Autumn is full of natural resources for fun and we love conkers!
But exactly can you do with your haul of conkers, acorns and hazelnuts once you’ve collected them?
Well, here’s a bundle of ideas for you. ?
And don’t miss our 50+ Nature Play Ideas and Autumn Activities for Kids.
Exploring Conkers
Ms A and I went for a walk to pick up some conkers and we kicked off our shoes and sat on the grass in the park exploring them. Although she tried to eat them (as she does with everything) she had a wonderful time choosing ones to pick up from our bag and inspect with her chubby little inquisitive fingers.
Keep Spiders Away
Chocolate Conkers
Love conkers? Well check these out. THEY’RE CHOCOLATE!! Officially the best conkers ever! It’s surprising how competitive a game can get when chocolate is involved. Here’s how to make Chocolate Conkers.
Conker Snails
How about making this
Conker Abacus
We used a small box and some wooden skewers to make a simple conker abacus. You could make a large one using lots of conkers and a cereal box.
Magical Acorns
Use PVA glue to brush into your acorns before rolling in glitter. Once dry, secretly drop the acorns for your child to magically stumble upon. ✨
Spooky Eyeball Conker Wreath
See more Halloween ideas.
Conker Snakes
Use a needle and thick thread to make a conker snake, once threaded tie at both ends.
Spooky Eyeballs
Paint eyes into your conkers and place in a bowl for a spooky Halloween centrepiece. Leave the conkers in their cases to look like eye lids.
Conker Animals
Use cocktail sticks, googly eyes and sticks to make conker animals.
Conker Milestone
Check out our other natural milestones HERE
Conker Necklaces
Use a screwdriver to make holes in your conkers before threading onto shoelaces or string.
Hazelnut Birds
Use bits of felt to make cute little birds. Simply glue the felt on and use a pen for the eyes.
Hazelnut Writing Tray
? A little sand in a tray to keep them from rolling away. Some hazelnuts and a marker pen make for a great word/sentence maker activity.
GIANT FERRERO ROCHER
Could you handle it? One is never enough unless it’s as big as your head! So that’s what we did. It was quite tricky to make but easy to devour.
We brushed ice cream wafers with water to make them slightly soft and moulded them to a greased bowl (times 2) and then left them in a warm place to dry back out. We then carefully removed the two halves from the bowls and covered with melted chocolate.
Before they’d completely set we sprinkled the outside with hazelnuts and returned to the fridge. We then filled the inside of the two halves with hazelnuts and a jar of chocolate spread. We used a little more melted chocolate to seal the two halves together.
Finally we wrapped in some gold wrapping paper that we’d scrunched up for effect.
We then used our fingers to eat it for pudding!
We’ve got lots more Ways To Have Fun With Food to keep you happy.
Hazelnut Kerplunk
Cut a plastic bottle in half, turn the lid end upside down and place it on the base. Make a hole in the top to put the hazelnuts in and a hole in the base for them to fall out.
Carefully make a hole to thread your straws through.
Family Oak Tree
We used a picture frame which Eden, 8, painted a picture of an oak tree scene on a piece of paper and inserted into it.
Working together we stuck the acorns onto the outside of the frame. I used a Sharpie permanent marker to personalise the acorns. Depending on the size of your tree you could use a much larger frame. The acorns will darken over time.
We finished off by placing a couple of our hazelnut owls.
Acorn Snakes
We collected acorns and threaded them onto thread using a needle. (This was a bit tricky and I did it for the kids.) Once threaded, we decorated our snakes with permanent marker pens.
Acorn Family
Use a Sharpie marker pen to draw your own family. Use cocktail sticks to push into them to poke them into an old soft piece of wood.
CONKER ART
Collect conkers at the park and use them to make conker people. This idea but can be done with other natural materials too. Have a look at Forest Art, Leaf Art and Blossom Art for more ideas.
Lindy says
September 6, 2017 at 3:18 amI’ve never heard the term ‘conkers’. They are horse chestnuts, aren’t they? Is the deterrent for spiders for real? You have some great ideas to share! Thanks! Now, to find the horse chestnuts!
Mrs FD says
September 6, 2017 at 7:25 amA conker is the seed of the horse chestnut tree and you can’t eat them. (I believe it’s the sweet chestnut tree that we get horse chestnuts to eat.) The idea that conkers deter spiders is well-known but not all say it works. I’ve found piercing the conkers seems to help. It’s definitely worth trying though if you prefer spiders to stay outside!