Autumn

Autumn Nature Activities for Children

This book is packed full of fun nature activities that will help children engage with the season and learn practical new skills.

The authors have included a mix of indoor and outdoor activities for autumn, including picking and cooking fruit, basket-making, building houses and shelters, looking after birds, working with beeswax and making paper.

The activities in this book are based on practical experience from the Children’s Nature and Garden Centre in Reichshof, and are fully tried and tested.

C O N T E N T S:

Foreword

SEPTEMBER

Harvesting fruit and vegetables
Where Do Fruit and Vegetables Come from?
Biodynamic Farms and the Environment
Natural Wholefoods in the Kindergarten
Eating Together: A Good Influence
Understanding How Things Are Connected: Training the Senses
Recipes for Freshly-Harvested Fruit
Drying Fruit for the Winter

OCTOBER

Basket-making
Plants Used for Basket-Making
Making a Willow Basket or a Hanging Basket for Flowers
Weaving Round or Oval Objects
House-building
Simple Houses and Huts
Building: Putting down Roots
Imaginative Structures: Large and Small
Building as an Archetypal Experience
Building a House Together: Developing Social Skills
House-Building in the Third Grade
A Dedication Ceremony

NOVEMBER

Caring for birds
Food for Birds
Working with beeswax
Modelling with Beeswax
Beeswax: A Precious Material
Dipping Candles
Making paper
History and Production of Paper
Making Paper with Children
Painting and handicrafts without toxic chemicals
Paste and Plaster
Glue
Finger-Painting
Sand Pictures
Nature Mobile
Pan Pipes
Castanets
Pinwheel

About the Author

Ronald Koetzsch, PhD, teaches at Rudolf Steiner College. He is the author of The Parent’s Guide to Alternative Education (Shambhala, 1997).

Brigitte Walden, born 1953, worked as a teacher for fifteen years. For nine years, she has been a caregiver at Haus Hohenfried in Germany, a center for people with special needs.

Irmgard Kutsch, born 1952, trained as a vet before working with children with special needs. In 1994, she established the Children’s Nature and Garden Centre in Reichshof, where children and teachers can learn about nature and participate in workshops.