With autumn in full swing and conkers everywhere I thought I would share with you what we do with our conkers.
We use them a lot for maths they are perfect for counting. Go for a day out, collect a basket full of conkers, have a picnic while you’re there. We make use of them daily and use them for the rest of autumn, winter, spring and summer as counting tools. We use them to make quantities, use them for size ordering they are just brilliant for math. I’ve even made a DIY abacus using an old cardboard box some wire and conkers!
You can even have a conker bath, pop all the conkers into a deep tuff tray with some bubbles maybe fairy liquid and a few scrubbing brushes. Let your little ones clean. Children love water play!
Another favourite of ours is to draw on conkers or paint them. They look so pretty when you paint them, you can use chalk pens or acrylic paint pens they seem to work best and they are easier to control for little ones.
Another great idea while you’re painting them is to draw the letters of the alphabet or numbers depending on your child’s level 1 to 10, 1 to 20 and so on. These can then be used for phonics practice, they can be used for spelling, they can be used to help with recognition of numbers or maths equations and sums.
We’ve made some nature wreaths using conkers. All you need to do this is a palm drill, some wire and something to decorate perhaps ribbon or some artificial foliage. This can be a great find motor activity for children if you let them use the palm drill, get those little fingers moving. It’s also great risky play learning how to handle a tool safely.
Another version of a nature wreath is to use a glue gun and a premade wreath, and you simply glue gun the conkers onto the wreath and then add your ribbon or foliage where are you please.
Conkers are perfect to use in mud kitchen play, you can use them as part of a recipe or you can use them as part of the main concept, for example phonics soup; your little one has to scoop out a conker find the letter that’s written on the conker and sound it out to you.
While we’re outside in the mud kitchen how about making some soap using our conkers! This is really fun and really easy all you need is a pestle and mortar, we decided to peel the conker first and you literally smash it up add some water give it another whack and you have soapy water which actually cleans. I’ve also heard that you can actually make a soap bar using conkers I’m not sure on a technique but that sounds fun, a nature soap as it were!
When you were little do you remember playing conkers with your school friends this is such a fun activity to do with the little ones and then can even help you make it.
To do this you’re traditionally supposed to soak in vinegar or bake the conkers in the oven at 140° for up to 2 hours. Then you’d drill a hole using a palm drill and add some string tying a knot. Then let the battle commence!
If you have any cardboard tubes, in particular kitchen roll or toilet roll these are great to make chutes to drop conkers down.
You can have different sizes to see which conker comes out first, you can try different positions too. This is a great stem activity.
And lastly because I think I’ve waffled on long enough! We love to use conkers as loose parts they are just great for open-ended play and to let your little ones explore. You can use them in a tray play, in a tinker tray or just leave a basket like we do and just let children explore them. Have them in their shells, how does it feel? How do we get inside? You watch it open over a few days! Oh what’s inside? How does that feel? Oh look it’s a different colour.
Sidenote conkers are supposed to keep spiders away, so if you don’t like spiders invading your home during autumn and winter pop conkers in each room maybe in an organza bag and hang them up in a little bowl and they are supposed to keep spiders away.
We’d love to know what you do with conkers drop a comment and let us know!
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Have a great week and have fun with those conkers!
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