Autumn is one of the best times of year to get into making some crafts for toddlers. The nights are drawing in and the mornings can be sparkling with sun on leaves, crunchy with frost, or shimmering with mist. A treat for all the senses!
If you’re anything like us at Team Happity, you’ll love snuggling inside in a warm jumper with a cup of tea. Throw in an excitable toddler, and you may want to settle down together for some autumn crafting.
Autumn provides its own materials for crafting, so read on for our 14 easy autumn craft ideas.
1. Leaf Pictures
Going out for a stomp in the morning in those autumn leaves can feel invigorating. Why not combine exercise and create a cute Autumn craft for toddlers. Start by picking up some Autumn leaves and conkers along the way? Think hues of burnished brown, copperish red and sunshine yellow.
Your toddler can stick the leaves with PVA glue straight down on a piece of card or paper in whatever pattern they like. Pile of autumn leaves, or cute hedgehog, anyone?
If you want your leaf collection to last a little longer, try mounting on some sticky-back plastic and sealing the front of the leaves with another piece. This can make an excellent leaf sun-catcher when stuck with Blu Tack on the window. Or if you have access to a laminator, you can create the same effect!
2. Leaf Painting
For a cute crafty picture, leaves can be painted round with brushes, or dabbed with paint on a sponge. Peel off the leaf afterwards to leave the outline. Check out Minne-Mamma for a step-by-step guide with pictures.
3. Halloween Decorations
It’s never too early to think about Halloween so get stuck in with some easy Halloween decorations. Pebble ghosts can be a real hit with little ones. Find some small pebbles to decorate with white paint and add or stick on eyes.
See more in our post here on spooky toddler crafts.
For older siblings, you might want to try this melty/spooky candle idea.
4. Wind/Weather Chart
It’s so easy to make a weather chart out of recycled materials and a split pin. Simply cut out a square or rectangle from a piece of card – an old cereal pack will do. Split the card into quarters using a pen, then draw different weather symbols for the four sections. Think snow, thunder, rain and sun. Your little one can decorate or colour these. Make them as sparkly as you like! Finally, attach an arrow using a split pin. Loads of fun every day for your toddler to point the arrow to the weather that morning.
With thanks to Glyn of the NCT Nature Tots group for this idea.
5. Lollipop Stick Hedgehogs – Autumn Crafts For Toddlers
If you have a lot of old lollipop sticks hanging around, you could use these to create a hedgehog!
Substitute bits of cardboard for sticks if you don’t have any. You will need to cut the sticks into halves, thirds or quarters, unless you want to make a really huge hedgehog!
First, decorate each stick separately for the spikes. You could use felt tips, stickers, glue and gems – whatever takes your toddler’s fancy.
Then get a ball of playdough or similar and make a hedgehog shape. Stick the lollipops in one by one. Finally, make eyes, ears and a nose. You can either mark these in the playdough or make little eyes etc. out of a piece of card and then press in.
6. Cinnamon/Gingerbread Biscuit Decorating
Embrace the scent of cinnamon latte drifting out of shops by making your own autumn biscuits. Leaf-shaped cutters or gingerbread men cutters work well for this. Add a dash of cinnamon if you think your toddler will like it.
Here’s a great recipe for gingerbread and one for cinnamon biscuits.
Spend a cosy afternoon decorating biscuits with icing, gems and sprinkles. Or you can buy some plain biscuits/gingerbread people and have fun decorating those!
7. Apple Painting
Simply cut an apple in half, or divide into segments. Decorate with a thin layer of icing and add sprinkles for a quick and easy snack. Use any spare apples for apple painting and printing.
This lovely photo of apples all ready to eat is on our A-Z of Activity and Craft Ideas for Toddlers, where you can find tons more craft ideas!
8. Necklace Made Out Of Hollow Elderwood or Conkers
If you live near any woodland, look out for elder trees. The wood from this is brilliant for making wooden jewellery. The centre of any elder twig or branch is really soft and so it’s easy to hollow it out and cut into smaller pieces.
