The Thankful Thanksgiving Tree
Preschoolers can make a beautiful tree filled with handprint leaves that showcase what they are thankful for this year.
What you need:
Construction paper in autumn colors (yellow, orange and red)
Large-size brown construction paper
Poster board
Magic Markers, colored pencils or crayons
Scissors
Paste, glue or glue stick
How to grow your tree:
For the leaves, have each child place their hand on construction paper and trace it. They can trace their hand as many times for as many leaves as the tree can hold.
Cut out handprints.
Write what they are thankful for on each handprint -- or they can glue pictures of family members and pets, or find pictures in a magazine to cut and glue on the handprint leaves.
For the tree, draw and cut out a tree trunk with branches using the brown construction paper.
Glue the tree on larger poster board.
Then, glue the thankful handprint leaves to the branches of the tree.
After you rake the backyard leaves into a big pile, use some of them to make small leaf people.
What you need:
Leaves
Small twigs or sticks
Glue
Scissors
Construction paper in autumn colors (yellow, orange, brown and red)
How to make your little leaf people:
Take a few leaves and examine them to see if the leaf's shape suggests heads, bodies, arms, legs, etc.
Take leaves that resemble people parts and glue them down on construction paper. There may be some cutting with scissors and arranging to come up with a human shape.
Use twigs and sticks to create arms, legs and hair.
Use construction paper scraps to create details such as eyes and clothing.
The shapes of leaves -- along with the imagination -- can resemble many creatures. Below are some examples of leaves you can use to make fun, leafy friends. Of course, you can also use your imagination to find leaves in all different shapes. To help preserve your new leafy friends, simply press them between two books.
What you need:
Leaves
Construction paper in autumn colors (yellow, orange, brown and red)
Glue
Colored pencils, markers or crayons
Leaves you can use:
Birch: These leaves are perfect to create the wings of birds. Simply glue the leaf down and draw the bird's head, beak, body and tail.
Maple: Since these leaves have three main points, they make perfect butterfly wings. Just draw the head and antennas, and they are ready to flutter by.
Rose: These leaves and their round shape make the perfect turtle shell. Just create the head, arms and legs to complete your tortoise.
Barberry: These leaves give shape to create fish -- anything from gold fish in a bowl to sharks in the ocean.
Geranium: This fun-shaped leaf makes for a great hairstyle. Just glue it down and create a funny face. A lion's mane is also used with this leaf.
It may not be the Great Pumpkin, but it's a great way to make pumpkin art.
What you need:
Yellow construction paper
Orange and green washable paint
Paint brushes
Green markers
Cotton swabs
To paint your fun pumpkin in a patch, have the child make a fist with one hand. Paint the top of the fist (knuckles and fingers) with orange paint.
Press the fist on the construction paper to resemble the pumpkin.
Repeat until you have as many pumpkins you want.
Put green paint on the child's finger to make a fingerprint stem for the pumpkin.
Decorate your pumpkin patch with vines made from the cotton swabs dipped in green paint.