (two on the page)…
If you wish a copy, you can download them here: Classroom signs from Rachel (“,)
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Autumn Fun Last Year
You can see some of the other ways I have explored autumn-inspired activities with the children here. 🙂
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Thanks for reading & sorry for the ‘bumper’ post – autumn has so many rich opportunities!

Looking forward to exploring these treasures next week…
Don’t forget that you can also find me on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter & Pinterest.
Would love you to come & say hello! 🙂
– Rachel (“,)
This post was absolutely amazing, so many brilliant ideas!
Thank you so much, Robyn! 🙂
I always love your ideas and thank you for sharing 🙂
I haven’t seen ‘Tap the magic tree’ before – did you use actual twigs on the light box or are they drawn? Thanks
Thank you!
Tap the Magic Tree is a fabulous book! We used real twigs on the light panel – last year we used a mirror as a base ☺️
Great blog, fab ideas!
Thank you, Tina! 🙂
Wow! This is an amazing post! Thank so SO much for all the wonderful ideas.
Thank you very much for the lovely comment, Barbara! 🙂
Wow beautiful as always Rachel – you have covered so much within your provision.
Thank you Marie 🙂
My teaching partner and I discovered your site this summer and have used many of your ideas in our set up for the new school year. We love how you incorporate nature into the learning opportunities.
We are curious about where you find the tabletop mirrors?
Thanks for the lovely comment, Jane!
I’ve been lucky enough to find the standing mirrors in charity shops. The small ones that the children use (in transient art etc) are nearly all from Ikea.
I love your ideas: My daycare enjoyes the items I put out from your ideas :). Thank you for Pinterest where u share your items on. You are better then going to classes I have to take for hours
You can pin directly from my blog too, if I don’t choose the images you like for Pinterest, Tammy.
Thanks for the lovely comment! 🙂
Thanks so much for sharing all of your ideas! Can’t wait to use them in my kindergarten class!
You are very welcome! 🙂