Get kids excited in November! A collection of play and craft ideas using autumn’s natural treasures
As autumn deepens, many teachers at daycare centers and kindergartens are surely looking to incorporate fun activities into their November plans.
This season offers plenty of ways to enjoy not only indoor play but also activities that get children moving.
As children’s smiles and cheerful voices fill these engaging activities, the feelings of parents and teachers resonate with them, creating wonderful memories.
In this article, we introduce recommended November childcare activities, including bonding games, rhythm-based play, and crafts that make use of nature!
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Get Preschoolers Excited in November! A Collection of Play and Craft Ideas Using Autumn Nature (61–70)
Autumn Nature Play
October is a pleasant time of year, and there are plenty of chances to go out for a walk.
That’s the perfect time to enjoy some autumn nature play! You can pick up fallen leaves and stick them on twigs to make “yakitori,” gather acorns to compare their shapes, have sumo matches with pine needles, and find lots of ways to play using only leaves and nuts you find on the ground.
You can also make maracas by putting acorns into a plastic bottle, or thread leaves onto twine to create hanging decorations.
Ask the kids for their ideas too, and have fun with all kinds of nature play!
Catching autumn insects
We tend to associate insect collecting with summer, but autumn bug-hunting is great too! Crickets, grasshoppers, dragonflies—there are lots of insects kids love in the fall as well.
Quietly observe places where bugs are likely to be, such as between grasses or near rice fields.
As you search, you’ll gradually get better at finding them.
All you need is a net and a cage to enjoy it easily.
After you’ve had fun catching bugs, either set up an environment at the kindergarten to keep them or return them to nature.
Hopefully it becomes a chance to learn that insects are living creatures, too.
Potato-finding Game
In autumn, you see more trucks selling stone-baked sweet potatoes.
These days, sweet potatoes are fairly easy to get year-round, but they’re definitely tastiest in season.
Let’s enjoy autumn with a game called “Sweet Potato Hunt”! First, use yellow and brown paper to make something that looks like a baked sweet potato.
It’s more fun when it looks realistic, so observe pictures or photos carefully before making it.
Fill 3 to 5 cardboard boxes with lots of shredded newspaper, and hide the baked sweet potato you made in one of them.
Whoever finds the sweet potato wins.
It’d be fun to play on a day when sweet potatoes are on the school lunch menu!
Fallen leaves mask
The “fallen-leaf mask” is a game you often see in autumn that uses the fallen leaves all around.
How to play: poke holes for the eyes and mouth in a leaf—that’s it.
Since you tear the holes by hand, each mask ends up with a different expression.
If you can find a big leaf, you can tear it to match the position of your own eyes and mouth, and it could make a mask you can use for Halloween.
It’s simple but a lot of fun, so give it a try! If you wear your finished mask and explore the park, you might enjoy it in a slightly different way than usual.
A crown of fallen leaves
In autumn, lots of leaves fall to the ground, right? They come in all sorts of colors and shapes, so why not collect your favorites and make a crown? Just cut construction paper into a long strip, connect the ends to form a loop, and glue the leaves on—easy! October is Halloween, so it’s also a great time to make one as a seasonal accessory.
Create a one-of-a-kind crown that no one else will have! Fallen leaves won’t work well if they’re damp, so once you bring them back to the classroom, press them between sheets of newspaper to dry.
Making a fallen-leaves cake
How about everyone working together to make a big cake out of fallen leaves? First, have fun collecting leaves and acorns.
The teacher will prepare a cardboard base in advance.
Make stamp daubers by attaching cotton to plastic bottles or disposable chopsticks, and decorate a large white sheet of paper cut to the shape of the cake with colorful patterns.
Then stick the paper onto the cardboard cake and keep pasting on the leaves and acorns.
The sheer size of the cake will have the children buzzing with excitement.
Let them go all out—paste freely and abundantly—and create a delicious-looking cake!
Pool of fallen leaves
When you think of pools, you think of summer—but how about making a “leaf pool” by gathering lots of leaves instead of water? It’s easy to make if you collect the leaves in bags while cleaning, so I highly recommend it.
Dive into the leaf pool, or scoop up armfuls of leaves and toss them up into the sky.
Kids are geniuses at play, so they’re sure to come up with fun new ways to enjoy it!