Be lenient about specific directions for a craft and let the child use her imagination.
Preschool children, 2 to 4 years old, are just beginning to develop and master the fine motor skills used in crafts. The intricate details of crafting can be hard for little hands, so easy crafts are best. Use safety scissors and glue, and try coloring and painting projects. Crafts are a good addition to lessons about fall.
Turkey
Make a footprint turkey with white and orange construction paper or cardstock, brown paint, a paintbrush, multicolored craft feathers or paper feathers cut from construction paper, and a pair of googly eyes or paint. Paint the bottom of the child’s foot with brown paint. If you have a group of preschoolers, allow them to paint each other’s feet. Have the child step on the white paper and pull his foot off quickly to make a brown footprint. Cut around the footprint, making the turkey’s body; the heel becomes the turkey’s head. Add eyes and an orange triangular paper beak to the turkey’s face. Complete the turkey by gluing feathers to the back.
Scarecrow
Give each preschooler a plain brown paper bag, newspaper for stuffing, yellow construction paper for hair, a premade brown paper hat for the scarecrow, a rubber band, fall ribbon and markers to decorate the scarecrow’s face. Let the preschooler crumple the newspaper and stuff the brown paper bag into a somewhat round head shape. Have an adult help tie the rubber band around the scarecrow’s neck to keep the newspaper in, and add a piece of fall ribbon tied in a bow for decoration. Let the child decorate the scarecrow’s face with crayons or markers; give them an example scarecrow to follow to make this easier. Cut strips of straw hair, about a half inch wide, from the yellow construction paper. This is a good task for a preschooler to practice his scissor skills. Glue the yellow strips to the top of the scarecrow’s head. Glue on the hat.
Pumpkin
Use pumpkin seeds left over from pumpkin carving for a fun fall preschool craft. This easy task requires green, brown and orange paint; a paintbrush; white posterboard or cardstock; a black marker; tap; and glue. Rinse about 100 pumpkin seeds clean and roast them at 325 degrees for 25 minutes; add oil and salt to any other seeds for a tasty snack.
Draw a pumpkin with a black marker on the white poster board. The pumpkin should be about the size of a regular piece of 8 1/2-inch-by-11-inch paper and have a small stem and leaf. Paint enough seeds brown and green to fill in the stem and leaf; paint the rest of the seeds orange. For easy painting, make a long tape "donut" to stick the seeds to; this creates a double-sided tape and keeps little fingers from trying to hold the seeds while painting them. Spread white glue to cover the inside of the pumpkin shape and let the preschooler glue the seeds down.
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