50 Outdoor Play Activities this Autumn

Autumn is one of the most beautiful times of year. 

Here we share 50 play activities for you to get inspiration from. Some wonderful ideas for your left over pumpkins too - not just for Halloween!

You can also find weekly nature planning ideas and invitations to play in my Rewilding Nature Study Programme

1. Make conker tea - provide charity shop tea pots and utensils for children to make their own nature afternoon tea!

2. Try Apple Bobbing! A classic.

3. Decorate pine cones.

4. Pumpkin Wash station.

5. Play Pumpkin or apple skittles!

6. Spider Web sensory tray using masking tape to create a web. Add conkers and tweezers.

7. Pumpkin hammering.

8. Autumn painting.

9. Apple printing 

10. Pumpkin ring toss.

11. Weighing pumpkins.

12. Spider printing.

13. Skeleton bone dig.

14. Pumpkin Tea! Open the tops and let the children scoop out the seeds and flesh for their pumpkin tea or pumpkin soup creations.

15. Web painting.

16. Make your own nature paint brushes.

17. Make your own stick broomsticks

18. Sensory umbrella play - can you see the leaf shadows through the brollie? Listen to the rain.

19. Collect conkers, count them, order them in size, draw on them - add numbers, alphabet etc

20. Hot chocolate station

21. Sensory play with leaves and reflective resources

22. Make autumn sensory bottles.

23. Pumpkin Hammering. Hammer golf tees into your pumpkin. Then, try removing them and adding nature into the holes like Daisy Ducklings Childminding has done (featured image).

24. Mud Kitchen fun - make autumn mud pies and soups, autumn mud buns, potions and tea.

25. Make a nature wand.

26. Clay faces - add a blog of clay to a tree trunk and let children decorate it/create a woodland face.

27. Pumpkin decorating.

28. Gratitude pumpkin - write what you are grateful for onto your pumpkin.

29. Make pumpkin soup.

30. Go on an autumn leaf hunt - check out the colours and collect them on a stick making a leaf kebab.

31. Go on an autumn treasure hunt - look at your finds back at your classroom or setting.

32. Try leaf and bark rubbings

33. Make an autumn light jar - stick leaves to the outside of the jar with pva and then once dry and a battery operated candle and string to hang it up

34. Make conker creatures - we've all seen the cute hedgehogs on Pinterest right?

35. Make an autumn den to cosy up in and chat to friends.

36. Pine cone and dough creations - make pine cone creatures - an owl, hedgehog? Get some wiggly eyes! clay, sticks and acorns to help.

37. Make Leaf creatures.

38. Make a bug hotel for the insects wanting to hibernate.

39. Count your conkers and acorns with a handmade ten frame

40. Make a tic tac toe game with sticks and use conkers and acorns as noughts and crosses!

41. Use your nature journal to record your autumn findings.

42. Big Art - hang a large sheet to paint in the forest or roll out a sheet of old wallpaper to paint on - try mud painting too!

43. Make nature confetti with your beautiful autumnal leaves.

44. Create an Autumn sensory station inspired by Daisy Ducklings Childminding.

45. Leaf Painting like Daisy Ducklings:

46. Transient Art with natural loose parts.

47. Loose Part Treasure Collections to explore and discuss.

48. Playdough creatures with natural treasures

Tag me in your autumn nature activities - I'd love to see.

Find out more about The Hygge in the Early Years Accreditation.

Thank you to Emily from Little Nature Tots, Daisy Ducklings Childminding and Lottie Makes for providing these ideas and photos.