Every autumn season, we take almost daily walks in our local park and always bring home little treasures. Today girls insisted on picking up chestnuts so we ended with a chestnut sensory play – Chestnut hunt and soup!
Outdoor Chestnut Hunt in the Park
Our park is filled with chestnut trees and, since chestnuts are falling off the trees, the park is filled with them! It’s a fun activity, with lots of running and picking up and both toddler and big girl enjoy it.
They enjoyed jumping on the ones that were still inside their cupules trying to make them break in pieces to pick up chestnuts from inside.
It was fun exploring spiky cupules and trying to pick them up without being hurt. This is excellent fine motor activity and kids were warned to be very careful when picking them up. It’s fun to see how seriously they did this!
My daughter specially loves the doubles where there are 2 or more chestnuts inside each cupule. She says that flat chestnuts are her favorite and these are most often found in double-pods.
Chestnut Sensory Play in the Bathtub
When we came home, they moved all the chestnuts from bag to the bin I gave them. Since it was getting late and it was time for them to take a bath, we decided to move our bin to the bathroom and play with chestnuts in bathtub.
I have decided to add couple sponges and 2 spoons for them to clean up chestnuts and make a chestnut soup. Of course, it was a total hit as you can see on following pictures. This is really very low cost and no preparation time required activity anyone can do with their toddlers at home!
They used spoons to add water inside so they would have enough water to clean up chestnuts. There was lots of sprinkling around the bathtub but they really made their chestnuts prepared for cooking with enjoyment!
Time to cook up a chestnut soup! Of course, by this time there was bunch of chestnut already outside of the bin and inside the bathtub but this really didn’t bother them! I added few more spoons in different sizes to make it even more interesting.
And, of course, it was the most interesting to try to catch chestnuts with the smallest spoon! They ended up their play after a full hour in bathtub and mom adding warm water twice since it cooled down, partly because chestnuts were cold and partly because they were inside for so long. Of course, they asked if we’ll add chestnuts next time to the bathtub too!
Learning Opportunities:
As they play with chesnuts, children work on:
- Development of fine motor skills
- Eye & hand coordination – watching and doing and coordinating these actions.
- Sensory- Development of the sense of touch, feeling and manipulating objects.
- Experimentation and discovery.
Extend Playtime with a Story!
A very awesome book cover, great colored pictures & proper font & writing style. A very well written children’s dog adventure story book. Promotes hands-on nature observation, learning from the outdoors and natural material crafts.
Find the book here: United States | Canada | United Kingdom
Little ones will love lifting the flaps in this book to reveal a yummy apple pie, some crunchy acorns, a soft, fluffy hat, and everything else that Baby loves about fall! The sturdy format and easy-to-lift flaps are perfect for parents and children to share.
Find the book here: United States | Canada | United Kingdom
Explore more of the fall season activities!
Take a look at our Free Fall Printable Pack for Preschoolers, print it out and use with your kids! If you gathered enough chestnuts (or conkers!), you can take a pick from 33 Ways to Play with Chestnut this Fall. You will surely find an idea your kids will adore! Speaking of seasonal, you can also take a look at out collections of 21 Candy Corn Sensory Play Ideas for Kids and 33 Sensory Apple Activities for Kids to Enjoy this Fall. As always, have fun!
For Abundance of Ideas for Everyday Play!
Looking for more fun things to do with your kids? We want to recommend you our new book – Learn with Play (150+ Activities for Year-Round Fun and Learning)! You will find inside easy to prepare activities for everyday fun as well for all seasons and holidays! Here is a preview for you:
Book is available as:
Fall is an awesome time for nature finds. I love that you used them in the bathtub!
More than once since this post has been published! My kids simply love playing with chestnuts in a bathtub! 😀 Who ever said that toys need to be purchased to count as toys, was VERY wrong! 😉
I guess I never realized how much chestnuts look like buckeyes. What a cute idea for play!
Thank you for stopping by the Thoughtful Spot Weekly Blog Hop this week. We hope to see you drop by our neck of the woods next week!