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With autumn in full swing it's an excuse to do some seasonal crafts with your children at home. Below I have listed our favourite ideas that include leaves, acorns, pumpkins, hedgehogs and autumnal colours - orange, red, yellow and brown. In our household we love any excuse to get out and about to collect materials for crafting, and this time of year is perfect for it! We hope you enjoy creating your own beautiful artwork to decorate your home.
Family hand print wreath - Such a fun family craft to do together. You just need some white card to print your hands onto; a paintbrush; autumnal paints - brown, orange, yellow and red; acorns, pumpkins, autumnal animals printed out (pdf FREE to download from the Resource Library for subscribers), scissors to cut out the handprints and the autumnal items; and a cardboard circle from a recycled box (with the middle cut out). Make a hole at the top to thread through some ribbon. Then glue on the hands and additional images to decorate your front door.
Our autumnal family wreath
A sticks and leaves family tree - Create something a little bit different to showcase on the walls that your little ones will love creating. Sticks instead of lines, and fallen leaves to write the family member's name on. You can include a little photo too to add onto the leaf. Card, sharpie and PVA glue are recommended.
Paper plate tree - A painted empty loo roll, a paper plate with two vertical cuts on either side and little pieces of coloured paper to decorate. Your child can even practise their cutting skills to create the different 'leaves'.
An autumnal paper plate tree
Bubblewrap trees - A popular and different way to paint that is easy to prepare. All you need are some empty loo rolls or in our case we used an empty kitchen roll that I cut in half. Attach some bubble wrap using an elastic band. Ironically, Big Bee picked some big bubble wrap bubbles, and Little Bee some smaller bubbles. They were provided with a pre-painted tree trunk on card and some red, orange and yellow paint. They were then given free rein to enjoy creating their masterpieces. Big Bee decided to showcase lots of falling leaves in her finished artwork.
Big Bee in the process of her bubble wrap painted tree
Pumpkin printing - Any old apples can be used for making pumpkin prints. Cut in half and dip in orange paint and then print away on some card or paper. You can add green stalks, goggly eyes and mouths etc. too. We did a variety of expressions - shocked, worried, happy, sad etc. You can then talk together about different feelings and discuss how you are both feeling.
Leaf art - Such a fun and simple idea. I started off asking the children what they wanted me to draw and we ended up with a fairy, lion and front loader. I used a sharpie and card. They coloured them in before we headed off for a walk to collect some different coloured leaves. Using glue we attached the leaves to create a skirt, mane and piles of leaves to be cleared up. They are now proudly decorating our fridge.
Our leaf artwork
Cauldron potion art - Print out the cauldron (pdf FREE to download from the Resource Library for subscribers) onto some card or paper and supply your little ones with anything from gems, stickers, cotton wool, lids, sticks, glitter, flowers etc. The options are endless! Tell them they are going to create a special potion and let their imagination's run wild. You could ask them what the special potion is for, the name of the potion and who it's for etc.
Nature collages - Any excuse to get out and about enjoying all that nature has to offer. We headed off to collect some leaves, acorns, sticks, grass, flowers etc. on a woodland walk using a little basket. We then found a beautiful spot in the autumn afternoon sun, and using some cut up cereal box we made some different pictures of different objects. No glue was used. It allowed the children to use their imaginations and a variety of materials, and also feel different textures. In my '10 FUN SUMMER ACTIVITIES TO DO WITH YOUR TODDLERS' blog post I mention some other ideas to do with creating a nature collage.
Nature bracelets - All you need is some masking tape and some wellies to head out in search for some flowers, leaves, acorns etc. You then just add them to the sticky side of the tape (see below). A really fun and easy activity to put together.
A nature bracelet in the making
Tree rubbing - Another fun and simple craft that involves being out amongst nature and getting some fresh air. You will need some paper, wax crayons and masking tape to gently attach the paper to the tree. Then create your rubbings on different tree bark to get different textures/patterns. It also provides an opportunity to talk about the different parts of a tree and what animals live in a tree.
Leaf shadows - Using some dark card/paper, leaves and chalks you can create leaf shadow artwork by going around the edges.
Leaf printing - With some leaves, card and paint in tow you can create all sorts of different pieces of art. You could try a fish, butterfly or turtle, or create a random pretty pattern.
A leaf butterfly and leaf shadows
Handprint hedgehogs - Inspired by our recent visit to the British Wildlife Centre we wanted to make some hedgehogs. We used some white card and brown paint, and created two handprints next to each other - these were the spines. Once dry we then painted a lighter brown body and ears. We then added some goggly eyes, a black nose and a mouth. If you don't have paint then you could always use brown card to draw an outline of your little ones hands. Warning: my husband said our handiwork looked like a porcupine, and my mother said it looked like a bear with fireworks coming out of its head! So, if you want to go for something that is more easily identifiable then I suggest maybe painting/drawing a side profile of a hedgehog (with the long snout) and doing lots of handprints down it's back to represent the spines.
Firework salt painting - A popular craft that does require a little preparation. Create a firework scene (or any scene for that matter) using some PVA glue. Then sprinkle some table salt over the top of it. I left it over night and then gave some watercolours (I've learnt that it's better for them to be diluted in some water) and a paintbrush to Big Bee and let her paint away. The action required is more of a dab and this does take some getting used to, but it's fun to watch the colours being absorbed by the salt and it's something a little different.
Conker painting - If you find that you have a surplus of conkers then this is a really easy activity that I'm sure your littles ones will enjoy as much as both Bees did. They painted some (questionable) objects - aeroplane, rainbow, kangaroo, frog and house. My mum was the lucky recipient of these as a birthday present.
Happy crafting!
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