Autumn as a Cross-Curricular Theme
The theme of Autumn is one that I will use every September/ October in school for a variety of reasons. There is an abundance of activities that all relate to the theme of Autumn that cross a variety of subjects.
Check out how you could use the activities below to celebrate the coming of Autumn across many subjects including Aistear, SESE, Art, Maths, and SPHE.
Aistear & Art Ideas
Creative Play - Playdough: We downloaded these Autumn playdough mats from Twinkl and laminated them to make sure they last. Laminating them also makes them very easy to clean as they only require a spray of disinfectant and a wipe between uses. Each child has their own personal tub of playdough and the playdough toys can be easily washed in warm soapy water.
Creative Play - Painting: We used red, orange, yellow and brown paint to create our autumn forest scene on A3 paper. Dabbing the paint onto the branches created a more realistic portrayal of leaves. Alternatively you could pinch a cotton wool ball in a clothes peg and use that to print the leaves onto the branches.
We also used sponges to print autumn colours onto leaf templates and tried our best to cut along the black line. These templates were downloaded from Twinkl.
Games with Rules - Bingo: We also downloaded these Autumn themed bingo mats from Twinkl. Again laminating them makes them last for future groups and they can easily be cleaned. We print the picture boards with the words below and use counters to cover the images that have been called out by the captain.
Physical - Exploratory Play: Explore the story 'We're Going on a Leaf Hunt' by Steve Metzger. Following the reading of the story bring the class on an Autumn SESE walk around the school grounds and collect fallen leaves along the way. Compare the characteristics of the leaves (Oral language and mathematical vocabulary development).
Physical - Manipulative Play: Use the items you collected on your nature walk to create a leaf man. Alternatively you could read the story 'Leaf Man' by Lois Ehlert. We love this work created by Jennifer Burns.
We also love the idea of creating a leaf rubbing hedgehog, just like the one created in this video. All you need is some leaves that you collected on your Autumn walk, some card, scissors, brown crayons and a googley eye.
Creating these acorns also provided the children with opportunities to refine their motor skills. They cut out two separate parts of the acorn, they finger painted spots into the cup to mimic the lumpy texture and then they stuck paper squares onto the shell before sticking the two sections together.
We hope you enjoy our Autumn ideas and would love to see what you do in your classroom for Autumn on our social media.
More information on the types of play can be found here on page 54.
