Exploring Autumn (Reception)
This is a hands on day that explores autumn at Skelton through lots of outside activities, including looking for hedgehogs and minibeasts, playing games and making something to take home. All the activities encourage the children to look at the natural world, to understand the features of autumn and to think about how the natural world will change as the seasons progress.
National Curriculum Summary
Sc2 Living things in their environment - we find out about living things in the local environment, thinking about why different things live in different places and how we can contribute to looking after them.
Main National Curriculum Links
Sc2 5a, 5b, 5c
Available for Reception classes September to November
What the day involves
The day begins with an introduction by the day leader, welcoming the children to the Centre and explaining what will be happening in the day. We have a general discussion about autumn time, and have a warm up game.
The class is then split into groups (normally four groups, depending on class size) for the remaining activities: Animals in autumn - hedgehogs, Animals in autumn - feeding animals, Birds in autumn, Trees in autumn.
Animals in autumn - hedgehogs
In this part of the day we will be exploring the world of hedgehogs. In particular we will be looking at what a hedgehog is up to in the autumn in preparation for the winter. We will go and look for hedgehogs, make a hedgehog house and read a hedgehog story.
Animals in autumn - feeding animals
Food is abundant in autumn time and lots of animals are gathering stores of food and filling themselves up ready for migration or hibernation. We will be feeding the birds and looking in the woods for hedgehog food - hunting for minibeasts and searching for slugs and snails.
Birds in autumn
What are birds doing in autumn time? How are they preparing for the cold winter? We discuss how some birds stay in Leeds over winter and how some migrate. We play a game called the migration game where we pretend to be swallows from Skelton Grange who make the long journey to South Africa for the winter and travel back to Leeds the following spring.
Trees in autumn
Exploring the life of trees in autumn, we make simple bags for collecting leaves and go for a walk collecting beautiful autumn leaves of different shapes and colours. We also discuss how the trees have changed over the year and imagine how the woods will look over winter, reading a story to help the children understand the lifecycle of the tree.
Visit our Links page to find some fun ideas for pre-visit or follow-up activities!
