A simple outdoor activity to help little ones discover the colours, shapes and textures of nature.
Turn an autumn walk into a fun learning adventure with a homemade nature rainbow. This simple activity encourages little ones to explore the natural world while developing creativity, language, fine motor skills and early mathematical thinking.
Autumn is a wonderful time for little ones to explore the outdoors, with trees and hedgerows full of beautiful reds, oranges, yellows, browns and greens. Why not turn your next autumn walk into a Nature Rainbow adventure?
Before heading outside, draw a large rainbow shape onto a piece of paper or card. An old cereal box works perfectly! Little ones can colour in the rainbow using autumn-inspired colours, such as red, orange, yellow, green and brown.
Then it’s time to head outdoors! Encourage your little one to look carefully at the world around them and collect fallen leaves, petals and other natural treasures in different autumn colours. Once home, they can stick their finds onto the matching sections of their rainbow to create their very own nature-inspired masterpiece.
Another way to explore
You can easily adapt this activity using an empty egg box. Take it on your autumn walk and encourage your little one to collect a selection of fallen leaves. Once home, you can sort them together by colour, size or shape.
This is a lovely way to introduce early mathematical concepts such as grouping, comparing and categorising, while also developing descriptive language.
Learning through play
This activity supports several areas of the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS). Little ones are developing their understanding the world as they observe seasonal changes and explore nature. Physical development is supported through walking, collecting and handling natural objects, while expressive arts and design comes into play as little ones create their rainbow.
Talking together about what they have found also supports Communication and Language, introducing words such as smooth, rough, crunchy, bright, dark, long, round and tiny.
