kid projects

Ideas That Spark: Mom2Mom

Fall Crafts for Kids

By Caitlin Boyle for Ideas That Spark

Get the entire family in the seasonal spirit with these simple craft ideas for fall. Together, you’ll create beautiful decorations to display and treasure for many autumns to come.

Autumn Trees: For this project, you’ll need white construction paper, non-toxic finger paint in a variety of fall foliage colors, several paper plates, and a brown marker. Squirt one color of paint in the center of each paper plate. Use the brown marker to draw a tree trunk on the paper, and then add ‘leaves’ by dipping your hands in the paint and pressing them onto the paper.

Pumpkin Art: Paint stripes, stars, and swirls on pumpkins. After the paint dries, use a black permanent marker to color in a cheerful (or scary!) face, your child’s name, or the first initial of your family’s last name.

Acorn Art: Your children will love collecting fallen acorns! After gathering the nuts, you’ll want to de-bug and dry the acorns before using them in crafts. To clean the nuts, soak in water for an hour, spread out on a cookie sheet, and bake for 20 minutes at 350 degrees (stirring once). Check the nuts regularly to ensure they don’t burn. Let cool completely. Hot-glue the acorns onto picture frames, wreaths, or baskets.

Pumpkin Plates: Paint six to eight paper plates orange. Depending upon your child’s age, you can either provide a variety of eyes, nose, and mouth shapes cut from black construction paper or they can design and cut their own. Once the paint dries, select and glue down the eyes, nose, and mouth shapes. String the plates together vertically to create a beautiful door decoration.

Pine Cones Décor: Like acorns, children love collecting pine cones, which can be placed in baskets or glass jars to decorate entryways, tables, and fireplaces. To de-bug and open pine cones, bake at 200 degrees for 30 minutes; like acorns, be sure to regularly check the pine cones to ensure they don’t burn.

Scented Pomanders: Pomanders are
clove-studded fruits displayed in glass dishes or hung off mantels with pretty
ribbon. This decoration is not only fun to make; pomanders also release an
earthy, spicy scent. To make a pomander, use a wooden skewer to press whole
cloves into the skin of a citrus fruit (grapefruit or orange works best). Covering
the entire fruit with cloves keeps the pomander fresh for longer.