Nuts, leaves and autumn seeds

Autumn is a time of change. With every gust of wind, nuts, leaves, and seeds are falling, carpeting the ground with layers of brown, gold, and red. There is a sense of winter drawing close as animals fill their winter larders or prepare to hibernate.

In towns and cities, planters and hanging baskets are removed, outdoor events become fewer, and shops fill their windows with displays for winter festivals such as Halloween and Diwali. Flora is replaced by lanterns, and the bare branches of trees are adorned with strings of fairy lights.

It may feel like nature has little left to do. Outdoor areas have less appeal, while plant stems wither before flopping messily through beds and borders. It’s time to cut back, dig over and wait for next spring. Fallen leaves must be swept daily from public thoroughfares, and autumn begins to feel like another chore that cannot be put off.

But wait! Nature always plans ahead; every fallen leaf, nut, or seed has a purpose and will play its part in an annual cycle of events.

When planning your educational programmes for the autumn months, take a closer look at what nature has to offer.

Once you’ve opened children’s eyes to the wonder of a simple helicopter seed or a bright shiny conker, you will have trouble keeping up with the explosion of learning potential.

Each seed (including nuts) is an embryo of a plant, one of nature’s many miracles! There is a fascinating variety of shapes to discover, each with an ingenious way of transporting to where they need to be. Whether you have woodland nearby or pots and borders to explore, here are just a few areas of learning that you can promote:

Time spent outdoors has many physical benefits. When children are outside, observational skills – such as looking and noticing changes in familiar plants and trees – are a good place to start. Flower blooms become pods containing one or more tiny seeds, while other plants such as dandelions develop heads full of seeds, complete with individual parachutes that are just waiting for the wind to carry them away. Some plants leave a delicate skeleton that eventually breaks down as the seeds are released. Can the children mimic these changes with their own bodies and movements? How might their movements change at different points in the seed lifecycle?

Fine motor skills and hand-eye coordination are required to locate and then pick tiny seeds. Remind children not to take too many but encourage them to collect as many different seeds as they can. Use teachable moments to explore different seed cases or pods. How do they feel? Are they hard or soft? Do they pop open or crack? Where did they come from, and how will they find a place to grow?

The careful deliberation and discovery of small seeds takes a degree of stillness, so if you come across a patch of sycamore or ash helicopters, throw handfuls as high as you can, then chase round trying to catch them. Physical development needs plenty of opportunities for children to become breathless as their heart rate rises. If you can’t find helicopters, catch falling leaves before they hit the ground. Make a wish for every leaf or helicopter caught! You’ll often find that even children who don’t usually join in will want to catch an elusive leaf.

To slow things down again, grasses that have gone to seed offer a different sensory experience as they swish in the breeze, making a relaxing rustling sound that young children can enjoy in mindful moments, or when resting outdoors.

For babies and toddlers, a treasure basket filled with crunchy autumn leaves, conkers, acorns, and seed pods will tempt their senses. Supervise carefully, making certain that the contents are not dangerous and, if in doubt, leave them out! There are plenty of pumpkins around now, so scoop out some of the flesh for babies to use their fingers to squish and squelch inside the pumpkin as they discover the slippery seeds inside.

When children discover nature, they bring their ‘finds’ to you because they want to share and will be receptive to having a conversation. This is so much better than you finding an interesting seed and telling the children what you think they need to know, as their interest will allow them to discover more independently while absorbing more learning.

If the opportunity arises, talk about how the seed falls from the tree or plant, how it travels to the place where it will eventually grow, and wonder together at the tiny acorn becoming a mighty oak. Through discussion, children will learn that there are many different trees and plants, starting to recognise and name individual features. Observe their delight as children discover that birds and other animals transport some seeds by swallowing them and eventually pooing them out, or that some pods burst, shooting seeds into the air!

Try not to overwhelm children with too many facts and figures but do consider providing opportunities for new words that children can then recognise or use in different contexts.

Seeds come in just about every size and shape you could think of. Comparing and counting are obvious, but did you know that sunflowers, dandelions, and thistles – among others – form spiral patterns where the seeds are arranged to make the most of the space available? Pinecones are also spirals that keep their shape once the small flat seeds have been released.

Tree seeds can be planted now to overwinter. Collect different tree seeds and plant them in a deep trough. If they germinate, study them together, making notes of how much they have grown, the shape and number of leaves they have, and attempt to work out what species of tree they are.

Seeds and nuts can be sorted into size, shape and type, remembering that the pods are as fascinating as the seeds themselves. Recreate spirals, whorls, curves, and straight lines, make up new patterns and look for symmetry.

Let children’s imaginations run wild… Some seed pods rattle when shaken, while bigger, harder seeds can be added to containers to make musical instruments.

• Use acorn cups for imaginative play as tiny hats or bowls.

• Fan out beech nut pods so they’re fully open and create butterflies or flowers for a collage.

• Make transient art outside with whatever can be found on the ground.

• Place dried stems and flower heads in vases or scooped out pumpkins on your interest table.

• Use seeds to print or roll in paint to make random patterns.

Whatever you do and wherever the children’s interest takes them this autumn, make sure that you take time to appreciate the miracle of nature with them – that’s how we help to secure its future!