Fall, leaves, fall; die, flowers, away;
Lengthen night and shorten day;
Every leaf speaks bliss to me
Fluttering from the autumn tree.
I shall smile when wreaths of snow
Blossom where the rose should grow;
I shall sing when night’s decay
Ushers in a drearier day.

- Fall Leaves, Fall by Emily Brontë

Sometimes it takes a poem to summarise a feeling, so we thought we'd do that today! While we love the autumn season, colder mornings and frosty skies are telling us that winter is coming along fast. With that in mind, we're sharing some fun, simple activities to help your setting reflect the change of seasons. Here are some fun EYFS winter activities and EYFS seasonal change ideas!

Nature hunt

A brilliant way to encourage children to recognise the changing world around them is through reflecting on nature - it's the biggest giveaway, after all! Why not go on a nature hunt in the area around you, taking some photos, and look at how things are changing? Here are some things to observe:

  • Leaves that were once green in the summer will have likely turned yellow, red and brown by now - encourage children to compare and contrast the colours they see on different trees. Discuss why this might happen. Why not read We're Going On A Leaf Hunt by Steve Metzger to reflect further.
  • Many leaves are falling away - can children try to estimate if there are more leaves on the trees, or the floor? How about berries and other natural items? Are they still up high or are the plants giving them up for Winter?
  • How many mini beasts are about? What kind of minibeasts do the children see? The butterflies and bees aren't as busy at this time of year, but our friends the earthworms and slugs do tend to be about still. Why is that?
  • What is the grass like in the morning? Is it dry, or wet? Is it covered in dew? What is dew exactly?
  • Why not collect some leaves from your travels and loose closely at them back in your setting? You could add them to mirrors, the water tray, and many other places for some close observation.

Icy play

As the weather turns colder, now is a great time to explore temperature and changing properties of elements. While we often reserve icy play to cool down in the summer, or for arctic play in the winter, late autumn is also a great time to do some fun experiments! Here are some ideas:

  • Leave water out in a tuff tray overnight and encourage children to see if anything has changed. Is it cold enough yet to freeze? Why/why not?
  • Conversely, leave out icy blocks overnight and return in the morning to see if anything has changed. Have they stayed cold? Melted? You might like to add small world animals inside to see if they stay cold at night or are having a bath by morning!
  • Ice painting: if the tuff tray has frozen overnight why not do some ice painting?
  • Frost and ice: go on a frost hunt - and if you spot any, try some mark making!

If it is indeed cold enough, get children stuck into wintery play with our outdoor play in winter blog.

Small world play

We've discussed looking at the wonderful world outdoors - so why not move down to a smaller scale? A great way to get children really engaged in a topic is initiating small world play. So, why not set up a transitional small world play set up, combining autumn and winter with natural loose parts? Here are some images to give you an idea of where to start...

Enjoy the seasonal change!

We hope our ideas inspire you to use this in-between time to reflect on the magic of nature with your children. Getting very close to winter? Here are some more posts once the season is here: outdoor play in winter, Christmas outdoor eyfs ideas, Christmas tray play ideas.