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Autumn Leaves and Conkers Please - Conker Activities from Gemma's Childminding, a Hygge Accredited setting.

'We love to incorporate natural, eco-friendly and recycled products into our play. Our activities are very much child-led these days rather than adult-initiated. I find that being around nature whether this is outdoors or bringing nature indoors really supports the children's learning and wellbeing.

I've noticed some real changes in the children since adapting to a more 'Hygge' based environment and embracing a slow pedagogy.

Some snapshots of how we have enjoyed incorporating conkers into our everyday play this season.'

Woodland Theme Autumn Display

We set up a small display of interest for the children to explore. Lots of natural resources including conkers, pinecones and leaves. We incorporated various lights and some magnifying boxes for them to identify the different textures and colours up close.

They especially loved feeding the conkers to the woodland animals.

Pl...

Little Nature Tots is a nature-inspired play group for toddlers, preschoolers & babies, set in a beautiful woodland in Moorgreen, Nottingham. We aim to promote child-led play, in a natural environment that enables children to develop early foundations for learning and ignite a love for the outdoors. 🌳

Here are some of our favourite nature-inspired activities to inspire you this Autumn - with a Halloween twist...

For more support on your nature based planning please also check out our Rewilding Wanderlust Nature Study Programme

Pumpkin Hammer

A fun way to encourage children to develop their fine motor skills. Golf Tees are perfect for little hands and using miniature real hammers they will feel very independent. Why not extend this activity by removing the golf tees and then letting the children poke sticks into the holes.

Pumpkin Patch

We love to visit or set up a pumpkin patch with straw and bales of hay - placing the pumpkins in amongst for the children to find. Add wooden cr...

Autumn time has to be one of my favourite times of the year. Having Oliver now makes it even more exciting too as I take a moment to stand back and watch him experience everything.

We have loved getting outside each day and doing a daily walk. Talking about all the things we notice each day and notice any changes. Doing this is very much inspired by the practice of the Danes with the daily walk children in early education do. We stop at our favourite tree as well to document its changes as we move through the year. 

I also think it's important that we as adults take the time to just pause and appreciate the slow moments of joy in the day. We can't teach hygge and living well if we don't model it ourselves. I've built this into our daily walk and we will often find a little spot to just sit and watch what's going on. 

On our walk yesterday we took great enjoyment in collecting up some of the fallen leaves and twigs. We then brought these back and I popped them in some water in our tu...

Setting up a seasonal space in your setting gives children the opportunity to connect with nature and deepen their understanding. Helping them also to be more present about the world around them and develop a love for nature. 

Where to set up the nature shelf?

The nature shelf doesn't need to take up a huge amount of space in your setting. I have seen it be successfully implemented on a small window sill. It could be on a table, inside an up turned crate, a shelf on the wall or an a shelving unit. 

I like to position it in an area that flows between inside and out that offers that natural connection with the outdoors. If you have families visiting the setting too with their children consider where would be a nice space for them to pause and talk about what they can see?

What can I put on my nature shelf?

I like to include a range of open ended materials that young children can connect with. I also invite children and their families to contribute to this when they make an excit...

 Batch cook some delicious meals

 Take a woodland walk

 Create some natural displays in your home and setting with pumpkins, squash, twigs, pine cones and acorns.

 Make a blackberry crumble

 Hang an autumn wreath on your door at home and setting

 Fill jars with autumn leaves and fairy lights

 Make a gratitude list and be thankful for the moments and things you have

 Set up a seasonal small world scene of your local area

 Add seasonal items and books to your nature shelf

 For more seasonal ideas see my Re-Wilding your Wanderlust Child Nature Study Programme 

Some books to inspire you: 

Try these Hygge Nature Crafts for Children. Some wonderful nature-based craft ideas to inspire you.

1. Make a stick nest

Add a pine cone bird - pine cone with feather for a tail and wings

2. Clay or playdough Faces

Use homemade playdough or air dry clay to create creatures and faces on the bark of trees.

3. Bark Rubbings

Create bark rubbings or leaf rubbings then use them in your other craft activities - perhaps on your nature bracelet or wand?

4. Flower Pressing

Flower pressing has long been a wonderful nature craft activity. If you don't have a press just use heavy book lined with paper to press your flowers. These can then be used in crafts later in the year - perhaps on a Cosy Hygge Jar with fairy lights inside?

Or, create an air dry clay trinket bowl with your pressed flowers stuck on with a layer of pva on top to protect them.

Or, add them to candles to decorate them.

5. Leaf and Stick Butterflies/dragonflies

A cute nature craft using nature.

6. Hessian R...

Lavender is a versatile herb with numerous properties beneficial to health, wellness, and everyday life. Its calming aroma, therapeutic benefits, culinary uses, and role in personal care and household products make it a valuable and widely appreciated plant.

Lavender can be grown from seed and is a great sensory ingredient to explore. It attracts pollinators like bees and butterflies, making it a beneficial plant for your garden. Add it to playdough, potions, make lavender perfume or dry it and add sachets to your room indoors to create a beautiful calming scent. Lavender oil has antiseptic and anti-inflammatory properties, making it useful for treating minor burns, insect bites, and skin irritations. You can also use it in cooking and natural cleaning products. Lavender has a calming effect, relaxing you, aiding sleep and reducing stress and anxiety.

Encouraging children to get outdoors in nature with a fun activity that will keep them engaged.

Create a nature Journal with your children to help them have a better understanding of nature and to encourage them to ask questions about the nature that surrounds them.

Go on a walk to the park, forest, pond, stream, woodland, beach. Use your journal to make notes and draw what you find most interesting. Write down what you see and hear, stick special leaves and flowers that you find in. Draw around leaves and create leaf and bark rubbings on the pages.

Take some watercolours and crayons to use - what colours can you see?  Take this journal with you over the summer holidays to make a record of the adventures you have been on and the nature that you have found. Take it to the beach and draw shells, fish and seabirds. Take it to the pond and sketch the tadpoles, frogs and ducks. Stick any feathers that you find into your journal. Stick in a photo of you collecting natural treasures or j...

Young children love to be free and take off their clothes. Yet we can be so quick to cover them up, especially their feet! Children in the UK are often given shoes even before they can walk. 

Being barefoot is so beneficial and we feel so much of the world through our feet. A study in the journal 'Frontiers in Pediatrics' has shown that children who spend most of their time barefoot have increased motor skills and are better in jumping and balancing. 

Many teachers and forest school leaders here in the U.K share their experiences of children lacking in co-ordination and balance when moving around the uneven forest floor. 

When we spend time indoors we are greatly limiting the types of surfaces children learn to walk on and get used to moving around on. These are normally smooth and firm with no roughness or bumps.

When we take our shoes and socks off outdoors we are also connecting our bodies directly to nature which benefits our wellbeing too. Helping our mental health and bring...