Conker season is upon us! If you haven’t already built up a good stash over the last few weeks, there are plenty of places below that are often recommended as conker hot spots, along with 10 tips for fun activities once you get your conkers home!
Where to look for conkers in & around Gateshead
Gateshead
Newcastle & North Tyneside
South Tyneside & Sunderland
Durham
Hopefully you’ve managed to find a decent crop of conkers. Here’s a few fun ideas for what to do with them…
Guest Blog from Anna – North Leeds Mumbler
10 Fun Activities with Conkers!
1. Play the traditional game of conkers we all remember from our childhood!
2. Make a conker snake or caterpillar. As well as been great fun these are also a great way of helping children with their number bonds 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 threading the conkers on the string. One thing to note conkers are hard to stick things to so I would recommend the eyes that have peel back stickers or super glue.
3. Practice counting with conkers. We got out the numicon and the eldest mini mumbler helped the youngest with his number practice. They also sorted the conkers into a line from the smallest to largest and the 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. This is a bit like marble painting but with conkers! We got a baking tray put a sheet of paper in the bottom squirted different colours of paint in the tray and rolled the conkers around to make pretty conker pictures!
5. Conker games. 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 like a large stone and see who can get their conker the closest.
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 – see how much glitter they can get on the conkers and themselves!!! There are lots of ways to decorate conkers and suitable for all ages, you could also try conker printing with flat conkers.
8. Fend off spiders. Its the time of year when spiders make an appearance, apparently placing conkers around the house on windowsills keeps the spiders away.
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 had great fun doing lots of different activities with our conkers, hope you enjoy some of them as well!
Thanks so much to our guest blogger Anna. If you have family or friends in North Leeds be sure to let them know about the North Leeds Mumbler site.
There’s plenty on Gateshead Mumbler to help keep little ones (and big ones!) busy, with family-friendly days out & kids classes, plus events & activities for Halloween & October half-term and the Festive Season.
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