From decorating paper to creating crafts with leaves and rock, there are plenty of fun homemade and easy fall crafts for kids. Besides different varieties, these activities are perfect as fall crafts for preschoolers!
These entertaining activities are safe and easy and require minimal and basic school, crafting supplies, and equipment in every household. Through these crafts, kids can be creative and imaginative and learn and connect with nature on a higher level. We crafted a list of 8 fall crafts suitable for different kids’ age, including preschoolers and even elementary school children.
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Importance of the Creative Process
Having creative experiences encourages kids to explore new ideas, ways of thinking, and ways of solving problems either as an indoor or outdoor activity. Besides, creativity enables empathy, while play contributes to cognitive development in many ways, mainly by allowing young kids to express themselves freely and explore their thoughts and feelings.
It is an important part of childhood and kids’ development. Play can improve a kid’s emotional, social, intellectual, and physical development. This way, kids nourish special skills that enable them to share their feelings, thoughts, and ideas.
There are many ways to play creatively without feeling stressed or taking a long time. On the contrary, structured play is the opposite of creative play, where kids have all the freedom.
In unstructured play, there are no rules, allowing them to develop self-confidence and independence while navigating social interaction. Creative play helps them adapt to ever-changing social situations by observing, responding, and adapting.
8 Easy Fall Crafts for Kids and Preschoolers
These fun and easy fall activities are a great way for kids to explore nature while practicing fine motor skills. Our top 8 fall crafts, nature edition, perfect for kids, preschoolers, and primary school children.
#1 Fall Wreath
This is a great craft for connecting with nature, respecting the environment, bonding with family, and of course, letting the creativity run wild. First, take a piece of cardboard from an old shoebox or other purchased item, make a big circle, and help your kid to cut it.
Then, go to the backyard or the nearby forest to collect natural items. That could be leaves, branches, moss, pine cone, rocks, or whatever you found suitable in your surroundings. Tell your little one to take enough items so the whole cardboard will be covered up. Don’t forget to buy white craft glue to stick everything together nicely.
Let your kids experiment and make a wreath as they want. Assist them only when needed and provide the support they require. Once the wreath is done, you can hang it on the door, and you will be prepared for the whole October vibe!
#2 Leaf Painting
Once again, go to the backyard and collect some leaves for this craft. It is fall season, so this will be a piece of cake since leaves are all around us. Let the kids pick the ones they like the most, including different colors, shapes, and sizes.
Get a white piece of paper and some tape. Let the kid arrange the leaves how he wants on the paper sheet. Take watercolor paint and a brush. You can use some fall colors like yellow, brown, and red, but the best thing to do is let your kid decide.
The trick is to color the paper around the leaves so that when leaves are taken off, there will be only their shape on the paper in various colors. This craft is very fun, easy, and colorful! Repeat this activity as many times as the kid wants.
#3 Glitter Leaf Garland
Fall crafts can’t go without leaves. As usual, you will need leaves, a paintbrush, Elmer’s glue, and some glitter for this craft. Apply the glue to each leaf and then sprinkle glitter over it. Use different colors of glitter to make them more colorful and interesting.
Once the glue is set, shake off the excess glitter. Now make a little hole at the top of each leaf and tie a thread around it that will be tied to a large ribbon strand.
The leaves look amazing and in the spirit of upcoming holidays. Let your kid decide where to hang them to beautify the living space.
#4 Nature Crowns
Take your kids on the walk and collect items from nature like leaves, twigs, feathers, seed pods, and whatever your kids find suitable and interesting for their crown. Once you bring things home, measure the kid’s head and cut the cardboard into a 2″-3″ strip to fit around the head.
Once you have the strap, take all the items you collected and let the kids arrange it. They can either use glue or a stapler, depending on your kid’s age. Once all the items are arranged, staple the strap together, and the crown is ready!
#5 Sticky Fall Tree
This homemade craft does not require collecting things from nature but involves creating nature! For this activity, you will need white content paper, yellow, orange, and red paper, scissors, masking tape, brown tissue paper, and a circle-hole punch (this is preferable but not a must).
Take the white content paper and remove the backing while the sticky side is facing you. You can tape it down on the sides, so the paper’s not wiggling around while your kid creates it. Take the brownish tissue paper (or anything you found similar and available at your house) and cut a larger piece for a trunk along with several smaller strips in varying lengths. Use the whole punch to cut the circles as different-colored leaves from the paper; if you don’t have one, cut with scissors and make as many as kids want.
Now it’s time to assemble the tree. First, place a paper trunk on the paper and then arrange the branches. In the end, add the leaves that you made in various colors. Let the kid do as they wish and provide any support needed along the way.
#6 Bark Owls
It’s again time for a walk in nature as a part of a healthy activity. This time we are collecting some acorns, tree nuts, twigs, bark, and pebbles. This means that we are making bark owls! Take the bark and try to shape it as an owl by breaking it gently. It doesn’t have to be precise. As long as it resembles the owl, it’s fine!
Take 2 acorn caps and glue them to the bark, creating owl eyes. If you have some pumpkin seed or any other, you can glue it as a beak. The last thing that remains is a branch on which the owl will be standing. Take the branch and glue the owl (bark) onto it, and that’s it. The bark owl is ready!
#7 Decorative Pine Cons
Just like leaves, pine cones are things that make fall so special. You can do so many things with them, like coloring, painting, decorating, making owls, and hedgehogs, using them as ornaments for Christmas trees, etc.
Choose whatever your kids want and let the imagination run wild. We decided to make a pine cone for today’s craft pine cone hedgehog. Collect the pine cones around your neighbor or yard. For this craft, you will also need felt material in your preferred colors, but since it’s a hedgehog, we recommend brown and beige. A pair of scissors, a glue gun, and googly eyes.
If the pine cones are wet or closed up, let them dry for a couple of hours. Take the felt material and cut it in a triangle shape. Take the glue gun and apply the googly eyes on the felt. You can use some black felt or a black marker to draw or glue the nose.
Once that’s done, take the pine cone and lay it on the table. Glue the face to the pine cone, and you will get your own little pet!
#8 Nature Pumpkin
What if you could decorate your pumpkin without carving it? This is a great option for families with younger kids, plus there is much less mess! The great thing about this craft is that you can use all sorts of things from nature to decorate the pumpkin. We recommend buckeye nuts, acorns, twigs, leaves, pine cones, and a paper glue gun.
At this point, your kid can use different nature items to decorate the pumpkin as they wish! For example, buckeye nuts for eyes, twigs for the mouth, pine cones and leaves as hair, and acorns for blushy cheeks. However, we don’t want to limit kids’ imagination, so let them arrange and decorate the pumpkin as they wish. This rule applies to all 8 fall crafts for kids.
