Adult-led activities
To music
Explore autumn weather and changes in nature through music and movement.
Key learning intentions
To have a positive self-image and show that they are comfortable with themselves
To show an interest in the world in which they live
To move with confidence, imagination and safety
To imitate and create movement in response to music
Adult:child ratio 1:8
Resources
* CD of Vivaldi's 'The Four Seasons' * seasonal displays/posters
Preparation
* Display some autumn posters in the area where you organise your movement sessions.
* Play 'Autumn' by Vivaldi in the setting, for example during tidy-up time or as the children arrive and leave each day so that they become familiar with it. Talk about what the music represents and ask the children what it makes them think of. Encourage them to observe the autumn weather as they listen.
Activity content
* Gather the children around you. Remind them of the kind of weather outside and the season of the year. Talk about what happens during the autumn such as leaves blowing from the trees in the wind.
* Play the music and encourage the children to move to it. How does it make them want to move? Support those who feel self-conscious or who struggle for ideas; they could be caught in a storm, for example, or a leaf blowing in the wind.
* Think about the speed of the piece with the children - is it fast or slow?
* If this proves too challenging, have some ideas of your own ready to use and model some actions so that everyone moves in a similar way. The children might then feel confident enough to try out their own ideas.
Extending learning
Key vocabulary
Season, autumn, move, slow, fast, speed, music, piece, concerto, violin, think (about), weather
Key questions
* What do you think of when you listen to this piece of music?
* What season/time of the year is it?
* How do you know that?
* What is happening outside?
* What can you imagine yourself doing when you hear this piece of music?
* Why do/don't you like this music?
Extension ideas
* Provide some musical instruments and encourage the children to make their own autumn music.
* Read a selection of seasonal storybooks with the children.
* Make a traditional seasonal dish such as pumpkin soup, using Helen Cooper's delightful story of that name as a starting point (see Resources).
What kind of food do the children like to eat in cold weather? Do they enjoy eating the same kinds of food when it is hot?
* Invite the children to paint autumn pictures while listening to 'Autumn'
by Vivaldi in the background.
In the fall
Create a display exploring the changes in trees in autumn.
Key learning intentions
To continue to be interested, excited and motivated to learn
To build up vocabulary that reflects the breadth of their experience
To know that information can be retrieved from books and computers
To find out about, and identify, some features of living things, objects and events they observe
To took closely at similarities, differences, patterns and change
Adult:child ratio 1:4
Resources
* Selection of coloured paper * tissue paper * paint * junk modelling materials * stapler gun * Prittstick and/or PVA glue * scissors * information books on trees and the autumn * camera
Activity content
* Cover the display board or area in green and grey-blue to represent the ground and the autumn sky. Add a brown tree trunk and branches. The challenge for the children is to find out about and add appropriate seasonal decor to the tree.
* The children will suggest that the tree leaves need to be brown for autumn. This is an opportunity for leaf printing and practising cutting skills. Invite the children to cut out their leaves once they are dry.
* Encourage them to think about the kind of wildlife they might see during autumn. Add animals such as squirrels to the display. How about adding a hibernating animal such as a hedgehog at the foot of the tree in a pile of real leaves? Share information books about the seasons and hibernation.
* Depending on the amount of space you have for the display, add some of the children's paintings and work.
* Take photographs of the children creating the display and put together a mini-display on how it was developed.
In the wet
Head outdoors in an autumn shower to explore what rain feels and sounds like and how it affects plans and soil.
Key learning intentions
To talk about features of the weather
To observe and talk about change
Adult:child ratio 1:up to 6
Resources
* Appropriate clothing and umbrellas.
Activity content
* Take children outdoors when it is raining. Encourage them to splash in puddles, feel the rain on their faces, listen to the rain on their umbrellas, observe the changes in the earth as it gets soaked and look at the clouds and colours in the sky.
* Explain that clouds are made of tiny droplets of water, which form the raindrops that fall to the ground.
Key vocabulary
Rain, raindrops, cloud, wet, dry, umbrella
Questions to ask
* What will we need to wear when we go outside today?
* How does the rain feel/sound like?
* What colour are the clouds?
Extension ideas
* Look at soil and grass on a warm day and compare their appearance with that on a wet day.
* Plant, for example, some herbs in pots and talk about how they need rain to grow.
* Provide guttering, funnels, jugs, watering cans, sieves, lengths of tubing, piping and buckets for the children to use in their water play outdoors.
* Provide rainsticks and drums for the children to explore the noise that rain makes.
Extending learning
Key vocabulary
Tree, season, autumn, leaves, trunk, bark, bare, green, animals, colour Key questions
* What does our tree need to look like? Why?
