Make autumn even more exciting with easy, kid-friendly fall crafts! The change in seasons brings a new colour palette and with it, some fun crafting opportunities. Some of these crafts will help your kids understand the transition of seasons while others are just plain-old fun to do.
Crafts with paper
Paper crafts are great to do with kids because they will continue to last throughout the years (and are easy to store away in your child’s art folder). Armed with only a pair of scissors, glue and construction paper, you can create plenty of autumn-themed projects.
Scarecrow: Make the head out of a piece of construction paper or a paper plate. Make the body and arms out of different construction paper. Use crayons to decorate the face and body and yarn to create the straw and hair. Alternatively, small rectangular pieces of construction paper or actual straw can be used.
Corn stalk: Cut out a yellow symmetrical oval for the corn and two pieces of green for the stalk it’s held within. Decorate the center with crayons, tissue paper, or buttons for an authentic look and feel. This is an easy fall craft for kids of all ages.
Pumpkin: This one’s really fun because it gets to be three-dimensional! The easiest way to make this is to use an empty toilet paper roll, but if not, it can still be made with only construction paper. Attach several long, thin orange rectangular strips to the end of the toilet paper roll using tape. Then, fold them up and connect them to the other end. This will make the sphere of the pumpkin. Add more for a more realistic look. Finally, attach a leaf and stem to the top to complete your design.
Celebrating the harvest
Leaf book: Help your child create a scrapbook documenting how the leaves change color throughout autumn. Glue or tape leaves from the same tree in a book over a few weeks and watch as the colors slowly change! Keep in mind that once the leaves are dry, they will be extremely brittle. Handle with care!
Pumpkin crafts: Pumpkins offer lots of creative opportunities. If you decide to carve it, consider putting a candle inside. Not all pumpkins need to be spooky! Alternatively, avoid the mess by painting your pumpkin and using glue to attach glitter and other decorations.
Cornucopia: Invite your child to help you create a cornucopia display complete with gourds, corn, and other fruits and vegetables. This display will not only look great during thanksgiving dinner, but can also prove to be a beautiful display piece during other seasons. Have them help you fill it with other fruits and vegetables throughout the year. Alternatively, it can even be used to hold flowers.
All about turkeys: One of the most iconic crafts of the season involves turkeys. They are the mascot of Thanksgiving, after all. This one involves only a piece of paper, a few simple craft supplies, and your child’s hand. The best part about this fall craft for kids is that if you do it every year, you and your child can slowly watch as the turkeys get bigger and bigger, just like they do!
Have your child trace around their hand with a pencil (alternatively, your child could use paint to stamp a hand-print onto paper, but that’s much more messy). Let them decorate the hand-print however they please with crayons, paints, beads, and feathers. Encourage your whole family make one and don’t forget to hang them on the refrigerator!
Where to keep all these crafts?
If your child goes to kindergarten at a public or private school they probably bring home the crafts they make (lots of them). If you don’t have the heart to throw the daily crafts away, but also don’t have the space to keep them consider creating a photo scrapbook. Take a picture of each craft that they make and save it by date online. This way you have a photo scrapbook of their art – a great keepsake that won’t take up space in your home.
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This article was originally posted by ourkids.net. Our Kids is Canada’s trusted source for information on private schools and summer camps.
