Autumn Counting

In a Forest, in a wood
An ancient, counting castle stood.
In the castle lived a king
a king who counted all the things

In the Forest, up the trees,
Add the Squirrel counted leaves.
When the king heard he could,
he called the squirrel from the wood.

"Dear Squirrel can you lend a hand,
as we count the food for all the land?"
Add was happy to help his King
and together they counted everything.


This is an activity which is initially adult led but
quickly becomes a child-centered activity.

In our nature walks, all through the Autumn, we collect acorns and
seeds and leaves. We find conkers and teasles and bring them all
home and then soon after the counting castle appears.
Any castle would be great, our castle has deep towers which
helps as we can deposit our 'finds' into each tower as they
have been counted.

The king stands at the top of the tower and asks Add to count the
acorns (or pine cones or whichever you choose) and away the
children and the squirrel go. The activity can firstly involve sorting
the different types of seeds or leaves, or can just be a straight counting activity depending upon the age if the children involved.
We count the groups and present them to the king ( with a bow of course)

"Dear King we have found  (7 Acorns) and present them to you.
"Thank you dear squirrel, the kingdom is grateful. Now can you find  me some oak leaves for my sandwiches." and off we go again.............

Obviously this offers experiences in PSRN on all levels, but also encourages co-operation and communication too ( PSED and CLL) I quickly find that the activity gets a life of its own with counting going on all day, costumes being found to look and feel like the kings subjects and recipes for the collected food to feed the
King and his courtiers in the castle ( hence the Oak leaves needed for the sandwiches)
There is also a huge opportunity for discussion of natures response to Autumn, as the leaves fall and the nuts and berries form to feed the wildlife and the need for animals to collect food and store it ( if not necessarily in the local castle towers)

This activity is also extended to older children with the possibility for Addition ( we had 18 acorns and Add the Squirrel found 10 more- how many now?) Division ( the kitchen boys all want conkers for their conker beer, how many can they have each) and so on........

The only note to add on all this is the Health and Safety aspect of small seeds and nuts ( watch for allergies) and younger children who may still be at the stage of putting things in their mouths. Supervision and knowledge of children will show you when it is appropriate to deliver this activity. If all else fails printed or painted cards could be used with similar effect but it would be sad not to have that connection with nature and the experience of handling the fruits of the trees and hedgerows.
Have Fun.