Fall is the perfect season to get little hands busy with colorful, easy-to-make projects. These fall crafts for preschoolers use simple, budget-friendly supplies — paper plates, craft sticks, tissue paper, and pipe cleaners — and are designed to be simple enough for small hands while still producing adorable results. Whether you’re a parent looking for a rainy-day activity or a teacher planning a classroom project, this list has something for everyone.
Materials You’ll Likely Need
Most of these crafts use supplies you probably already have around the house or classroom:
- Paper plates
- Construction paper in fall colors (red, orange, yellow, brown, green)
- Craft/popsicle sticks
- Googly eyes
- Pipe cleaners
- Glue sticks or white glue
- Scissors
- Tissue paper
- Felt scraps
- Paint and plastic forks (for stamping)
- Yarn or ribbon (for hanging)
1. Paper Plate Turkey
A classic! A painted paper plate becomes the turkey’s body, with colorful paper strips stapled or glued around the edge to form feathers. A simple round face with googly eyes, a triangle beak, and a red wattle completes this cheerful centerpiece — perfect for the Thanksgiving table.
2. Popsicle Stick Apple Cores
These apples are made by lining up a few craft sticks side by side and gluing a curved felt or paper “cap” over the top and bottom to form the apple shape. A small brown stem and green leaf finish it off, and little ones can draw or glue on tiny black seeds.
3. Corn Craft with Craft Sticks
Yellow-painted craft sticks fanned out and glued together form the corn kernels, topped with googly eyes and a smile. Two green paper husks are glued behind the sticks to wrap around the sides, creating a friendly corn character kids will love making faces for.
4. Leaf Puppet on a Stick
Kids paint a paper leaf shape with warm fall colors, then glue on googly eyes and a smile to give it personality. A craft stick handle and curly pipe cleaner “arms” turn it into a puppet they can wiggle and play with after it’s made.
5. Paper Plate Jack-O’-Lantern
A paper plate painted orange becomes a simple jack-o’-lantern face — just add a black marker or paper cutout for the eyes, nose, and mouth. Twisted green pipe cleaners glued to the top mimic a curly pumpkin stem for extra charm.
6. Paper Plate Leaf Wreath
The center of a paper plate is cut out and the rim colored or painted in stripes of yellow, orange, and red. Small paper leaves in different shapes and colors are then glued around the ring to create a colorful wreath kids can hang up.
7. Tissue Paper Tree
A construction paper tree trunk is glued onto blue paper, and preschoolers crumple small squares of colored tissue paper into balls to glue on as leaves. Fringed green paper at the bottom makes grass, and a few loose tissue “leaves” scattered around add a falling-leaves effect.
8. Torn Paper Leaf Collage
A leaf outline is drawn on paper, and kids tear (rather than cut) small pieces of colored paper to fill it in. This is a great fine-motor activity for younger preschoolers, since tearing paper is easier than cutting and still produces a beautiful mosaic-style leaf.
9. Paper Scarecrow
A round paper face with googly eyes, a triangle nose, and stitched mouth sits atop a simple shirt shape made from construction paper. Yellow paper strips glued around the edges create straw-like hair and limbs, and a triangle hat finishes the look.
10. Torn Felt Wreath
Small pieces of felt in fall colors are torn (not cut) into rough shapes and glued around a circular base to form a textured wreath. Colorful pom-poms glued on top add pops of color, and a yarn loop makes it ready to hang.
11. Fork-Painted Tree
Instead of brushes, kids dip plastic forks into fall-colored paint and press them onto paper to create leaf-like textures around a painted tree trunk. It’s a fun sensory twist on tree crafts and works great for making both large and small trees on the same page.
Tips for Doing Fall Crafts with Preschoolers
- Pre-cut shapes (leaves, stems, faces) ahead of time for younger preschoolers who aren’t ready for scissors yet.
- Use glue sticks instead of liquid glue for less mess and easier cleanup.
- Lay down newspaper or a plastic tablecloth before painting projects like the fork-stamped trees.
- Let each craft dry completely before moving it, especially ones with several glued layers like the turkey or scarecrow.
- Turn it into a themed activity by pairing crafts with fall books, songs, or a nature walk to collect real leaves first.
Conclusion
From painted paper plates to torn-paper collages, these 11 fall crafts for preschoolers offer a mix of textures, techniques, and skill levels to keep little ones engaged all season long. They’re simple enough to prep quickly, use materials you likely already have, and give kids plenty of room to make each project their own.
