[Autumn] Seasonal play ideas to incorporate into childcare: Let’s connect with nature both outdoors and indoors

Let’s go harvest autumn delicacies!

[For 2-year-olds] Let's go autumn taste hunting!

Let’s make and harvest autumn treats like sweet potatoes, grapes, and persimmons.

First, wrap crumpled newspaper with origami paper to create sweet potatoes and persimmons.

For the grapes, crumple small pieces of paper to make the individual grapes, then glue each one onto a piece of construction paper cut into a grape cluster shape.

The crumpling activity is perfect for encouraging fine motor skills in two-year-olds! Once the foods are made, display them like the real thing: tuck the sweet potatoes into crumpled newspaper “soil,” hang the grapes from a vine, and stick the persimmons onto a “tree.” This can help children learn how foods grow.

Try harvesting the foods you made together and play with them.

Through these uniquely autumn experiences, we hope to deepen children’s curiosity and interest in fall foods.

Making sweets with autumn nature

How about making some cute sweets packed with autumn vibes? Use paper clay to shape donuts, fill cups, and mold it into whatever sweets you want to create.

Then decorate with acorns and nuts you’ve collected, and you’re done.

If you add beads or marbles, your sweets will look even more colorful and festive.

You can display your finished creations, or use them for pretend play like house or running a cake shop—it sounds fun either way.

Turn the memories of collecting acorns with your kids into a lovely keepsake.

Since small children may put acorns and nuts in their mouths, this activity is recommended for children aged 3 and up.

Let’s make a leaf ghost

How about making Halloween ghosts using vibrantly colored autumn leaves in red and yellow? Since the leaves you pick up are natural materials, they’ll dry out and become brittle if left as they are, but laminating them lets you preserve them just as they were when you found them.

After laminating, cut them out and draw faces with a permanent marker, add stickers, or put little hats on them, and you’ll have adorable ghosts full of autumn charm! They’d be perfect as Halloween wall decorations, too.

By laminating autumn treasures along with the fun memories, you can keep the time spent with the children in a lovely, lasting form.

[Panel Theatre] What was that thing you decorate for the moon-viewing festival?

[September] What do we offer for Moon Viewing? Panel Theater [Full Moon Night/Mid-Autumn Festival]

Moon-viewing is the tradition of admiring the beautiful moon floating in the autumn night sky.

This panel theater, “Otsukimi Kazaru no Nandakke,” teaches in a fun and playful way about the offerings made for moon-viewing.

Many children know that rice dumplings (dango) are offered, but quite a few may not know about decorating with pampas grass (susuki).

With its catchy, memorable melody and familiar, repetitive lyrics, children can get excited and deepen their interest in moon-viewing.

It’s also recommended to use before moon-viewing crafts or pretend play related to the festival.

Moon-viewing play

Moon-Viewing Play for Ages 0–5!

The custom of the fifteenth night, said to have been brought from China during the Heian period.

While telling children about its origins, the offerings, and the relationship between the moon and the rabbit, why not enjoy games inspired by moon viewing? For example, draw any pictures you like inside a large sheet of paper representing the full moon, pretend to be rabbits and hop from ring to ring placed on the floor, or make moon-viewing rice dumplings out of paper clay—the variations are endless! Through play that incorporates moon-viewing motifs, we hope it will spark even a little interest in this age-old tradition.

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