Introduction

If you don't have access to real acorns,  try other fall items found outside of school, such as pine cones, leaves, small twigs, or even pebbles for this teaching activity. Using these items to build 1:1 correspondence & rote counting skills comes naturally with nature!

Using leaves or other natural items collected from outdoors, this teaching activity has children sort the items according to color, size, length, weight, or other interesting attribute. Sorting ourselves by clothing we're wearing builds math connections through this fun pre-math skill.

Children love handling sticks and twigs. Collect a variety of sticks and twigs from outdoors, or ask grown-ups to send backpack-sized twigs from home, to school. In class, introduce tools for measuring, such as a ruler & a tape measurer. Explore length, numbers, graphing, & counting in this fun, hands-on teaching activity .

Using sticks and twigs from outdoors, have children build their own shapes. Provide a mini-lesson to introduce the activity. Children can each "teach" the class how to make a shape, or play a "copy-cat" game of imitating a peer's idea.

Similar to teaching how to form shapes, what letters can be constructed from sticks 'n twigs? Could someone possibly construct their entire name? Make sure to take photos, and voila! you have a class Twig ABC book! The perfect home & school activity!

Using various items collected from outdoors (images also available below on a downloadable PDF), create activity patterns ranging in complexity. We like teaching ABAB patterns first (acorn, leaf, acorn, leaf, acorn, leaf, etc.), and then work our way up to AABB, AABAAB, and ABCABC.

As we introduce each new story, we like to create a "story basket." This basket contains activity manipulatives that pair our teaching with the story. We use the story basket to help re-tell the events. Making the materials available for children to explore independently is a positive touch.

One of the games we love is put out by Educational Insights, called Sneaky Snacky Squirrel. A great teaching activity that promotes thinking, turn taking, vocabulary, & matching.

Similar to the original party game, Twister, use our large leaf printables [PDF below], and have children move according to the directions you or a child provide. A fun fall school activity, great for teaching & reinforcing skills.

Print pictures of leaves [PDF below] and hide them around the classroom, school or house. Give your children clues and see if they can find the leaves. This teaching activity can include collecting all four colors!

Similar to Leaf Sorting above, working 1:1 and in small groups allows for more attention and limits distractions in school. This teaching activity helps to increase awareness, and introduces the concepts of similarities & differences.

Click on the PDF file below to download our Speech and Language Activity document. It's FREE, and provides tips & ideas for building vocabulary, learning opposites, mastering prepositions, and teaching so much more at home & school.

An activity that has children moving a ball around a tree. Or try tossing a ball against a tree. See how close a child can kick the ball to a tree! Using twigs to keep score helps with teaching additional skills!

Fill a container with acorns, leaves, or pine cones. Have children guess how many are in the container. Use two different sized containers with two different items. What are their predictions? You now have a school teaching activity that builds on language & math!

Place cardboard boxes at different distances, and have children toss or throw pine cones towards the boxes. Are you able to score any points? Smaller boxes are worth more points! A home and school teaching activity perfect for rainy or sunny days.

With a bucket of pine cones at the beginning of the line,  have children pass one pine cone to one another as quickly as possible. The teaching activity is complete when a second bucket on the opposite end of the line is filled. [See game variations on the PDF below]

Using our Nature BINGO board activity [PDF below], have children play using acorn tops or pebbles as chips. What does the winner get? First dibs jumping in a big, fat pile of leaves outside of the school!

Place & review several items from nature that are placed on the floor. Cover the items with a towel. Have children close their eyes while you remove one item. Kids take turns guessing which item(s) is missing. To expand on the activity, simply add/remove items, or hide two items!

Why not practice skills families appreciate?!?!?  Kids love using "grown-up tools," and taking on responsibility. Use rakes and gardening gloves for this activity, and have children rake leaves and collect sticks. Take before & after photos to see the work they did around their home or school !

Using beach buckets or boxes, have children fill the container with leaves from around the school, dumping them on the pile. Children can work in activity teams and carry one larger box together. (If collecting sticks, please don't run. Kids can work together to carry larger branches.)

Fill a large bin with items from outside school: acorns, leaves, twigs, pine cones, gourds, small pumpkins, etc. Include tongs, scoops, spoons and other utensils for manipulating the items from nature. Breaking apart the items to complete your teaching activity! 

There are several ways to try out this activity. We like providing cups of paint at the easel, but instead of paintbrushes, have kids use twigs. Another option is to tape a paintbrush to a long branch, and have children paint on a paper taped to the floor.

Create small piles of leaves (plastic or real), and have children jump OVER the small pile, AROUND it, swing OVER it, stomp THROUGH it... You can create an obstacle course activity by including piles of leaves, a squirrel stuffed animal, branches, etc. 

After collecting leaves, have children practice their scissor skills on leaves. How often do we allow kids to snip things other than paper in school? Leaves are naturally thin, and this activity offers that "excitement" that promotes success. Teaching through nature!