Provide a large sheet of cardboard and some craft paints. Sketch the trunk and some branches of a tree onto the cardboard.
Let the children create branches with their own arm and hand prints. Show them how to lay their forearm and hand in a shallow container of brown paint and press the print onto the cardboard tree.
Provide red, orange and yellow paints. Have the kids put their hands into some paint and press their prints onto the tree branches and surrounding areas. Suggest that they make some leaves with their fingers close together and others with fingers spread out wide. Have them overlap some colors if they wish.
Finish the large tree with some handprint leaves on the ground area. Have the preschoolers finger paint the tree trunk brown.
Encourage preschoolers to practice their motor skills with a cut-and-paste tree project. Give each child printed copies of a tree trunk with branches, several copies of different types of leaves and a large sheet of construction paper.
Show the children how to cut out the tree and leaf shapes. Provide markers or crayons for them to color their tree parts.
Set out several glue sticks or bottles of glue. Instruct preschoolers to glue the tree onto a larger piece of paper, and glue the leaves onto the tree as they wish.
Allow the preschoolers to freehand-cut more leaves from the paper scraps and glue them onto the ground below the tree.
Give each child a paper towel tube and lots of red, orange, yellow and brown tissue paper pieces.
Have the children glue brown pieces of tissue paper onto the paper towel tube until it is covered. Allow them to use flat or crumpled tissue paper, whichever they prefer.
Instruct the children to crumple pieces of tissue paper and glue them onto the top portion of the paper towel tube. Encourage them to use a variety of the fall colors.
Offer colored cotton balls or pom poms for the children to glue onto their trees among the tissue paper leaves.