There have been so many leaves in our outdoor area over the last couple of weeks! The children have been noticing the beautiful colours on the leaves and have started to think about why many of the trees are losing their leaves.

Maggie-May told us "The leaves are dying. That's why they changing colours"

Using our vast open space, we went on an autumn walk. The sun was shining and it was a beautiful afternoon. The children had no difficulty in locating an array of leaves! Linking back to our work last week on senses, the children were encouraged to feel, look at, smell and listen to the leaves.

"They're all scrunchy" said Donya.

"I like the yellow and brown ones best...Yellow is the colour of the sunshine" said Lydia.

Armed with carrier bags, the children set out to fill their bags with autumnal treasures! They were not disappionted as we got near to the enormous horse chestnut tree towering in the corner of the field. The ground was covered in hundreds of conkers of all shapes and sizes. The children were fascinated to discover some were still inside their spiky shells! The children naturally began counting their conkers and started to look for the 'biggest' or 'shiniest' conker. Some children found conkers that were broken or had holes in and we looked inside to discover they have a creamy-whte middle.

Once back in the classroom the children were tasked to sort their treasures into leaves, conkers, twigs and 'others'. There was a great deal of conversation about the many colours, shapes and sizes of the different treasures.

We will be using our treasure over the week, so look out for an update!

Click here to see photos of our walk in our gallery.