autumn Archives - Let their light shine!

Autumn Activities

Autumn is a great time of year for crafts and activities. The colours and textures of autumn lend themselves to so many colourful crafts and there’s lots to see and do to celebrate the season.

Autumn craft activities

A few ideas of things to use for crafts that celebrate Autumn (be mindful of the age of the children – avoid small items when making craft with younger children)

Yellow, orange, red, tissue paper
Real leaves that have fallen from the trees
Conkers
Acorns
Twigs
Playdough in autumnal colours
Apples for printing
Autumn coloured paint
Yarn, wool in autumn colours
A few green, brown and purple bits of tissue paper etc also add to crafts

Pinterest Board – take look at some great ideas for autumn crafts!

There are some autumn activities already on the blog. Take a look at a playdough idea here and a nature table idea here and an autumn wreath idea here.

If you want to grow a tree then you can plant a conker in a pot! So long as you keep the squirrels from digging it up it will grow into a tree. (Don’t plant it in your garden unless you want a really huge tree! – much better to keep it in a pot and keep repotting it until you are happy with it’s size) Here’s how…

Instructions for planting a tree. Autumn activities.

Horse chestnut tree. plant a tree autumn activities.

Here’s our tree that we grew from a conker!

Autumn activity for kids!

autumn-activity-for-kids-1 Download

Several years ago when my children were children (and not adults – how did that happen so fast?!) we planted some conkers in plant pots. Once we had kept the squirrels at bay they began to grow and are now abour six feet tall. They are still in pots as horse chestnut trees can become very large if planted direct into the garden and our garden isn’t big enough. Here’s a photo of one of our trees.

Autumn craft

Autumn craft and activities to enjoy! I love making seasonal wreaths. They can be taken home and used to decorate. It is good for children to see their art work displayed and treasured.

We’ve used faux leaves for this wreath that were bought. You could use cut out leaf shapes instead and add tissue paper berries. Use autumnal colours – reds, oranges and yellows, browns and add a pop of green. The wreath in the first photo is a circle of cardboard bought from Amazon. If you would rather make your own use a paper plate and cut out the centre or cut a circle from card.

Autumn wreath using faux leaves

Autumn wreath made with paper leaves — Autumn wreath using paper cut out leaf shapes and tissue paper berries

Home made playdough can be used to decorate an autumn tree.

Tree picture decorated with playdough leaves

The tree printout has been laminated – if you don’t have a laminator (and lots of us don’t) then use tacky back to cover printed or drawn tree.

The playdough is homemade and coloured with poster paint. Leaves were cut out using a cake decorating cutter. This would be a lovely activity for a small group in Sunday school or at home. If you add vanilla extract to the dough it smells amazing. If you would rather not use a cutter then just make leaf shapes by rolling the dough and shaping it with hands.

Playdough recipe – This playdough is a no cook recipe – it uses boiling water so has to be made by an adult.

1 cup flour

1/4 cup salt

1 teaspoon cream of tarter (you really do need this – don’t be tempted to leave it out and make sure it’s in date. It’ll stop the dough going slimy)

1 tablespoon vegetable oil (don’t use a nut oil in case children are allergic)

3/4 cup boiling water

Food colouring paste or ready mix water colour paint for colour

To make – add all the dry ingredients together in a mixer and then add the oil, boiling water and colouring and mix till a soft dough. You can mix by hand but it’ll take longer.

Tree free pdf to print

As well as an autumn wreath and autumn playdough trees another Autumn craft you can make extra large autumn leaves! Just cut large leaf shapes from coloured sugar paper and decorate!

celebrating harvest and autumn

One of the great things about blogs and facebook groups is the sharing of ideas. My facebook friend Rhoda posted some pictures of her toddler group looking at autumn leaves and it looked so great that I ordered some magnifying glasses and tweezers from amazon and went into the garden to collect fallen leaves and pine cones (and inadvertently quite a few woodlice). Today the children and parents had a great time looking at these autumn finds. Thank you Rhoda!

Our Bible story was based around harvest. We thought about how God sends the sun and the rain (visual aids below) and then we looked at various fruit and veg from a shopping bag. As they are taken out of the bag each fruit or veg is named and then we decide if it grows on a tree or in the ground.

We sang –

‘I love the sun it shines on me. God made the sun and God made me. I love the rain it falls on me. God made the rain and God made me.’

Our craft was paper plate scarecrows. I love the way the children have made their own versions 🙂

Autumn/fall craft ideas ..fun and colourful!

Autumn is here!

Autumn is a very colourful time of year. These crafts celebrate the bright reds, oranges and yellows. If you have a toddler then give them a selection of colours but limit them to autumnal shades. You can teach the names of the colours as you make the different crafts.

Idea One – making a wreath that celebrates autumn. These are just ideas to get you started. You may want to add tissue paper, wool, real leaves … at the end of this post is a free Pdf file of a blank wreath shape. This can be printed onto A4 card. Older children will be able to cut it out themselves. It would be a good idea to decorate first and then cut out.

To make an autumn wreath you will need a cut out wreath shape (use card), coloured paper, paper punch, paint ( I used acrylic), paint brushes, skeleton leaves ( from docrafts papermania), glue, hole punch, wool or thread.

Older children can use a paper punch to make the leaf shapes and then use the remaining paper as a stencil. On the wreath stencil leaves with autumn colours using the acrylic paint (this is not easy to wash out of clothes so you will need to provide aprons or use thick washable poster paint. Watery paint won’t work so well).

When the paint is dry add leaf shapes and finally add the skeleton leaves.

Punch a hole in the top of the wreath and add wool or thread.

If younger children are making these prepare the materials ahead of time and help with the stenciling. You may secure the stencils with some masking tape so they don’t move around and smudge.

Idea two

Falling leaves collage pictures

Again use a paper punch to make leaves and use the left over paper as a stencil. Start with stencilling, leave to dry completely and then add leaves.

Another twist on this idea is to use a large leaf shape to begin. Add autumn coloured tissue paper, cut out leaves etc to the large leaf. this would be great with younger children in particular.