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Autumn activities for early years

Blog
The YPO Team
03 Oct 2025

As autumn befalls, the leaves are falling, and the weather is cooling. It’s the perfect time to get immersed in the colourful nature of our favourite season. Here are a few of our favourite autumn activities for early years that will definitely keep the little ones busy and entertained throughout!

Outdoor scavenger hunt

Boy holding up autumn leaves

What better way to learn about autumn than getting toddlers out for a nice stroll in the misty outdoors! Give the children a paper consisting of autumnal items to find; encourage children to spot these objects such as pinecones, apples or orange leaves. They can learn to develop their fine motor skills by picking up these objects and collecting them in a large basket. The perfect autumn nursery activity to keep the little ones entertained.

What you’ll need:

• Large basket (801198)

Sensory play

Autumn provides the perfect opportunity for toddlers to experience seasonal change through watching leaves change in their colour and texture. Open-ended sensory play allows children to enjoy the different textures and express their creativity. Simply find a large tray/crate and find autumnal objects such as acorns, crispy leaves and pinecones to put inside. Allow the children to get creative and play around with the different textures and sounds of the items.

What you’ll need:

• Large crate (D12389)
• Acorns (308657)
• Leaves (427114)
• Pinecones (305055)

Shadow drawing

Holding a leaf up to create a shadow

The little ones will love this autumn nursery activity! Not only is it great fun, but it also improves their concentration and observational skills. Simply peg some leaves on pieces of string and hang them down a chair. Next, place the pieces of paper underneath and the children can begin to start tracing around the shadows created by the leaves. Lastly, the toddlers can colour the leaves in using red, orange or yellow pencils to create an autumn feel.
What you’ll need:

• Pencils (700177)
• Colouring pencils (728292)
• White paper (135755)
• Leaves (427114)
• String (718327)
• Pegs (331244)

Leaf threading

If you’re looking to find engaging ways for your little ones to play with nature, get creative and develop motor skills, leaf threading is the right autumnal activity! The perk of this one is that it is quick and easy to do. Simply lead the children outside for a nice stroll and help them collect a variety of leaves and branches/sticks to use. Next, the children can poke holes in the leaves using the sharpest end of the twigs. You can help them tie a knot at the start and the children can begin threading the string through each leaf carefully.

What you’ll need:

• Sticks/twigs (800160)
• Autumn leaves (427114)
• String (718289)

Counting with conkers

Lots of conkers

If you want to help children practice counting, using conkers is the way to go! Conkers are fun to count with and they can be found everywhere in autumn. Start off by encouraging the children to collect conkers from outside and putting them in a large basket. Next, use a black marker to label some plastic cups with numbers ranging from 1-10 and invite the children to put the correct number of conkers into them. You can also practice subtraction and addition by presenting the kids with small amounts of conkers and then adding or taking some away. The children can work out the total.

What you’ll need:

• Plastic cups (230509)
• Black Markers (713397)
• Conkers
• Large basket (801198)

These EYFS autumn activities can be a great incorporation to your autumn term curriculum. Check out our autumn products page for more seasonal inspiration!

We would also love to see how you and your students interpreted them creatively. You can share them with us by tagging us on Instagram, TikTok or Facebook with #YPOCreateandMake.

For more Inspiration, check out our Pinterest boards!

Author

The YPO Team

YPO supplies products and services to a wide range of customers including schools, local authorities, charities, emergency services, public sector and other businesses such as nurseries and care homes. YPO are 100% publicly owned, by 13 local authorities, which means the profits made are returned to public sector customers, delivering even better value for money.