Mix a few drops of food coloring with water and place in paper cups, muffin tins or paint palettes. Then, use a medicine dropper or watercolor paintbrush to apply a few drops of the colored water to a coffee filter. Colors instantly spread throughout the filter paper and youngsters will love watching it. (Teachers can explain how and why the paper soaks up the liquid.) Display as-is, or continue on to make a butterfly. After applying several colors to create a tie-dyed look, let the coffee filter dry and create a butterfly by scrunching the filter in the middle to form "wings." Wrap a chenille stem, pipe cleaner or twist-tie around the center. One option is gluing the "wings" to a clothespin (using craft or hot glue), then attaching a magnet to the back for hanging.
Give children crayons to color three small coffee filters (green for spring; red for adding apples to the tree; red, yellow, orange and brown for coloring an autumn tree). Overlap three filters (one on top and two on bottom), then glue to a piece of brown construction paper cut to look like a tree trunk. Kids can also color the areas behind the tree, adding landscape details such as sun, clouds and flowers.
Let preschoolers paint large coffee filters using watercolors in different shades of blue. Alternatively, use blue and silver glitter glue, once the paint dries. Fold the dry coffee filter in half three times, then instruct the children to cut random shapes (similar to creating a paper snowflake). Open the filter and use tape or yarn to hang the snowflakes in classroom windows.
Gather five (or more) large, smooth and cone-shaped coffee filters and trace the shape of the filter twice onto colored construction paper (to create a front and back cover to glue to the filters). Use a hole punch to punch two or three holes through all the filters on the left (narrower) side. String ribbon through the holes to hold the "pages" together. Preschoolers can color the coffee filter "pages" and insert keepsakes or small objects into the filter "pockets."