This idea comes from September’s issue of Family Fun magazine and I think it’s a perfect way to celebrate Autumn with your toddler or preschooler. The craft is called a “printed-palm tree” (palm as in hand, not a tropical palm tree). First have your child paint his or her palm and wrist with brown tempera, then press them on a piece of paper to make a print. For easier cleanup, add one tablespoon of dish soap for each 1/3 cup of paint. While the tree is drying, your child can add red fingerprint apples. Have him or her squeeze white glue over the branches and under the tree, then sprinkle on torn-up, colorful leaves and blades of grass gathered from a nature walk. Allow the collage to dry completely before hanging.

I also did a few other related crafts with my children recently that would be great Autumn crafts…

In teaching my daughter the letter L, she colored in a large letter L I drew on a piece of construction paper, and then she glued on dried leaves that we had found (to remind her that the L makes the sound as in leaf). I then cut the L out and we glued it onto another piece of construction paper.

Also, my son had gathered a whole bag full of acacia tree seed pods that I wasn’t quite sure what to do with. So, I had him color a picture of a tree and we glued the seed pods onto the tree. It turned out to be a fun craft!