We follow a curriculum from Raising Little Shoots called Exploring Nature with Children. Each week of the year has a different, seasonal theme to base your nature study around.
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- If you are on Pinterest you might like to check out my ENWC Pinterest board here.
- This blog post gives you some resources you may find helpful for each week in September.
- As always these posts get added to each year as we go through the cycle of the curriculum again.
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. Latest update 19th August 2026.
Exploring Nature with Children October Blog Post Contents
October 2026 Exploring Nature with Children Dates
You can find the full calendar of dates for the year here. Under the ENWC dates you will find other dates you may wish to consider as they fall into these weeks including awareness days.
5-11th October 2026 Autumn Leaves Week
- World Habitat Day – 5th October
- National Badger Day – 6th October
- World Octopus Day – 8th October
- World Migratory Bird Day – 10th October
- UK Fungus Day – 10th October
- World Mental Health Day – 10th October
- International Day of the Girl Child – 11th October
12-18th October 2026 Autumn Pond Study
- World Food Day – 16th October
- Global Cat Day – 16th October
- International Sawfish Day – 17th October
- International Sloth Day – 17th October
19-25th October 2026 Autumn Tree Study
- International Sloth Day – 20th October
- Reptile Awareness Day – 21st October
- World Wombat Day – 22nd October
- International Snow Leopard Day – 23rd October
- United Nations Day – 24th October
- Clocks Go Back (UK) – 25th October
26th October-1st November 2026 Pumpkin Week
- Pumpkin Day – 26th October
- Worldwide Howl at the Moon Night – 26th October
- National Black Cat Day (UK) – 27th October
- RSPB Feed the Birds Day – 29th October
- World Lemur Day – 30th October
- Halloween – 31st October
- World Cities Day – 31st October
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.
Free ENWC Autumn Leaves Week Leaf Downloads
New Autumn Leaves download added. This download matches the leaves in the original Leaves 3 part Montessori style cards so you can match the leaves from different seasons. Note that Ivy and Holly are evergreen leaves. The image of ivy for Autumn is of a red variety of ivy and the holly image is of a stunning decaying holly leaf.
You can download the matching trees to go with these leaf downloads here.
Download: Trees – Plants ID Cards here ⬇️Downloaded 12065 times
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.
Macrame Leaves
You’ll find full visual instructions and a video tutorial on how to make macrame leaves here. This activity is perfect for adults and children.
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.
Each year we love to build on our nature exploring from the year before. Nature journaling is one way we love to dive deeper into nature together.
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?
Autumn Trees Nature Home Education Workshop for Twinkl
Below you’ll find the Twinkl Home Education Workshop on Autumn Trees. It’s just under 9 minutes long.
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 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+.
Pomme and the Pumpkins Book
A stunningly illustrated book by Admar Kwant that depicts the life cycle of a pumpkin in the most delightful way through a beautiful story. Find out more and discover inside images in my blog post here.
New Free Pumpkin & Squash Learning Download
Included with this download is a list of ways that you can use this resources to support phonics, English, maths including data handling and other learning objectives.
More Nature Resources for October
- The Magical Apple Star Story for Kids
- 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
Exploring Nature with Children through the Year
You can find more resources for different weeks in the ENWC curriculum by clicking on the links below:
