Early Years Are Learning Years

The fall is a great time for children to explore the outdoors, learn about seasonal transitions and develop a variety of cognitive skills. Nature-related experiences can foster a child's emerging sense of wonder, and the earliest years of life are the best time to begin providing direct, on-going interactions with the natural world. There's no need to venture to far-away national parks to explore nature. In fact, young children learn best when they are in an environment that is familiar and comfortable. Focus on the foliage, animals, and insects in your own backyard, the playground, or local park before venturing into heavily wooded areas. Keeping safety concerns in mind, adults should allow children to touch, feel, and smell while they explore the environment.

Following are some autumn activities for children to engage in with their family members or child care providers that can promote positive attitudes and feelings toward the environment.

Allow older children to experience the beauty of fall by taking discovery walks. Collect leaves that have fallen or make a big pile to jump into. Children can use leaves to learn about shape and texture and create their own art by making leaf rubbings. Collect a few leaves that aren't too dried out or crunchy and place them (veins up) onto a table top. Tape a piece of paper over the leaves and rub crayons over the paper. Instantly a picture emerges that will delight and amaze young minds.

Categorizing leaves by color or size can enhance children's sorting skills. Provide an assortment of inexpensive containers (for example, empty oatmeal or pasta boxes), so they can place the red leaves in one container, the gold leaves in another, and the orange leaves in the third. Help to expand children's color vocabulary by talking with them about the vibrant colors.

Babies enjoy color, too! Take infants outdoors and talk to them about nature. Point to the clouds or to the birds flying overhead as they migrate south for the winter months. Go on a scavenger hunt together and collect pine cones, acorns, or twig branches. Toddlers and preschoolers might enjoy counting the items they have found while sitting outside with you. Children can make bird feeders with their pine cones by tying a string to the wide part of the pine cone; rolling the cone in peanut butter; shaking it in a bag of bird seed; and hanging the cone onto a branch outside. Talk with your children about the birds as they come to feed from the cone.

Sit outside and watch the busy squirrels as they collect food for the winter. Discuss what other animals do to prepare for cold weather.

Plan a visit to a nearby farm to watch the harvesting or visit a pumpkin patch. Older children can select a pumpkin, and with your help, roast the seeds in an oven. If there isn't a farm or pumpkin patch nearby, pack a picnic lunch and eat it in the backyard or in the park. Take along a couple of children's books about nature from the library.

Celebrate the season by making vegetable prints. Adults should cut potatoes, cauliflower or corn cobs in half and pour a small amount of finger paint into a flat, plastic dish. Each child can dip the vegetable pieces into the paint, then onto paper or cloth to create an original design.

Children in the primary grades can create an "autumn memory book" with pressed leaves, pictures, and writings about fall activities and specific events they have enjoyed. Wrap the book in paper and put it away until it's almost Spring. When they open it again and look at the leaves and read their writings, they will be able to remember autumn and can compare the differences in seasonal colors.

A positive interaction with the natural environment is an important part of healthy child development. These experiences can enhance learning and elicit a sense of wonder and joy from young children, and play a critical role in shaping lifelong attitudes, values, and patterns of behavior toward nature. Childcare professionals and family members should foster this development by providing opportunities for exploring the outdoors and sharing in the fun.

© © 1998 by the National Association for the Education of Young ChildrenNational Parent Information Network

Credits: N.A.E.Y.C.