Fall is an excellent time to learn about deciduous trees, such as oak trees and maple trees. A good activity for the family is to learn about the life cycle of an oak tree. Find an oak forest and start exploring and observing.
During autumn, deciduous trees start to lose their leaves, preparing for the dormant period of winter. Spend a few minutes underneath the trees and wait for some leaves and acorns to fall (watch out!). They are falling because now is the time for the seed to land on the ground and become covered by snow. The seeds will overwinter and upon spring, the little plant will emerge from the seed ready to become a mighty oak someday.
Examine an acorn for herbivore activity by looking for small holes. The acorn may have a tiny insect larvae inside, using the seed for nutrients. Or, watch squirrels scurry around, collecting acorns, also relying on the seed for food.
Also examine the leaves for herbivore activity. You may notice small bumps called galls, which the plant produces in response to insect larvae. Also take notice of the color change within the leaf – the green chlorophyll has likely disappeared, leaving red, orange, or yellow pigments to remain.
Finally, lay down in the bed of leaves and make a “leaf angel” similar to a snow angel in the winter! Using your senses, listen to the crunching sounds of the leaves and smell the scents of autumn.
Harvest Decorations
A fun activity you can do with your family and friends is decorating pumpkins. Each person can pick out their favorite color paints, and use them to paint their own pumpkin!
An easy craft that you can do in the fall is to make a pinecone birdfeeder! All you need is a pinecone, peanut butter, bird seed, and string. First, spread the peanut butter on the pinecone, then roll it in birdseed so the birdseed sticks to the peanut butter. Next, tie the string around the top of the pinecone and hang it from a tree.
Leaf Fun
There are many leaves strewn on the ground: pick one up and ask your children to find another leaf that is the same color the same shape. This seems simple, but many kids group all leaves together and may have never noticed the different shapes.
Put your hand on a tree and ask your kids to find a similar tree. Ask your kids to notice the texture of the bark or the shape of the leaves. It isn’t necessary that they identify the tree as oak or maple, just encourage them to notice that all bark is not the same and not all leaves aren’t the same shape.
Then, depending on the ages of the kids, you may want to do some simple tree identification. But the most important thing with this is just to notice differences.
Have your kids collect some leaves and have each one choose a favorite. Have the child observe that leaf closely. Take that leaf and choose another 3 or 4 leaves for this game. Have the child stand in front of you with hands behind their back. Set a leaf in the child’s hand and have them examine the leaf with their fingers.
Is this their favorite leaf? Try one leaf after another until the child identifies the favorite leaf by touch alone. Can they tell you what the identifying feature was? If there are several kids, they can pair up to play the game.
Have your kids collect as many leaves as they can in 15 seconds. Clear a spot on the ground and have the kids sort the leaves into whatever groupings they would like – can group by size, shape, color, insect damage or whatever works in that setting.
Autumn Scavenger Hunt of the Senses
Make a list or, better yet, a chart with picture:
- To Find: pine cone, acorn, red leaf, apple, twig, feather (and any other color leaf or any item to add)
- To Look For: Spider web, a leaf falling to the ground, clouds, a bug
- To Listen For: Leaves under feet, wind in trees, chipmunks and squirrels scampering through leaves, calls of birds of fall/winter – bluejays, crows, chickadees, etc.
- To Smell: pine, cedar, a fall flower, decomposing leaves
Then go home, have some hot chocolate and talk about your findings.