You just need a long tool such as a knitting needle, blunt bamboo skewer, or a blunt narrow knife. A small drill bit (you can hold this in your hand) also works well.
Elder trees grow in scrubland. They’re the ones with white flowers in the summer which people forage for elderflower wine. In autumn, look out for their red berries.The twigs are long and narrow, so you can cut these into smaller 2-3cm lengths or ‘beads’ for threading.
Thread your pieces of elder onto a piece of wool for a necklace or pipecleaner for a bracelet.
Or if you’re handy with a drill, you could make holes through conkers and thread them on a piece of wool or string.
With thanks to Glyn of the NCT Nature Tots group for this idea.
9. Firework Models – Autumn Crafts For Toddlers
All you need is a cardboard toilet tube and some tissue paper. Decorate the tube and then stuff it with tissue paper so it looks like lots of colours coming out of the bottom of the tube.9.
For Catherine wheels, get a paper plate. Paint it and add split pins if you want to add a smaller cardboard centre which spins round.
10. Firework Pictures
For firework art, flick some paint over a piece of paper randomly. Think Jackson Pollock!
Or you can try footprint rockets. Put a little paint in an old icecream tub or takeaway container so your toddler can dip their feet easily!
Look under ‘R’ of our A-Z of Activity and Craft Ideas for Toddlers for some lovely footprint rockets!
11. Spider’s Web Threading
Cut out an octagon out of cardboard or stiff paper. Cut out the middle (a circle is fine) and punch out 16 holes – two on each side (use a pencil for holes if you don’t have a hole punch). Get some wool and thread between the holes. And there you have it – a spider’s web. Add your own toy spider or paper spider if you like.
This also looks great mounted on a window behind a blind as it will make a shadow as it catches the early rays of sunshine in the morning.
If you want to draw your own octagon from scratch, draw a square – say 14cm by 14cm. Make two points on each side (4cm from each edge) and join these together to make a 6cm-sided hexagon.
To draw the circle in the middle, use the lid of your favourite yogurt or coleslaw pot!
12. Orange Bird Feeder
Birds are stocking up on their energy supplies in the autumn, so why not help them out by making this cute and easy orange bird feeder?
Simply cut a large orange in half and scoop out the flesh. Next you need four holes on each side – one for each compass point. You can make these with a large blunt needle.
Take two pieces of string. Thread each one through two of the holes so the strings cross diagonally. Tie the ends of the string under the orange (for now).
Fill the orange half with seed, nuts and peanut butter or lard. Once it’s full, you can bring the tied strings back up to the top, ready to hang outside.
Have loads of fun with your little one after to see which birds come to visit! See more pictures on our Nature Crafts for Kids post.
13. Stick Man
If your toddler is a fan of the book, why not head outside to find and make your own Stick Man? Searching for a suitable stick in the autumn leaves can be really fun. You can draw on eyes and even recreate part of the story by hiding Stick Man etc.
Or why not make the whole Stick Man family? Bring them home to lay out on a piece of paper and draw scenes from the book around them. Stick on leaves, twigs, conkers – let your imagination run wild!
With thanks to Glyn of the NCT Nature Tots group for this idea. Remember that loads of forest and nature groups still run during the autumn and winter too, so search here for more woodland fun.
Also check out the free National Trust pass for Autumn!
14. Autumn Animals
See if you can use some of those left-over leaves, conkers and acorns to make cute animals. Your little one can either arrange them in a shape to make an animal, or you can try making a 3d model!
Check out these cute hedgehogs at #12 where the leaves are layered to make up the spines.
Want to get out and about, have fun with your baby or toddler, and meet other parents?
Search Happity to find everything that’s happening for the under-5’s in your local area – from music and singing classes, to messy play, arts and crafts, baby massage, gymnastics and more. Simply enter your postcode and child’s age to search, and then book your spot in a few taps. Enjoy dedicated fun time with your little one, watch their skills develop, and make friends at the same time. Mums, dads, grandparents and carers will all find something to love!
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