Five Senses Crafts and Activities

Take a variety of scented items and have your child try to identify them by scent.

Some items to try:

• Vanilla
• Cinnamon
• Flowers
• Onions
• Chives
• Basil
• Lemon
• Sage leaves

Some of the leaves can be crushed between the children’s fingers. Others can be scraped and smelled.

You can blindfold the child and see if he or she can identify the scents.

Memory Match Smell Game

• Take a variety of scented items and have your child try to identify them by scent.

Make a Smell Book

• Cut pictures out of magazines or print them offline. Items like flowers, skunks, foods, and garbage.

Five Senses Snacks

Eat with your fingers for one snack day.

Eat smelly foods blindfolded another snack day. Let the kids guess what they are eating by smell and taste only.

Or buy some baby food jars and let the kids guess what they are by taste.

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.

Holidays Crafts and Activities

Holidays from New Years to Christmas are a great excuse to teach your preschool child with crafts and activities.

• Valentine’s Day
• President’s Day
• Easter
• Earth Day
• Cinco de Mayo
• Mother’s Day & Father’s Day
• Halloween
• Thanksgiving
• Christmas
• Hanukkah

Alphabet

Teach your preschool child the alphabet with these crafts and activities.

26 Letters of the Alphabet on the Wall

Young students love to sing! While singing this tune, the students will learn to count to 26 and learn the alphabet.

Making the playing board will be your first task. Make 26 large letter cards with bright colored construction paper in the shape of the individual letters of the alphabet. Hang or tape each letter card on a display board or wall. The students can then take them down as they progress through the song.

Together, the class will sing the following tune: “There are 26 letters in the alphabet…. 26 letters in all….. take the “A” down and pass it around…. There’s 25 letters in the alphabet!” While the tune is being sung, the first student goes to the board and takes down the letter “A” and hands it to another student to pass around the class. The turn is then passed to a second student. Keeping with the tune, the class will sing the song to reflect only 25 letters and taking down the letter “B” and ending up with only 24 letters in the alphabet. Again, the second student goes to the board and removes the “B”, and passes it around. This activity continues through until all 26 letters of the alphabet have been passed around the room.

Go Letters

Teaching young students the alphabet can be trying at times. By putting a new twist on an old favorite it can make this necessary activity fun and enjoyable.

The first thing to do is make a deck of cards. Assign each student a selected letter of the alphabet. Using pre-cut squares of construction paper have each student make five cards. With a crayon they can correctly write their assigned letter on each card. Depending on the size of the class, you may have to assign additional letters or make cards yourself. This will assure there are enough cards to go around.

Once the cards are prepared collect all the cards and place them in a paper sack. Shake the sack to “shuffle” the deck making sure they are well mixed. Place the students in a circle and deal the cards, giving each three cards to start the game. The remainder of the cards will remain in the sack. The key to the game is to match like items together to make pairs.

The first student will ask another student if they have a letter that matches one in their own hand. If the second student has it, they must give it to the first student. If they do not, the first student must draw one card out of the sack. Once a student has a matched pair of letters they lay them down face up. This continues around the circle until everyone gets a turn. If a student is left with no cards on their turn they request a random letter. The game continues until all the cards are paired. The winner of the game is the student that ends with the most matched pairs.

Sandpaper Letters

Cut large letters out of sandpaper. The textures are very helpful for learning.

Play-Doh Letters

Help your child form each letter of the alphabet out of play-doh.

Crafts by Letter:

• Letter-A
• Letter-B
• Letter-C
• Letter-D
• Letter-E
• Letter-F
• Letter-G
• Letter-H
• Letter-I
• Letter-J
• Letter-K
• Letter-L
• Letter-M
• Letter-N
• Letter-O
• Letter-P
• Letter-Q
• Letter-R
• Letter-S
• Letter-T
• Letter-U
• Letter-V
• Letter-W
• Letter-X
• Letter-Y
• Letter-Z

Mother’s & Father’s Day Crafts and Activities

Kids love to share the love with Mom and Dad on their special days. Here are some craft and activity ideas for your preschool class to help make their parent’s day just as special as they are!

Mom & Dad Rock! Paper Weights

Here’s a perfect gift for your preschoolers to make for their mommy and daddy. It’s a paperweight that exclaims how cool Mom and Dad are!

Supplies:

• Smooth rock about the size of a fist (one for each child)
• Soapy water and a scrub brush
• Paint brush
• Acrylic paint
• Black Sharpie
• Optional: Clear coat spray paint
• Glitter pens

Prior to creating this gift, the rocks will need to be washed and dried. You can have the children do this or you can clean each child’s rock the night before.

Once it’s good and dry, paint the rock all over with one color acrylic paint.  You may want to apply a second coat once the first has dried if the color didn’t completely cover the rock.

After the second coat (or first if not applying a second) is dried thoroughly, you can glitter the rock with glitter paint or speckle it by lightly tapping a paintbrush with a different colored paint over the rock.

Have the children write “Dad Rocks”, “Mom Rocks” or “You Rock” on their paperweight with the glitter pen. Allow the rocks to dry overnight.

The next day you can outline the writing with a black marker.

Optional: You can spray the paperweight with a clear coat paint to keep it from peeling and to make it last a lot longer.

Tip: When you send the paperweights home, you may want to place them in a small bag to keep the glitter from getting all over everything in the children’s book bags.

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