We follow a curriculum from @raisinglittleshoots called Exploring Nature with Children. Each week of the year has a different, seasonal theme to base your nature study around. If you’d like to discover more search the hashtags #ENWC and #ExploringNatureWithChildren.
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This blog post gives you some resources that we’ve made or purchased and enjoyed that you may find helpful for each week in October. You can find out more information about the curriculum here but you don’t need to follow the curriculum to utilise these resources. Here are some of the basic bits of equipment and resources we use for the curriculum as a starting point.
This post will get added to through the month of October 2024.
Exploring Nature with Children October Blog Post Contents
Exploring Nature with Children Autumn Leaves Week
As a family we’ve always loved trees so a week about leaves is one we always eagerly anticipate. Autumn tree week is in a couple of weeks time and you’ll find a leaf download below with a corresponding tree download further down this page.
Get Creative with Art Activities for ENWC Autumn Leaves Week
Woodland Trust have a wonderful selection of creative ideas for Autumn leaves week. You can find the post here and check out their YouTube channel below for more inspiration. We particularly love this firework art activity that they’ve shared. We’ve recently had a firework festival near us that mesmerised our daughter Floss so this activity is very timely.
More Free Autumn Downloads
Woodland Trust also have some brilliant printable resources that are perfect for Autumn leaves week. You can find them here. They do simple activities such as spotting different leaves but also fact sheets like why leaves change colour in Autumn.
Wildlife Watch have several autumnal downloads and they have a very pretty leaf and tree identification resource. You can find their free printables here.
Raising Little Shoots Autumn Leaf Week Blog Post
Here’s Raising Little Shoot’s blog post for Autumn Leaf week.
Exploring Nature with Children Autumn Pond Study Week
Floss loves learning about ducks and she always loves to know the specific names of fauna. For example she doesn’t want to just call something a bird or a duck she wants to be able to say goldfinch or mallard. We’ve realised that we don’t know as much about the different types of ducks so that’s something we’re going to explore this week.
Wildlife Watch have this free duck download that we plan to use to help us identify. Talking of finches – not pond related – but you might like this free finch ID sheet.
Free Pond Spotter Printables – Flora and Fauna
Here’s a couple of our free pond life spotter downloads below.
Daisy and Jack’s Perfect Pond by Rachel Lawston and Beatriz Castro Book
We love this nature series of books by Rachel Lawston and Beatriz Castro. They are wonderful picture books for nature lovers teeming with facts. You can read my review and see inside images of Daisy and Jack’s Perfect Pond here.
Autumn Pond Nature Workshop for Twinkl
We’ve been really enjoying some of the Twinkl Home Education Workshops on YouTube. Check out the Autumn Pond one below.
Other Wildlife Watch Resources Perfect for ENWC Autumn Pond Week
- How to go pond dipping
- How to make a mini pond
- Goose and swan detective
- Make an edible pond
- How to make a pond dipping net
Mindfulness with Cosmic Yoga – Be the Pond
We quite like to take our topic and utilise it in other areas. Cosmic Yoga do some great yoga and mindfulness videos.
Raising Little Shoots Autumn Pond Week Blog Post
Here’s Raising Little Shoot’s blog post for Autumn Pond week.
Exploring Nature with Children The Autumn Tree Study Week
For exploring nature with children Autumn Tree Study week don’t forget to head back to resources for the first week of October – Autumn Leaf week. Lots of the resources we use over both weeks for our learning.
Autumn Tree Week ENWC Printable
The printable below matches with the leaves printable above so you could match tree to leaves. Head out and about and take a photo of these trees in Autumn. How do they differ from the images?
Grow Your Own Oak Tree
Wildlife Watch have a grow your own oak tree instruction sheet free download here.
Exploring Nature with Children Pumpkin Week
ENWC Pumpkin Blog Post
We adore the pumpkin week of the exploring nature with children curriculum. I’ve updated for 2024 the blog post I wrote back in 2019 with how we enjoyed learning at home for this week. You’ll find various arts, crafts, printables and books to help you explore this week. As we’ve been exploring this curriculum for a number of years now there are activities suitable for children from 2-8 years+.
More Nature Resources for October
- 8 Books Brilliant Books to Welcome Autumn
- Autumn Books for Children and Families
- Waldorf Inspired Autumn Lanterns
- Perfect Presents for Autumn Gifts & Birthday Ideas
- Autumn Nature Table and Equinox Celebrations with Children
- Handcrafted Autumn Small World Woodland Play
- Exploring Nature with Children in September Resources
- Spooky Stories: Scary Audio Stories for Toniebox Perfect for Halloween