* What do we need to add?
* Why do you think that?
* How could we find out what we need to do make the tree look like a tree in autumn?
* What could you use to make...?
Extension ideas
* Encourage parents and carers to take the children on a short seasonal 'autumn' walk to parks and other local places of interest to observe the trees and wildlife.
Child-initiated learning
Malleable materials
Additional resources and adult support
* Provide brown playdough, twigs, leaf cutters and rolling pins and support the children as they explore the property of the playdough, manipulating it to achieve a planned effect.
* Model rolling skills using a rolling pin.
* Provide brown tissue paper, scissors, PVA glue and glue spreaders for children to attach 'leaves' to twigs to create trees. Stand upright in some Plasticine.
* Model appropriate vocabulary for the activity. Ask open-ended questions such as, 'How big should the playdough leaves or buds be?' or 'What do you think you could do to make sure the twig branches do not droop?' Use comparative language such as 'heavy' and 'light', 'too heavy' and 'lighter'.
* Look closely at the shape and patterns of the veins on real leaves collected from outside.
Play possibilities
* Making three-dimensional structures by creating autumn trees from playdough and twigs or tissue paper and twigs
* Developing problem-solving skills by finding a way to make a twig stand upright so that leaves can be added
* Being able to co-ordinate using two hands to use a rolling pin when rolling out playdough to cut out leaf shapes
* Experiencing mark-making on dough by adding the veins of the cut out leaf shapes using a clay modelling tool
Possible learning outcomes
Talks through activities, reflecting on and modifying what they are doing Explores malleable materials
Manipulates materials to achieve a planned effect
Uses simple tools to effect changes to the materials
Creative area
Additional resources and adult support
* Sit with children to do observational drawings of seasonal fruit and vegetables and discuss their finished pieces with them. Scribe some of their thoughts and ideas alongside their drawings.
* Keep reinforcing the names of colours in relation to the leaves and fruits.
* Go outside to collect leaves with the children. Remind them that they should not pull leaves from the trees but pick up only ones that have fallen on the ground. Leave wet leaves to dry out and observe the changes in them as they do so.
* Do some leaf printing. Remember that the best way to print with leaves is to put paint on the veiny underside.
Play possibilities
* Exploring printmaking with leaves and seasonal fruit.
* Drawing leaves from observation.
* Drawing seasonal fruit from observation.
* Beginning to become aware of the wide variety of colours and shades through naming and matching colours to leaves and fruit.
* Talking about the shapes of leaves and developing the idea of pattern in the natural environment through making leaf rubbings.
Possible learning outcomes
Begins to differentiate colours
Makes drawings
Chooses particular colours to use for a purpose
Maths area
Additional resources and adult support
* Use conkers for simple counting activities and to make shapes.
* Sort conkers and acorns into separate groups.
* Sort conkers or acorns into groups of two, three, five or ten according to ability.
* Model counting using one-to-one correspondence.
* Model the language of shape and number.
Play possibilities
* Playing guessing games about the number of conkers or acorns in a basket.
* Using rhymes and songs involving counting, for example, 'Ten shiny conkers hanging from a tree'.
* Making patterns using conkers and acorns.
Possible learning outcomes
Counts reliably up to 10 everyday objects
Compares two groups of objects, saying when they have the same number
Shows an interest in shape and space by playing with shapes or making arrangements with objects
Sorts objects by one function
Exploration and investigation
Additional resources and adult support
* Create an autumn collection using, for example, conkers, acorns, twigs and leaves for children to investigate in separate baskets using their senses as appropriate.
* Add some magnifying glasses and tweezers.
* Add The Treasure Hunt by Nick Butterworth (Collins) to the display.
Play possibilities
* Filling and emptying baskets containing various autumn objects.
* Introducing a storyline into their play.
Possible learning outcomes
Asks simple questions, often in the form of 'where' or 'what'
Investigates objects by using all their senses as appropriate Engages in activities requiring hand-eye coordination
Uses one-handed tools and equipment
Resources to support the theme
* My Seasons by Siobhan Dodds (Watts Publishing)
* Seasons Songs for 4-7 Year Olds by Ana Sanderson (A&C Black Publishers, includes CD)
* Seasons by John Burningham (Random House)
* Pumpkin Soup by Helen Cooper (Random House)
* The Treasure Hunt by Nick Butterworth (Collins)
* A Chef for All Seasons by Gordon Ramsay and Denny Roz (Quadrille Publishing)
* Hibernation by Anita Ganeri (Heinemann Educational Books)
* Autumn by Katy Pike (A & C Black Publishers)
* Trees (Usborne Publishing)
