Autumn Crafts and Activities

Autumn is such a fun time. Leaves turn shades of golden orange and brown. Use this beautiful creation of nature to your advantage. Focus on leaves for inspiration with these fun autumn craft ideas.

Create an autumn yard collage
This is a great way to get your kids involved in beautifying your front lawn for the fall season. Materials you will need to create your autumn yard collage include hay bales, pumpkins (all sizes), scarecrows, witches, cornucopias, etc. Anything related to fall will look wonderful. Stack your hay bales to create a backdrop. Next, place a huge scarecrow (or witch) on the center of the stack. Then add other complimentary fall accessories like cornucopias, corn stacks, ghosts, etc.

Happy Autumn Cards
Supply each kid with markers, paper, glue, glitter, stickers, etc. Let them make several autumn cards and write a special message on the inside of each one. After any wet appliqués are dried, gather the cards and take them to your local nursing home to distribute among patients.

• Leaf

Leaf Crafts and Activities for Preschool Kids.

Decorate the Playground for Autumn

Your school playground is a safe haven for children. There they can be themselves, have fun and forget about the worries of learning for a bit. Having preschoolers decorate the playground for fall not only spruces up the play area, but can also help preschoolers learn about nature and their surroundings.

To create your autumn collage you will need bales of hay, some straw, a pair of old jeans, an old flannel shirt, a couple of 2 or 3 prong sticks, one leg cut off a pair of old panty hose, a straw hat and a few plastic blackbirds. You will also need some small pumpkins, fall leaves, corn stalks and any other fall items you may come across.

Start by having the kids put the bales of hay as the backdrop. These bales can be pretty heavy so you might have to enlist a few other adults to help. Set the bales at least 2 feet high. Be sure they are not so high that the kids can’t reach them. Once the backdrop is set the children can place the leaves in the bales of hay. The can also place a few blackbirds here and there to set the stage.

To create your scarecrow, have the children fill the pants and shirt with straw. Tie off the ends of the arms and legs with twine so the straw doesn’t escape. Be sure they use a lot of straw to fill the scarecrow out. Be sure to let a few pieces of straw hang out here and there for an authentic look.

Place the sticks up in the shirtsleeves to make the arms/hands. For the scarecrow’s head fill the panty hose with straw and form it into a ball. Tie off the open end and let the children paint a face on the scarecrow. Pin the pants and shirt together with safety pins and place the head down on top of the shirt at the collar, securing it with safety pins as well. Place the straw hat on top and now the kids have their very own scarecrow. Now help the kids attach the scarecrow to the middle of the bales of hay with wire. Be sure to place a blackbird on the scarecrow’s shoulder.

After your backdrop is set, let the kids paint faces on the pumpkins and place them on the ground in front of the bales of hay. Add some corn stalks, more leaves, fall flowers and even a cornucopia or two to set off your fall collage. Let the kids come up with some ideas of fall items. A stuffed turkey or two would be great. How about a couple of Pilgrims and a few Indians to set the stage for Thanksgiving? Maybe even let them set up a small feast for the Pilgrims and Indians to enjoy.

Decorating the playground in a small area for everyone to see can be fun and exciting for your preschoolers. Once they have it completed let them show it off. Let parents take pictures of their child in the middle of the collage. Take individual as well as a class picture and arrange them in a collage on the classroom bulletin board.

My Very Own Leaf Tracing Book

Looking at, collecting and enjoying fall leaves can be a lot of fun for everyone including preschoolers. There are so many different types of leaves that you can spend all day looking at them. Fall leaves are not just an annoyance or for raking up into piles to jump in, they are there for your preschoolers to create and learn from. Like tracing leaves for instance, what a fun way for your preschoolers to learn and enjoy fall leaves.

Start with some white copy paper. Start with 5 pieces of paper for each child. Place the paper in stacks of 5 each and fold each stack down the middle to make a book. Using a three-hole punch, place a hole in the top, middle, and bottom of the crease.

The kids can tie them all together with brightly colored yard. This will make a great book for them to keep their traced leaves in.

Once outside have your preschoolers find at least 5 leaves of different shapes and sizes. Once they have all found their five leaves, head back inside to create their leaf books.

On the front cover of each book have the children write (or you can write for them prior to beginning the activity) “My Very Own Leaf Book” by (Insert Child’s Name).

Starting with each child’s favorite leaf, show them how to place the leaves on the right side of each page and trace around the leaf. Once they’ve traced the leaf, glue the actual leaf on the left side of the page.

Once all their leaves are traced and glued into their book, let them color and decorate their traced leaves anyway they want. You can use stickers, crayons, paint, etc. to decorate.

