Apple Adventures: Balancing Outdoor Play with Learning

Sep 20, 2025

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Welcome back to the blog! After a summer full of sunshine, play, and adventures, I’m excited to return to sharing little glimpses of our days here at Little Squirrels. I took the summer off from posting so I could be fully present with the children, but now that fall is here, I’m looking forward to bringing you along as we dive back into our learning themes and seasonal fun.

September always feels like a fresh start in our program. It’s the time of year when we return to our learning themes and begin weaving a little more structure back into our days. This month, we’ve circled back to one of the children’s favorites, apples!

That being said, I have to be honest: the weather this September has been absolutely gorgeous. Since we are a nature-based, outdoor-focused program, it has been nearly impossible for me to spend too much time indoors with our set-ups. Beautiful weather is such a gift in our area, and I believe it’s most important for the children to soak up every bit of sunshine while it’s here. Still, we’ve found lots of creative ways to bring our apple theme to life!

One of the biggest hits has been our fine motor play with apple ornaments and a mug tree. This simple set up has brought so many smiles! The children carefully hang and remove the little apples, and wooden rings which is wonderful practice for developing hand-eye coordination, strengthening finger muscles, and building focus. It’s been such a favorite that I think we’ll keep bringing it back throughout the seasons.

We also set up a really sweet dramatic play center, an apple cider mill. I wanted to include felt food for this, but shipping delays meant nothing would arrive until after our Apple theme was over. So, I decided to get crafty and made some myself! The play set now includes:

•A felt apple pie with removable apple slices (great for pretend baking and “sharing” with friends)

•Apple cider donuts

•Caramel apples (though mine ended up upside down with caramel on the bottom, oops!)

•Recycled containers from our local cider mill

•And, of course, plenty of pretend apples

The children have loved using this space to pour, serve, sell and imagine. Dramatic play like this is so valuable, it encourages language development, social skills, cooperation, and creativity, all while tying into our seasonal theme.

We also eased back into letter recognition practice with our alphabet apples and added some color sorting activities. These little invitations are playful but purposeful, helping the children strengthen early literacy and math concepts in ways that feel fun and natural.

While we’re gradually moving toward more structure, the truth is, as long as the sunshine holds, outdoor play will always come first here. The children are climbing, running, balancing, exploring, and connecting with nature daily, all of which are just as important as our indoor learning. In fact, research shows that outdoor play supports physical health, self-confidence, problem-solving, and even stronger attention spans, so while our apple theme has been sprinkled into September, our focus remains where it belongs, on joyful play, curiosity, and plenty of fresh air.