We were out for a walk in our local park and stumbled across some early conkers on the floor! As Autumn arrives they’re everywhere…we have great fun collecting them in various locations and our house becomes full of them!
There are lots of ideas of crafts, games and even a bit of fun maths that you can do with your conkers though! I even heard that they repel spiders in your house, so the more conkers the merrier for me!
1. Play the traditional game of conkers we all remember from our childhood! You’ll need a conker, a shoelace or piece of string and a screwdriver. Make a hole in the middle of your chosen conker and thread the string or shoelace through it, tying a knot at one end so that it doesn’t pull through. You need two players, who take turn at hitting their opponents conker.
2. Make a conker snake or caterpillar. As well as being great fun these are also a great way of helping children with their numbers, counting to 10 as they can move the conkers up and down on the string.
Either skewer or drill a hole in the conkers, children can then use their fine motor skills to thread the conkers onto the string. Â One thing to note is that conkers are hard to stick things to so I would recommend the eyes that have peel back stickers or super glue.
3. Practise counting with conkers. Simply count the conkers or sort the conkers into a line from the smallest to largest. My eldest practised counting in 2s and 5s with conkers.  They both had great fun with the conkers and didn’t realise it had an underlying maths focus!
4. Paint with conkers. Â This is a bit like marble painting but with conkers! Â We have got quite messy with conker painting before now, which is great fun. Use a baking tray, put a sheet of paper in the bottom and squirt different colours of paint in the tray. Roll the conkers around to make pretty conker pictures!
5. Â Conker games. Â Why not add a bit of fun into some traditional games with the use of conkers? e.g. Conker & Spoon race, Conker Boules, place an object on the floor like a large stone and see who can get their conker the closest to it.
6. Conker puppet family. Act out one of your favourite stories with conker puppets.
7. Conker decorating. In the case of my two, decorating conkers was like decorating eggs at Easter – last year we had paint, glitter and pom poms! There are lots of ways to decorate conkers and suitable for all ages, you could also try conker printing with flat conkers.
8. Use in imaginitive play. Last year my two loved using their stash of conkers in their play kitchen, serving me up plates of conker soup and conkers on toast.
9. Conker jewellery. Drill holes in the conkers and you can make a necklace or bracelet.
10. Make conker animals. Let your child’s imagination run wild, get out the craft box, playdough or use other autumnal materials like acorns, leaves, sticks and make your favourite conker animal. We made some snails last year with a conker shell and a play dough body.
Here are some brilliant conker ideas from Pinterest.
We had great fun with some of these activities last year, hope you enjoy some of them as well!
Why don’t you join the Doncaster Mumbler Chat Group and share your creations with other Mumblers?