Create Your Own Leaf Characters

Making characters out of construction paper can be so much fun and challenging too. With their imaginations and a little help from you, your preschoolers can put together some interesting characters that will keep you in stitches and their parents wondering what you’ll come up with next.

With different fall colored construction paper make as many different types and sizes of leaves as you can come up with. These cut outs will make the heads, bodies, arms and legs of the leaf characters, so you need many different sizes and shapes for them to use. Fall leaves come in many colors so be diverse in picking your colors.

Once you have all the leaves traced, cut out and put into stacks you will also need to have some paste, glue, crayons, colored pencils, markers (if you dare), glitter, fall ric rac, fall fabric pieces, a hole punch and some yarn. Now you’re set and your preschoolers can take over.

Start them out with the body of their leaf character. Next will be the arms and legs. Have them pick leaves out and paste them to the back of the body leaf. Pressing down on the body leaf from the front for a few seconds will set the legs and arms so it will be easier for them to work with.

The head will come next. This can also be attached with paste. They should attach this to the front of the leaf body. Again have them press down on the pasted area to set the leaf. When it comes time for them to draw the face and hair on their character the leaves won’t pull apart so easily.

Use the pieces of fabric and ric rac to make the leaf characters clothes. By using small amounts of paste the clothes will adhere to the leaf easily. They can attach it to their body, legs and arms or where ever they might choose. Let them add some touches to the clothes with the glitter.

When it comes to the leaf characters face, let the kids be creative. By using crayons, colored pencils or even markers they can put eyes, a nose, a mouth and even hair on their character.

Once your preschooler has their character completed, punch a whole in the top of the leaf. Run a piece of yarn through the hole and tie together. Now you have a leaf character that can be used like a puppet in a leaf play or hung around the classroom.

What fun your preschoolers will have creating their leaf characters. Let them put on their own little play with them. They will have a blast and you’ll enjoy the show.

Making a Leaf Collage

Parents love to have pictures their children made at school to put on the refrigerator. They can show them off and it’s a decoration for their kitchen. Keeping this in mind; let your preschoolers make a leaf collage for their parents. It’s fun and easy to do plus it can be educational for young children.

Take the children out and let them gather as many leaves as possible. The size really doesn’t matter but be sure they find colorful leaves. This will bring color to the picture and make it more interesting for the children. Once you have collected all the leaves head back inside and start the leaf masterpiece.

Some of the leaves will need to be slightly dried. While some of the leaves are drying you can start to make the collage and learn a little bit about each leaf.

On bright colored construction paper have your preschoolers place different types of leaves. Have them find a leaf from a Maple tree, Oak tree or any other type of tree that was in the area where you gathered the leaves. Show them pictures of each type of leaf and then have them search through the leaves they gathered to find that certain type. Once they have found it they can paste it onto the construction paper.

After all the larger leaves are found and attached take the slightly dried leaves place them in as many small sandwich bags as you have children. Give each child their own bag and let them crush the leaves up. They can use their hands, books or anything they can find to make their crumbled leaves. Once the leaves are crushed to their satisfaction have them put small dots of glue around the edges of the construction paper. Have them sprinkle the crushed leaves around the edge to make a frame.

Making a collage can be fun for your preschooler. Seeing it on the refrigerator in their own kitchen will brighten their day as well as Mom and Dad’s. They can spend their morning breakfast time seeing if Mom and Dad can name the leaves and having a good laugh when they realize they may know more about leaves than their parents.

Spring Crafts and Activities

Spring has sprung and now it’s time to take in all the newness in the air. Here are some fun spring themed crafts you can do with your preschooler.

Bouquet of Handprint Flowers

Here’s yet another idea for using those precious little hands for something other than making a mess! Parents will love this because anything with handprints of their children show how they’ve great and are great keepsakes. This is an adorable craft that’s not too messy. You’ll need to help the children with the tracing and cutting.

Supplies You’ll Need:

• paper plate
• Colored construction paper (the more colors the better)
• Glue stick
• Pencil
• Scissors

How to create your bouquet:

1. Trace the children’s hands at least 10 times on different colored construction paper.

2. Cut the handprints out.

3. Use the glue stick to glue the handprint outlines, with fingers pointing out, around the edges of the paper plate.

4. Glue the next set of hand outlines (again, fingers pointed OUT) a few inches inside of the first circle of hands.

5. Continue this pattern until all the handprints have been glued to the paper plate.

6. Cut a small circle out of a piece of construction paper and place it in the middle of the “flower” and fluff your petals.

7. Once everyone in the class has completed their flower, stick them all on the wall and make a classroom flower garden or bouquet for everyone to see. When it’s time to take them down send them home for parents to save.