Squirrels Autumn Feast: Invitation to Play

Squirrel’s Autumn Feast Tray

Invitation to Play, Planning & Printable Resources

Step into the woodland with Squirrel’s Autumn Feast, a rich, open-ended autumn invitation designed to encourage children to gather, sort, explore, imagine and investigate the natural world.

Using simple seasonal treasures such as conkers, acorns, pinecones, leaves, bark and wooden resources, children can create feasts for the squirrels, build woodland habitats, transport and categorise their finds, explore textures and develop their own imaginative stories. The invitation is intentionally flexible, with ideas for adapting the experience from 9–18 months right through to 4–5 years, allowing the same set-up to grow with the children rather than prescribing one way to play.     Squirrels Autumn Feast Tray

Inside you’ll find EYFS learning links, suggested resources, age and stage adaptations, inclusive practice guidance, adult interaction prompts, communication support, key vocabulary, printable vocabulary cards, observation prompts and possible next steps. The vocabulary collection introduces words including harvest, woodland, gather, autumn, explore, texture, observe and habitat, helping practitioners naturally build language through meaningful play.     Squirrels Autumn Feast Tray

Part of the Harvest, Light & Little Wonders framework, this is much more than an autumn tray. It is a starting point for curiosity, conversation, sensory exploration, early maths, storytelling, understanding the world and child-led discovery.

Digital download | 8 pages | Suitable across the EYFS