Fall and Halloween present many opportunities for using crafts at home or in the classroom! Here are a few we’ve made in the past few weeks!
FALL TREES
Materials: Assorted Colors of Construction Paper, an outline of a tree (or print one here – Fall Tree Outline), hole punch, and glue sticks.
Prior to the tree craft, we set out trays for the children to make the hole-punched “leaves.” Demonstrate for the children how to use a hole punch and let them practice. It is great fine motor work for small fingers. For very young children, use a hand-over-hand technique to assist with the hole punch. We collected all of the punches into small glass jars (fitted with recycled Parmesan Cheese lids) so they could easily “sprinkle” the “leaves” on their trees.
Print the tree outline (linked above) or design one of your own. Have the children use the glue sticks around the tree branches and base of the tree. The children can then sprinkle leaves onto their trees straight from the glass jars. It is a simple, but pretty, Fall craft to make!
FRANKENSTEIN and a JACK-O-LANTERN
Materials needed: 2 empty cereal boxes, green and orange construction paper (or we used foam sheets), scissors, tape, markers, and the printables for facial features (linked below), if desired.
FRANKENSTEIN – Frankenstein Facial Features
PUMPKIN – Jack-o-lantern Features
Have the children tape both ends of the empty cereal box closed. The children can tape green and orange construction paper around their boxes or use foam sheets. Younger children will need assistance wrapping their box and tearing tape (or the boxes can be wrapped prior to the activity). The children can decorate their boxes with the facial feature above or use any collage materials available. We have also made mummies (wrap the box in gauze), scarecrows (with cut pieces of straw for hair), and ghosts (using white fabric scraps). It is fun to see what the children design. Set the boxes on display for an entire village of Halloween Characters!
For MORE Fall Crafts, Learning, and Play, see the Fall or Thanksgiving Thematic Units at The Preschool Toolbox!
These are great! We’ve been using paper punches a lot too, great fine motor development and my daughter has so much fun with them! I can’t decide which I like best! Cute!
Laura – thanks for your comment! We’ve just started using punches this year with our 3 yr. olds. It does take some fine motor strength and control, but we are learning here, too!:)