Autumn is a very good time of year because many of its gifts can be used in everyday play with children. It cannot be denied that first you need to leave the house and go for a walk in the forest or park. In this way, we satisfy the need for movement, closeness to nature, but also closeness to parents. This can be combined with stalking, special tasks or passing through obstacle courses. What else can we offer?

1) Collecting a certain amount of things, e.g. four chestnuts, 5 leaves, 7 acorns, etc.
2) Searching for things in the forest/park that start with a given letter, e.g. find something starting with “d” (tree).
3) Walking on the trunk, jumping on and off the trunk.
4) Running on a track (e.g. running continuously for 1 minute or doing a certain number of laps).

What can you do with autumn gifts? Here are some inspirations:

1) rowan beads;
2) bouquets of autumn leaves that can then be placed in a vase;
3) sensory path – we collect chestnuts, acorns, twigs and leaves together, spread them on foil, and then walk around them together, taking off our socks;
4) chestnut and acorn figures;
5) arranging letters or numbers from various forest treasures;
6) sensory bowling – we put forest treasures in plastic liter bottles, e.g. broken twigs, leaves, flower petals, acorns, sand, etc. Such bottles can be used as bowling pins. The child can carry them, which also influences the weight of the bottles. You can also decorate the bottles together, e.g. with colored paper;
7) vegetable stamps, e.g. potato, carrot, beetroot;
8) frottage – we place an autumn leaf under the paper and paint using autumn colors;
9) sorting autumn gifts, e.g. by shape, color, type;
10) auditory memories – we put various things into containers, e.g. stones, acorns and chestnuts. The child’s task is, for example, to connect pairs of containers containing the same elements or to name what fits in the container.

Autumn games are a great way to spend time together with your child. They allow you to develop skills related to eye-hand coordination, precision, fine motor skills and sensory integration. They have a positive effect on children’s creativity and imagination. They are also an excellent opportunity to support speech development, build independent statements, descriptions and stories. And most importantly, when combined with relaxing music, they can help calm the child down. Is it worth it? Of course!

Justyna Kapuścińska-Kozakiewicz