How to Take Fall Nature Walks with Children
Educational Outdoors Activities for Children
Sep 4, 2008
Even just a walk down the street can lead to an array of learning opportunities for a parent and a child. Step outdoors once or many times this autumn season to expose your child to the sights, smells, sounds, textures, and even tastes of fall.
Where to Go
- For younger children, climbing down your front steps and digging through your flower beds can be an adventure. You can also walk around your yard or walk or drive to a nearby park or playground. As the weather permits, take walks around your neighborhood (be it in a city, a suburb, or the country) and help your child notice and name plants and animals that are going through autumnal changes.
- Older children will enjoy making observations in your backyard and local areas as well, but stretch your boundaries a little farther with them. Visit arboretums, forests, zoos, nature preserves, nature trails, and even local national parks, being sure to research ahead of time the rules on collecting samples in these places.
- In general, just foster an awareness of autumn wherever your daily errands take you. Point out trees in planters on sidewalks and seed pods stuck to the ground in supermarket parking lots. Even if you are cocooned in the middle of a concrete city, there will still be signs of fall to observe and collect.
When to Go
If you only manage to get out of your home on one or two nature walks all season, that will still provide your child with a wealth of sensory experiences and bags of fall materials to play with and learn from for the rest of autumn. That said, if you can get out more often, do. The more your child is outside inhaling the fall air and scrabbling through the dirt for autumn treasures, the more you two will have to talk about.
- If you can, pick a set time once a week to follow a set route around your neighborhood. Check specific trees, bushes, or other spots each time so you and your child can notice differences and record a series of running observations over an extended period of time.
- Do also sometimes travel your route at different times of day, so that your child can gather more information to use as the basis for other comparisons. Do certain plants look different in the morning than they do closer to the end of day? Are different animals and bugs out and about? How is the lighting different? What about the people and their daily activities in this area?
What to Do
- Bring a notebook to use as a nature journal for written observations.
- Bring a camera and/or set of colored pencils and have your child take or draw pictures of the sights.
- Bring a recorder to capture the sounds of the day.
- Bring nature guides to identify animals, birds, and insects along the way. Your child can make notes in his or her journal about where each creature was spotted and what it was doing.
- Bring a large hardbound book and a roll of wax or parchment paper. As your child collects leaves, press them between two sheets of paper to keep them safe until you can return home and press them more neatly. Be sure to record where each leaf was found.
- Bring several clear plastic baggies and a black permanent marker to give your child practice with sorting. You can either label bags ahead of time and collect specific things (berries, fruits, seeds, nuts, pinecones, even rocks), or you can sort as you go and add labels to match what you find on a particular day.
- If you pass stands or stores selling fall foods, stop for a quick smell and taste!
During and after each nature walk, model how to use descriptive words to talk about the sights, sounds, smells, tastes, and textures you and your child have experienced. You can use the materials you have gathered for craft activities or scientific sorting and classification activities.
