My mother in law adores mushroom gathering in the forest. She has taken us along a few times and the boys were fascinated by the all the different types and that only some types may safely be eaten. They love the woods, mushrooms or not, and have a great time looking around, finding holes in trees or fallen branches to climb over.

I love a woodland theme too. It really suits Autumn. Last year we made owls in a tree for a window display in Autumn. This year we have taken inspiration from the boys’ German grandmother and have made a window display of toadstools with a cheeky little hedgehog nestled among them.

The other morning before kindergarten Number Three and I made the paper window display. It took us less than half an hour and was a great activity for him, allowing him to practice the names of utensils and colours as well as giving him the chance to do some of the steps himself.

I did the drawing and cutting out. He was in charge of glueing and sticking as well as keeping up a running commentary of the steps. “Mammy jawing”, “Mammy siss iss”, “I do dat”, “Dat mine”, “Mammy making gaass”.

What you’ll need is:

White card

Red card

Hole puncher

Pencil

Glue stick

Scissors / scalpel

Medium brown card

Light brown card

Brown felt tip pen

Green paper / tissue paper

To make the window scene:

To make the stems of the toadstools, draw a chubby, curvy shape onto the white card. Ours measured 10 cm high and 6.5 cm wide at the widest point of the base. Cut out stems from white card. Then draw the toadstool tops on the red card, freehand, and cut out. Our were 4cm high and 12 cm wide at widest point.

Stick the stem and top together to make a toadstool shape.

Punch white card with the hole puncher and stick spots onto red tops with glue stick.

Set aside. Your toadstools are complete.

For the hedgehog, draw a spiky arch shape on the medium brown card and cut it out. Then draw a smaller version on the light brown card, including a snout, and cut it out. This will be the face. Stick the two pieces of card together as in the photo below.

Cut out small circle of medium brown card for nose and glue it to the bottom of the snout. Draw eyes on the light brown facewith felt tip pen. Draw bushy plume on the medium brown card, just above the face, as in the photo below.

Cut a strip of green paper and fold into quarters. Cut out V shapes from one side to make blades of grass. Unfold paper and stick to window using glue or double sided tape.

Nestle the toadstools and hedgehog in among the blades of grass. We used some green acorn-print paper from Tiger for the grass to give it a more autumnal, woodland look.

Number Three has been getting great enjoyment out of looking at the scene and chatting about it. I must say, I am pretty pleased with it myself. It takes the bare look off the kitchen window and gives the room a touch of Autumn feeling.