Fall Outdoor Sensory & Nature Play

Fall is such a wonderful time of the year for the preschoolers to explore nature and use what’s left of the flowers and plants in sensory play.

We picked some berries off our very fruitful Viburnum cranberry shrub in our yard to play with. This variety is not poisonous but of course I didn’t want them to eat the berries, so we talked about “not eating, just playing”.

Play with the berries was limited to this table and I sat with the children while they played. Such a pretty nature item to play with! Lots of fine motor practice is involved when pulling berries off the plant.

I filled the sensory table with dried peas and gave them small potting cups to pour and scoop with. We also have the water containers out yet so some used those too. It’s so nice to not have to worry about clean up in this area!

Each fall when the garden is about done, I let the children pick the green tomatoes and anything that’s left. They really enjoy this and can play for hours in the garden! Love this kind of play! They soon blazed a trail through the sunflowers, zinnias and vines. Lots of bugs left to find and observe yet!