Autumn is firmly here - even if the weather occasionally decides to go back up to 20 degrees! Autumn is one of our favourite seasons here at Cosy. The weather is turning a little bit more chill, a new school year begins, and the cosy evenings of the 'ber months are upon us. We particularly love what autumn has to offer in terms of nature's changes, especially when thinking of fun autumn activities to do with children. In this transient season, nature offers us so much to explore: the change of leaves going from green to brown, the fascinating world of hibernation, and of course - the myriad things you can do with a conker! In this post, we'll share our favourite autumn activities with kids. We hope we inspire you to get out there and soak up the season!

Nature walks and what to spot

Sometimes a nature walk is all you need - and autumn is the perfect time with so many things to spot! Take children out in local woodland, near a park or anywhere where you are likely to see leaves (and potentially a squirrel!) and explore what you see. Keep an eye out for evidence of hibernation like burrows, nests and squirrels collecting acorns.

At this time of year you're likely to spot leaves changing colour, conkers begin to ripen and potentially drop, riper berries (though remember to look, not touch - or keep a sensible adult alongside to be sure they are safe), and lots of minibeasts out and about. For small groups, you might like to take a wheelbarrow and start collecting leaves, or even practice some squishing and crushing with our club wood hammers. Why not even take a use egg carton out and collect some magical autumn treasures to explore later on?

Leafy play

Autumn is the perfect time of year to embrace all things leafy. Leaves are at their most varied in colour and texture leaving heaps of play potential and opportunity outdoors, from sensory exploration to messy play and vocabulary development (think of all those adjectives!).

A great start for exploring leaves is simply adding them to a tuff tray. Encourage children to compare sizes, colours, shapes, and textures. You can step things up by adding a mirror tray beneath the leaves to contrast with the colours of the sky, or adding water to explore how the texture of the leaves change once they are wet. Expand your leaf play further with leaf-themed books, simple leaf label lozenges to bring in some literacy, and even pre-planned activities like leaf wand making. You might even like to have a go at leaf painting, colour matching and collage making.

Fancy showing off your autumnal creations? We have some autumnal display ideas here!

Conker play

As with heaps of leaves, the other natural item abounding come autumn is our familiar friend, the conker! Beautifully formed for little hands, there's such fun to be had in going out and collecting conkers alone. With appropriate gloves or a mindful adult nearby children might also enjoy breaking open conkers from their shells and the fine motor development that goes along with it.

With a pile of conkers brought back from your travels, these make brilliant resources for counting, loose parts play, decoration (hello, spider conkers!) and sensory play.

Autumnal mud kitchens

A final way to embrace the magic of autumn is incorporating autumnal play into your mud kitchen resources. Leaves and conkers make great additions to your sandy soups and mud pies, as do acorns! Why not go out collecting autumnal treasures, then store them in our handy potion jars to inspire magic muddy marvels! For more autumn mud kitchen ideas, head to our blog here.

Looking for more ideas?

We're big autumn lovers at Cosy, and have shared plenty more seasonal tips on the blog. Our good friend Juliet has shared 10 maths challenges that use pine cones, her favourite ideas to explore scarecrows in play and her top tips on using conkers in play. Our mud kitchen autumn tips are here, while we have lots of ways to use acorns here.

Happy autumn all! Remember to tag us on social media if you have a go at any of these fun activities.