Another season is upon us, and autumn brings more fun, fall crafts for your preschooler to enjoy, whether at home or at their voluntary pre-kindergarten program. During this time, your child’s brain is developing at its fastest.
At Providence Children’s Academy, our staff offers a thriving place for your child to learn and grow. Mixing in these preschool learning activities and fall crafts with other fun activities allows our team to help them thrive in all stages of their development.
Benefits of Doing Arts & Crafts With Your Preschooler
Arts and crafts are beneficial for your child’s learning, as they not only allow self-expression, but also introduce them to different materials, how to follow instructions, and a unique way to learn about colors, shapes, and counting.
There is a wide range of benefits, including:
Developmental
- Improved Fine Motor Skills: When crafting, they must use precise hand movements, which strengthen their hands and fingers and improve their hand-eye coordination, which is important for tying their shoes and writing.
- Better Cognitive Skills: Here, they learn problem-solving skills and the ability to follow multi-step directions.
- Enhanced Literacy: Language development occurs with different vocabulary while engaging in conversation about the craft process.
Socio-Emotional Benefits
- Increased Self-Esteem: Crafts offer your preschooler a healthy way to express how they feel non-verbally.
- Stronger Social Skills: Working on crafts with their peers teaches them to share and to cooperate with those around them.
Educational
- Understanding Core Concepts: Learning fundamentals like sizes, shapes, and colors is vital to a preschooler’s success.
- Honing in on Early Math Skills: Counting, identifying, or arranging different pieces helps children learn basic math and pattern recognition.
- Bigger imagination & creativity: Children can explore new ideas and think outside of the box while doing arts & crafts.
Preschooler Fall Craft Ideas
Here are ten fun fall craft ideas for your preschooler to try at home. All of them use similar materials, so you can have what you need on hand for whenever you feel inspired to get crafty with your child. Not only will they enjoy the time with you, but they’ll be learning at the same time.
1. Leaf Rubbings
Materials needed: leaves of different sizes and shapes, paper (construction paper works well), and crayons (preferably peeled).
Collect leaves during a nature walk. Place the leaf on a table vein side up under a piece of paper and hold it firmly while rubbing a peeled crayon on its side to reveal its unique texture. This is great for fine motor skills.
2. Handprint Fall Trees
Materials needed: White paper, cotton swab, and paint
Draw a faint line around the hand and arm of your preschooler with a pencil. Paint the handprint brown, or draw around the hand and arm onto brown paper and cut it out, and glue it to the paper. Next, your child can explore color mixing to create fun shades of red, yellow, green, and orange (and learn which colors make what). Use a cotton swab to add dots around the tree they’re creating.
3. Apple Stamps
Materials needed: Apples (cut in half), red paint, glue, leaves, a plate to hold the paint, white paper
Start by putting a large amount of red paint on a plate. Dip the cut apples into the paint and stamp them on the paper. To make them more unique, gather leaves from outside and glue them to the top of the apple print on the paper.
4. Egg Carton Pumpkins
Materials needed: 1 cardboard egg carton, orange paint, black paint or marker, green tissue paper, green pipe cleaners, glue, scissors
Using scissors, cut the egg carton into 12 egg cups. Paint the outside of each with orange paint. Allow to dry. Put glue around the top edge of half of the egg cups and attach the second egg cup to create a pumpkin shape. Draw a jack-o-lantern face on them. Cut pipe cleaners into two-inch pieces and fold them in half. Cut six small squares from the green tissue paper. Insert the pipe cleaner and tissue paper square into the top of the carton to create a stem and leaf.
5. Leaf Suncatchers
Materials needed: paper plates, contact paper, hole punch, yarn/pipe cleaners, leaves, fall faux flower petals
Make your frame by cutting a hole in the paper plate. Lay your frame over contact paper and trace circles to fit over the opening. Press your leaves and flower petals into the sticky side of the contact paper. Add another circle over the top to protect it and hold your design in place. Punch a hole at the top of your frame and tie a pipe cleaner or yarn at the top to hang it.
6. Paper Plate Leaf Wreath
Materials needed: paper plate, fall-colored tissue paper and/or construction paper, glue stick, kids’ scissors, ribbon or string
Cut the center out of the paper plate to make the wreath’s base. Cut your tissue or construction paper into small squares. Crumple the pieces to give them texture. Glue them around the wreath base to look like leaves. Add a ribbon or string loop to hang your wreath.
7. Pinecone Owls
Materials needed: pine cones, googly eyes, construction paper or felt in brown, yellow, and orange, school glue, kids’ scissors
Cut wings, beaks, and feet from felt or paper. Glue the eyes to the top of the pine cone. Glue on wings to the sides and a beak in the middle. Add feet to the bottom. Allow to dry for a cute fall owl decoration.
8. Cotton Ball Ghosts
Materials needed: Black construction paper, glue stick, googly eyes, cotton balls, white crayon/chalk
Draw a ghost outline on the black paper. Spread glue inside the outline and stick cotton balls all over. Add googly eyes or draw it with chalk.
9. Handprint Spiders
Materials needed: white and black paper, googly eyes, scissors, glue stick, white crayon
Trace the child’s hands (without thumbs) on the black paper. Cut out the handprints to make the spider’s legs. Glue the handprints together with their palms overlapping to form its body. Add googly eyes. Draw a web with a white crayon on its background.
10. Turkey Headband
Materials needed: Red, orange, and yellow colored paper, brown construction paper, scissors, glue, googly eyes, tape or stapler to fit the band
Cut a strip of brown paper long enough to wrap around your child’s head. Cut feather shapes from the colored paper. Glue feathers to the back of the strip. Add googly eyes, a beak, and a wattle to the front center.
Learn About Broward County VPK For Your Preschooler
At Providence Children’s Academy, we offer students the best chance for an amazing education at our local preschool. Our three-hour Pre-Kindergarten program is free for students. It successfully prepares kids for kindergarten and beyond.
Our staff believes that all children learn best when you add creative play into their school day. Every learning activity we conduct has a learning goal in mind. To learn more about our local Coconut Creek preschool, contact our team to schedule a virtual tour or to schedule an in-person tour with your preschooler at 954-570-6914.