Conker collecting is one of our favourite autumnal activities. It gets everyone outside and involved and there is something really special about watching the conkers develop in their shells before they fall off of the tree and you can collect them, knowing you are the first person to ever touch that conker.
In our house conker collecting has turned in to somewhat of a tradition. Each year we wait in anticipation to see the first conker fall before taking buckets or bags to fill with them. This is such a fun activity to explore nature and the outdoor environment, learn about different trees and get some fresh and air and exercise with the mission to find the biggest, smallest or shiniest conker. This outdoor activity is full of learning opportunities such as talking about size, shape, colour and texture of the conkers, exploring seasons, counting who collected the most and using new descriptive words to describe the conkers.
There are many ways you can use the conkers that you have collected such as transferring them into clear plastic buckets to make autumn displays, using them for counting during maths, adding them to an autumn themed tuff tray set up or play and learning opportunity, placing them around the house to keep away spiders or alternatively use the conkers to get creative and make conker creatures!
Conker creatures are so much fun to make, all you need are some conkers and a black sharpie or permanent marker pen. Feel free to copy my designs or make your own. I based my conker creatures around animals, making a bear, hedgehog, mouse and fox. Keeping with in the woodland theme. These little conker creatures are a great addition to a small world play set up to inspire children's imagination. To expand on this idea further you could experiment with adding felt, pom poms or googly eyes to give the conker creatures a different personality and bring them to life. This is a fab open ended craft as the opportunities are endless, inspiring creativity for all ages. Making this a perfect budget friendly autumn craft or a wonderful forest school activity.
I hope you enjoy going conker collecting and making your own conker creatures!
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